140 hours, 54 minutes, and 41 seconds – that’s the total time it took for the three Astronauts of Apollo 13 to launch from a rocket taller than the Statue of Liberty, experience a mission-ending failure, orbit the moon to slingshot back to Earth, and finally splashdown in the South Pacific.
For 14 seconds of that harrowing mission, the Astronaut’s perfect replica Omega Speedmaster watches became a critical component. The navigation equipment had to be turned off to conserve power. This meant that to correct the reentry angle of the spacecraft, an engine burn of exactly 14 seconds was required so the crew would not enter too shallow and skip off the atmosphere or too deep of an angle and burn up. The NASA-tested luxury fake Omega Speedmaster did its job by being the reliable and accurate chronograph it was designed to be, even under the harsh conditions of this mission.
This earned 1:1 replica Omega the Silver Snoopy Award, which astronauts give for ensuring flight safety and mission success. In 2003, the first Silver Snoopy Award-themed aaa quality fake Omega Speedmaster came out in an edition of 5,441 – for the 54 minutes and 41 seconds in the mission time – to commemorate their small role in the Apollo 13 mission. This reference earned the nickname “Snoopy Eyes on the Stars” for the words that are above Snoopy’s head on both the 9 o’clock sub-dial and the back of the watch.
As of today, UK Swiss movement copy Omega has created three Snoopy Speedmaster editions, but this first one is the most true to the Moonwatch layout. It has the same dial layout, color, bezel, and movement as the other Omega Speedmasters replica for sale of its generation and adds Snoopy once in the front (in his own sub-dial) and once on the caseback. Of all the special editions, this is one that the crew of Apollo 13 would immediately recognize as the one they wore and the one that earned the special award.