An astronaut's 18K gold Omega to go under the hammer

The Omega Speedmaster beat out the Rolex Daytona and a handful of other chronographs to be NASA's official choice for mid-century astronauts. That's right. Watches. In. Space. Today many people call the Speedy, the Moonwatch, because of this. (In Apollo 13, you can see Tom Hanks fi ddling with his watch.)

The watches that actually made it beyond the stratosphere were more modest steel chronos, but this solid 18K gold Speedy Pro was presented to Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean once he was back on earth. And now it's hitting the block. Designed in 1969 to commemorate the fi rst moon landing, only 1,014 watches of this model were ever produced. and this gold Speedmaster Professional is of an even rarer subset, one of 30 given to President Richard Nixon and the Apollo 12 astronauts.

It's No. 26, to be exact. The caseback engraving marks "man's conquest of space with time, through time, on time". With an estimate of $40,000 (Rs 25 lakh) to $60,000 (Rs 37 lakh), this 18K gold Omega is lot 141 in Bonhams' Space History Sale on April 21.