HappeningsAstronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr.'s Speedmaster On Display At Kennedy Space Center

If you happen to find yourself around Florida's Space Coast in the near future, you might want to make a stop by the Kennedy Space Center if it wasn't already in your plans. There's a new watch to be spotted there, and yes, you guessed it, it's an Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch.

But it's not any plain ol' Moonwatch. This one's special — the Speedmaster ref. 105.012 worn by Apollo 12 mission commander Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr. on his moonwalk in 1969. The third person to walk on the Moon, after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, Conrad, Jr. found himself on the lunar surface after Apollo 12's lunar module Intrepid touched down in the Ocean of Storms on November 19th, 1969, where he and crewmate Alan L. Bean completed two spacewalks.

The Caliber 321-powered Speedmaster, of course, was strapped to the exterior of the astronauts' spacesuits via the long Velcro strap designed for use in spacewalks. In fact, Bean can be seen sporting the Speedy on the big, oversized wrist of the space suit, photographed by Conrad, Jr. on the Moon. After Conrad, Jr.'s watch safely made it back onto Earth, NASA held onto the chronograph for a few years until eventually transferring it to the Smithsonian Air and Space museum in 1977.

Now, Conrad's Moonwatch is on display at Kennedy Space Center, in an exhibit at the center's Treasures Gallery sponsored by, you guessed it again, Omega. If you've been around these parts (and by that, I mean the watch internet), you've undoubtedly been all too familiar with NASA's deep involvement with Omega when it comes to watches in space. But for those less initiated with this chunk of nerdery, it's certainly a great way to introduce this little piece of horological history to a much broader audience.

A few months ago, I went with Omega to Houston as the brand celebrated 60 years of NASA Qualification, a piece of history that the brand very much holds dear in both its archives and marketing campaigns. I absolutely loved the visit to Johnson Space Center (Kennedy Space Center's Houston counterpart), and found it fascinating to actually cement a piece of what I call the "watch nerd starter pack" in reality. This new exhibit will certainly help with that over in Florida, too.