The connection between Snoopy and Omega is longstanding, and this highly successful iteration in collaboration with Swatch will likely become its most popular model, especially since it is a truly new iteration, not the version of Moonshine Gold MoonSwatches. Watch website Time+Tide wrote of a watch released to coincide with Switzerland’s Bastille Day: “With every new, somewhat gimmicky launch, there seems to be a louder and louder groan echoing through the enthusiast space .” Such criticism cannot be made about the Moon Phase mission.
However, this also means that anyone waiting for a cheap Swatch Snoopy Speedmaster will need to be prepared to queue up at select Swatch stores again, as this model, like other models, is not available online.
Photo: Swatch
Initially, MoonSwatch had considered online sales, and even Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek Jr. refused to rule out the possibility after launch. “Ask me four months from now if e-commerce is going to work,” he told Wired in July 2022. “Maybe. I don’t know.” Nearly two years later, MoonSwatch hasn’t sold a new watch online, and it doesn’t look like it ever will.
Omega’s space connection with Snoopy stems from NASA’s Silver Snoopy Award, a silver badge first awarded in 1968 to recognize outstanding achievements related to flight safety or mission success. Omega won the Silver Snoopy Award in 1970 because the Speedmaster played a vital role during the Apollo 13 mission, serving as a backup for damaged instruments during the mission, Jack Swigert Swigert used his watch to time the critical 14 seconds of rocket engine combustion to ensure a safe return to earth.
However, it was not until 2003 that Omega launched the first watch in the Snoopy Speedmaster series to commemorate the brand’s space heritage.
In January, when news of the Snoopy MoonSwatch first broke, watch expert and Wired contributor Tim Barber told Wired that such a style was inevitable of. “It was just a matter of time before Snoopy was introduced,” Barber said. “Indeed, it’s worth noting that for the first time there is no Snoopy version, which is of course an absolute must-have for MoonSwatch.”
MoonSwatch Mission to Moonphase will be available in select Swatch stores starting March 26th. And, as with the entire MoonSwatch range, obviously you can only buy one watch per person, per day, per Swatch store.