The Omega Speedmaster Professional (Silver Snoopy Award) 50th Anniversary, was release in 2020 to commemorate the Apollo 13 mission of 1970 and also celebrate the Prestigious Silver Snoopy Award given to Omega in 1970 by the astronauts at NASA. This is the 4th generation of this special Speedmaster.
Unlike the previous generations, the Snoopy 50th Anniversary is NOT a limited edition timepiece, but good luck find one!
The timepiece comes in a special box that looks like a vintage luggage with velcro enclosure and a Snoopy badge on top. Inside the box you will also find a special Snoopy book which details the history of NASA’s mission to the moon and how Snoopy became part of the mission… plus a look back at the previous generations of Snoopy Speedmasters.
This model is packed with new features and an all new color scheme that represents the colors of the patches first worn by Apollo 13 astronauts. So far, this is the most eye catching Snoopy Speedmaster yet.
The stainless steel case measures 42mm in diameter and 14.5mm in thickness, but now it comes with a blue ceramic bezel ring with white enamel tachymeter scale and a domed sapphire crystal instead of hesalite crystal.
The gorgeous dial is made of sterling silver with blue sub-dials and blue PVD applied hour markers and blue PVD hands. The small running seconds at the 9 O’clock position has an embossed silver Snoopy medallion with “50th anniversary” above it.
Unlike the 2015 Snoopy Speedmaster, this new Snoopy does not have Super Luminova on the tachymeter scale. The lum was just added to the indices and the hands.
The handsome case comes with a 20mm blue nylon fabric strap with white stitching which compliments the case very nicely. The back of the strap has black calfskin leather which features the trajectory of the Apollo 13 mission embossed on the lining. A beautiful strap which comes paired with a polished stainless steel Omega pin buckle. I also like how it looks with the optional white Nato strap.
But the star of the show is the caseback! The Underside of the sapphire crystal has a special metallization that creates a detailed image of the moon’s surface, while the background has the stars and planet earth which is constantly turning because is attached to the pinion of the running seconds… but the coolest thing is when the chronograph is engaged, you see Snoopy inside his command and service module, taking a trip around the far side of the moon. The magical hand that carries the module is attached to the backside of pinion that moves chronographs seconds hand.
On top of all this, Omega decided to use a Naiad Lock caseback to ensure that the caseback will always stop in the same area when screwed in. So it will always align top to bottom. The main purpose is for the moon to always land in the same place.
Under the hood, is Omega’s caliber, 3861. This caliber was released in 2019 to replaced caliber 1861. But just like the caliber that is replacing, the 3861is also based on Lamania 1873.
This manual movement is now a certified Master Chronometer and is composed of 240 components. Other improvements over caliber 1861, is the power reserve which has been increase to 50 hours and for the first time ever, hacking seconds has been added.
Omega invested 4 years to develop this new caliber in order to add the updated technology to the Speedmaster which now has a free sprung balance with silicon balance spring, Co-Axil escapement and anti magnetism.
This new movement still works at 3 hertz but it now uses 26 jewels instead of 18 like the 1861 movement…