many bits of lore that surround the Speedmaster Professional, the first watch worn on the Moon was not on the wrist of the first man to set foot, but on the wrist of the second. As the story goes, when Commander Neil Armstrong was preparing to leave the lunar module, he noticed that the electronic onboard clock had malfunctioned. He decided it would be prudent to leave his wrist chronograph in the craft in case it was needed later. So while his Speedmaster humbly did duty as a backup instrument, it was the Speedmaster on Buzz Aldrin’s wrist that became the “first watch worn on the moon,” a slogan OMEGA started engraving on the casebacks of all subsequent Speedmaster Professionals.

TICK LIST

Movement

Manual-wound Calibre 1861. Rhodium-plated. Power reserve: 48 hours.

Functions

Hour/minute/second.withstand the repeated blasts of artillery shells when they are fired.

Inside this steel casing is nearly 650 pounds (295 kg) of tritonal explosive. Tritonal is a mixture of TNT (80 percent) and aluminum powder (20 percent). The aluminum improves the brisance of the TNT -- the speed at which the explosive develops its maximum pressure. The addition of aluminum makes tritonal about 18 percent more powerful than TNT alone.

Attached to the front of the barrel is a laser-guidance assembly. Either a spotter on the ground or in the bomber illuminates the target with a laser, and the bomb homes in on the illuminated spot. The guidance assembly steers the bomb with fins that are part of the assembly.

Attached to the end of the barrel are stationary fins that