Just when watch collectors believed they were out of the MoonSwatch craze, Swatch and Omega are at it again, revealing the release of a second super sleek, all-black variation of the Mission to Moonphase dubbed “New Moon,” which celebrates the rare solar eclipse that is anticipated to occur on Monday, the watch’s official release date in stores.
Featuring a Bioceramic case (a material that was initially created for space travel), crown and push buttons, along with a Velcro strap, the MoonPhase model continues to reproduce the three sub-dial designs of the Apollo astronauts’ Speedmaster chronograph, but adds Snoopy and his sidekick Woodstock to the 2 o’clock position. As our planet’s moon progresses through its eight phases in the sky, so do the Peanuts pals on the dial as they recline on a crescent moon.
Another key design emerges as darkness falls and when exposed to UV light, a hidden quote from Snoopy’s comic strip declaring “I can’t sleep without a night light!”, nestled between the crescent moons and stars and shining in bright blue and displayed vertically across the Moonphase window.
The Snoopy theme continues onto the back of MoonPhase, with a Peanuts style drawing of the moon complete with a beagle’s paw print on the surface of the battery cover.
Priced at $310, the soon to be collectible will only be available at select Swatch stores, and will be restricted to one watch per person, per day and per Swatch store.
March 26 marked the duo’s two-year anniversary since their inaugural collaboration, which saw the launch of the Bioceramic MoonSwatch Collection, an 11-piece collaboration that turned the watch industry on its head while celebrating the iconic Speedmaster Moonwatch, the first watch ever worn on the moon. At release, the watches included key design features from Omega’s Speedmaster Moonwatch line: an asymmetric case, its famous tachymeter scale and distinctive Speedmaster subdials — with each watch representing a planet in the solar system.
The first MoonSwatch release saw chaotic scenes reported worldwide on launch day, forcing Swatch store closures due to the enormous crowds and due to Swatch stores only being able to sell two watches per client, resulting in an instant sellout.
Additionally, the two-year anniversary, which was timed to coincide with March’s full moon, also led to Swatch and Omega introducing the Mission to the Moonphase, a new MoonSwatch model rendered in all-white featuring NASA’s “watchdog” and Snoopy, who is comfortably positioned in the timepiece’s upper right sub-dial.
While previous iterations in the MoonSwatch lineup utilize the same movement: a basic ETA quartz chronograph, the Mission to the Moonphase model houses a quartz chronograph caliber that incorporates a moonphase complication at the 2 o’clock subdial, replacing the hour counter.
