How the Olympics Brought the Omega Speedmaster Back to Its Roots

It’s time to put the speed back into the name “Speedmaster.”

sprinter noah lyles wears an omega speedmaster watch while competing

Published August 5, 2024

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American sprinter Noah Lyles lived up to his title as the World’s Fastest Man by winning his first Olympic gold medal in the 100m sprint yesterday at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Lyles winning the race wasn’t surprising. The 27-year-old is, after all, the defending world champion of the race following his victory at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest last year.

Although the extreme closeness of the race was indeed surprising, with Lyles pulling out the win by just 0.005 seconds in a literal photo finish over silver medalist Kishane Thompson of Jamaica, it wasn’t the most surprising aspect of the race.

To me, that honor goes to what Lyles had on his wrist when he crossed the finish line.

Track & Field & Time

the photo finish of the mens 100 meter sprint at the 2024 paris olympics showing american noah lyles crossing the line first — The photo finish of the Paris 2024 Olympics men’s 100m sprint, as captured by Omega’s Scan’O’Vision line scan camera.

As soon as the sprinters crossed the finish line, as athletes and audience alike were waiting on the verdict of the two-close-to-call race, I noticed the large black watch on Lyles’s wrist.

Once I got a clearer look at the watch, while already knowing that Lyles is an Omega ambassador, I realized the watch was the new Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon Apollo 8 that debuted earlier this year.

While the fact that Lyles wore a luxury watch to compete in a race decided by literal milliseconds certainly says something about his confidence, wristwear isn’t exactly uncommon among competing Olympic sprinters.

I spotted several Whoops on athletes across various track events, and just two days before Lyles’s race, I spied a Richard Mille RM 07-04 on the wrist of Jamaican sprinting legend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce during her 100m heat.

jamaican sprinter shelly ann fraser price poses while wearing a richard mille watch — Seeing a crazy-lightweight watch like the Richard Mille RM 07-04 on the wrist of athletes like Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price during competition isn’t all that shocking.

But Whoop is an athletic band that’s meant to be worn while playing sports, and Richard Mille’s main claim to fame is that it crafts luxury watches that can perform during extreme athletic competitions, like the various watches the brand has made for Rafael Nadal over the years. Fraser-Price’s RM 07-04, for example, was designed specifically for — and with input from — female athletes, and it weighs a minuscule 36 grams on the strap.

The Omega Speedmaster worn by Lyles, however, is a different beast altogether — emphasis on the word “beast.”

Bringing the Speedmaster Back to Its Roots

The Speedy Dark Side of the Moon Apollo 8 has a hand-wound chronograph movement housed in a black ceramic case that measures a whopping 44.25mm across. It’s 13mm thick and stretches 50mm from lug to lug.

Most notably, the watch weighs 99 grams on its included rubber strap. It’s not the heaviest watch in the world by any stretch, but it sure isn’t the lightest either, weighing nearly three times as much as the previously mentioned Richard Mille. You definitely won’t forget you have this thing on your wrist.

closeup of rocket seconds hand on omega speedmaster dark side of the moon watch — With its heavy outer space theming, the Apollo 8 Speedmaster doesn’t exactly scream “race-winning watch.”

So it’s certainly a testament to Lyles’s ability on the track that he was able to not only compete in but win the flagship race of the entire Olympics with a watch on his wrist that is not designed for athletic competition.

And there’s something else Lyles may have accomplished with his victory: He may have killed the Moonwatch, or at least, brought the Speedmaster back to its roots … albeit in an unorthodox way.

Since 1969, the Speedmaster has been known as the first watch worn on the moon, the “Moonwatch.” It’s the one thing everyone knows about the watch, and Omega’s marketing certainly hasn’t shied away from the title.

But when Omega debuted the Speedmaster in 1957, it didn’t do so with space exploration in mind. The watch was intended for the race track, specifically motorsports, and was the first chronograph to feature an external tachymeter bezel, which can be used to calculate speed.

omega speedmaster watch on a leather car seat — The original Speedmaster from 1957 — the modern reissue of which is pictured above — was designed for motorsports, not space exploration.

With Lyles wearing a Speedmaster during the year’s most-watched athletic race, he has put the “speed” back in Speedmaster. Whether this was Omega’s intention, or if Lyles simply wore his favorite watch for the race (his Instagram is filled with images of him wearing the Speedy Apollo 8, including while marketing other products), I have no idea.

He had previously competed while wearing the Aqua Terra Ultra Light, Omega’s most dedicated sports watch, but more recently has been donning the Speedmaster for his races.

Will Lyles’s achievement cause people to forget about the moon landing and start thinking of the Speedmaster first and foremost as a watch built for speed? Probably not — the version Lyles wore literally features an image of the moon for its dial and has a rocket seconds hand. But at the very least, the World’s Fastest Man has shown that the Omega Speedmaster is no one-trick pony.