To acquire the new Swatch MoonSwatch, you first have to fill out a form. The Electronic Swatch Timepiece Application, or ESTA, contains 32 questions, a process modeled after the one many travelers complete to enter the United States.
The digital application will be available on the brand’s website starting July 16, and only 1,969 people will receive an approval, granting them the right to purchase the watch.
The watch in question is the MISSION TO THE MOON 1969. It commemorates the Apollo 11 moon landing of July 21, 1969, and is limited to a corresponding 1,969 pieces. This is not the standard MoonSwatch. The dial, hands, crown, and pushers are all crafted from 11 grams of OMEGA’s 18K Moonshine™ Gold.
A Price Set in The Past
The gold itself has a story. It was sourced from old OMEGA spare parts, melted down in an in-house own foundry to create the specific alloy. The weight, 11 grams, is a direct nod to the Apollo 11 mission number. Its price, however, is a conceptual exercise. The watch will sell for 500 Swiss Francs.
That figure is not based on the current market value of gold. Instead, it’s an approximation of what 11 grams of 18-karat gold cost on July 21, 1969. At the time, that was about 11 U.S. dollars, or 48 Swiss Francs, based on an exchange rate of 4.31 CHF per dollar.