Omega's MoonSwatch Auction Raised More Than $600,000
Update: The auction has ended, which is bad news for hopeful collectors. But today Omega announced that the initiative raised a whopping 534,670 Swiss francs for Orbis International. That means upwards of $600K that can help the organization fight vision loss and preventable blindness around the world. And that, right there, is very good news for everyone.
Read on below for the original version of the story, which was published on February 1, 2024.
Even the most casual of watch fans knows about the madness that surrounds the MoonSwatch. The groundbreaking collaboration between Swatch Group stablemates Omega and Swatch was a seismic force when it was announced in 2022, sending ripples into the watch world and setting off all kinds of speculation. Would it devalue the brands? Would it be cool? Would people actually buy it?
The answer to those questions, of course, was a resounding no, yes, and fuck yes, respectively. MoonSwatches sold out everywhere. People lined up—and got more than a little worked up—trying to get just one. Then the Mission to Moonshine Gold series landed in 2023, offering a subtle take on the design. The second hand was done up in Omega's proprietary form of yellow gold and tweaked just a bit for each release. A flower-print version for the "flower moon" in May. Strawberries for the "strawberry moon" in July. You get it. Like their planetary predecessors (Mission to Mars, Mission to Saturn, etc.), these versions of the MoonSwatch were extremely hard to come by when they released.
But if you're a collector with a completist streak—and don't most collectors have a completist streak?—today is your lucky day. Because today, Omega is announcing that it has created 11 suitcases, each containing all 11 Mission to Moonshine Gold watches. They're going on display at 11 boutiques around the world, from February 1 to February 11. And then, February 12 to 24, they're hitting the auction block at Sotheby's, with 100 percent of the auction proceeds going to Orbis International, an organization dedicated to fighting preventable blindness and vision loss.
In addition to those 11 covetable watches, each suitcase contains a co-branded golden monocle as well as a coin displaying the three-letter aviation code for the city where it's being displayed. That same code is engraved on the side of each watch, ensuring that these groupings are all one-of-a-kind.
How much are they going to go for? That's a question that only time will tell. But all things considered, we're guessing that "a lot" is a reasonable estimate.
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