Watch This Space: India’s Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla Suits Up With Omega
2 min read
When Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla takes off on the historic Ax-4 mission, he won’t just carry the hopes of a nation. He’ll also be wearing one of the most iconic timepieces ever made: the Omega Speedmaster. Or, to be exact: two of them. Blasting off into the unknown, the Ax-4 mission is set to mark India's first foray into commercial human spaceflight. This historic moment will add a new chapter to the country's glorious history of space exploration. With this mission, the dreams and hopes of 1.4 billion Indians takes flight adding another feather in its cap.
Now here’s where it gets interesting. Rumour has it, these watches aren’t just off-the-shelf Speedmasters. Word is, there may be subtle tweaks, mission-specific engravings, or even India-exclusive details that haven’t been publicly revealed. Omega and space missions have always shared secrets. Could there be one hiding on Shukla’s wrist? Time might tell.
Omega: A Legend Among the Stars
The Speedmaster isn't just a watch—it’s a piece of space history. Only 12 people have ever walked on the Moon, and every single one of them did it with an Omega Speedmaster strapped to their wrist. That’s not just reliability it’s a legacy of boundless excellence.
Alongside NASA, many international space agencies have adopted the Moonwatch for their crews, making it an essential part of some of humankind’s most daring missions. The Speedmaster isn’t just worn in space it’s trusted by space. For the Ax-4 mission, Shukla is likely to receive: The Speedmaster X-33 Skywalker, a cutting-edge quartz chronograph designed for life inside the spacecraft. Along with this, the manual-winding Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch, still the top choice for spacewalks and extravehicular activities. These watches are built to survive the most extreme conditions imaginable: vacuum, microgravity, radiation, temperature swings, 40G shocks, and high-pressure environments.
A Mission of Many Firsts
Ax-4 is a mission of milestones. India, Poland, and Hungary will each send a government-sponsored astronaut to the ISS a first in over 40 years. The team will conduct around 60 scientific experiments, contributing to international research in everything from health to materials science. And right there on every astronaut’s wrist? Omega. A symbol of trust, precision, and timeless performance.
The Omega Speedmaster has been the choice of astronauts and space agencies for more than half a century. In fact, it has been associated with some of humankind's greatest extra-terrestrial adventures and has been one of the most famous chronographs in the world ever since it became the first watch worn on the Moon in July of 1969. The Speedmaster was launched in 1957 but its official space legacy started in 1965, when NASA qualified it for use on its piloted missions. Since then, it has been worn on all six lunar landings and earned the nickname “the Moonwatch”. The tests that NASA performed on the chronographs that were submitted to the agency in 1964 were designed to destroy the watches. In the end, only one watch survived: the Speedmaster.
As Omega continues its celestial journey with Axiom Space, the Speedmaster reaffirms its place in the stars. With whispers of mission-specific details and a legacy steeped in lunar history, this isn't just another watch going to space it's a continuation of one of the most fascinating chapters in horological history.
So the next time you glance up at the Moon or spot the ISS gliding across the sky, remember: somewhere up there, an Indian astronaut is floating in zero gravity, science in one hand—and an Omega on the other.
