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12 Classic Gadgets You Can Still Buy 8

by Jon Chase on November 11, 2008 at 12:01 AM


Omega Speedmaster Professional
First introduced: 1946

As status symbols go, few have the cachet of the Omega Speedmaster -- it is, after all, NASA-endorsed. In fact, it was the watch early astronauts chose to wear for the first missions into space and was the first and last watch to be worn on the moon. In the early days of the space agency, NASA realized it needed a sturdy, reliable, foolproof wind-up watch for astronauts to use in space -- electric watches didn't exist yet, and self-winding ones wouldn't work in zero gravity. Rather than design its own, NASA secretly bought a handful of the best chronographs on the market, put them all through a battery of punishing tests, and the Omega was the only one to survive (for the record, the others were models by Rolex, Breitling, Bulova, Longines and Heuer). Omega added "Professional" to the name in the '60s and tweaked the guts a couple of times over the years, but the essential elements remain the same -- including a hefty price tag, now about $3,000.

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