Every day, there are perhaps tens of thousands of people entering the wonderful pastime of wristwatch appreciation. The all-powerful pull of horology is on them and there is no turning back. It is time to discover Breguet, the first tourbillon, the first wristwatch, the first watch in space, the first watch on the Moon — and I would not take the joy of discovery away from them. No, not for the world! At the same time, however, there are millions of us well past the misty-eyed honeymoon phase, we know dates and reference numbers from long-gone days, and we can — more or less — tell the lies apart from the real achievements. This begs the question, though — is it high time for new achievements to make us fall properly in love with a luxury watch again?

Every year, till the end of our civilization, as we know it, several new Omega Moonwatches will be designed, engineered, launched with great fanfare, and scrutinized by the fans, all in recognition of the great deed of a special little watch that became the first to be worn on another planet. And yet, I can’t help but find it increasingly difficult to resonate with the notion of celebrating today’s re-re-re-re-reengineered version of the original as something that has any meaningful connection with the original from well over half a century ago. Wearing one, I think, would make me feel as though I were wearing a space-suit Halloween costume all day, every day, and not just on Halloween.

I can’t help but feel a bit as though I were wearing a space-suit Halloween costume all day, every day, and not just on Halloween.

Don’t get me wrong, you won’t hear me judge anyone who indulges in some escapism; in fact, sign me up for a generous dose of it! But when it comes to watches, their power to help me make an imaginary escape to the Apollo 11 command module or behind the wheel of a GT3 race car banking the turn in Daytona, is all but gone as I stand in line to board a flight. If you are a bit like me, you also have to try really very hard to imagine timing 14 seconds with your Speedmaster (yes, you are right, that happened on Apollo 13 and not the 11, well done) or starting your Daytona at the start-finish line on the track to measure a new lap. This may be because none of us have ever seen any of these watches get used in the way their storied presentations tell us!

The Daytona has morphed from a timekeeping tool on the wrist of Newman to a literal trophy handed to the winners of 24 Hours of Daytona and Le Mans after they got out of the race car — a fact I lamented here. You tell me if this is an unpopular or pointless suggestion, but I believe Rolex should engineer, produce, and offer for sale a modern Daytona that complies with motor racing rules and can be worn inside the cockpit while racing. Richard Mille watches were being worn inside Formula 1 cars while racing not that long ago, and while technical requirements have changed and the rules are quite strict on what jewelry can and cannot be worn by drivers, with the amount of money Rolex spends to support motorsports (hint: a lot), I am sure they could have achieved a more lenient regulation.

The Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch, and its modern X-33 counterpart, have indeed been to space in recent memory, but I had to dig long and hard to recall a time when I last saw them. It took quite a bit more research to find pictures of astronauts wearing an Omega — which is little surprise given how on Omega’s website and press site you will find a bottomless supply of photographs of George Clooney, Daniel Craig, Cillian Murphy, and others. While their importance in popularizing Omega should not be underestimated today, it is quite a stark contrast with the reality of not finding actual astronauts rocking space-themed Omega watches.

As much as I like the latest First Omega in Space as a watch — it is a strong proposition for under $8,000 with a Master Chronometer 3861, neat dial, complex case and bezel (it takes a profile view to see those), and micro-adjust-equipped steel bracelet — it is also too detached, for me, from the actual first Omega watch in space. It is a modern watch, dressed up to vaguely resemble a watch from 62 years ago and I would like for it to either be a faithful recreation or a properly modern watch.

I believe Omega should, at this point, offer modern watches that are as close to their original inspirations as possible and stop playing with almost-the-same styled subsidiary hands, logos, typography, and other nuances, only so that a few years later a yet more accurate tribute reference to be made. This desire for proper re-editions is why I applauded the brand for relaunching the Caliber 321 that powered the original Moonwatch — it took real engineering, production planning, and true passion to do this, and those are exactly what I would like this 40mm-wide disc of metal to be supercharged with if I am to shell out high four- or low five-figure sums.

Yes, the world is full of wannabes who have to have the fastest car and the most-chronography watch without a care for speed or chronometric performance. Just as the car is a few more seconds on the throttle away from stretching its legs, the watch is also there to perform to its design — but we are in a culture where the implication of speed (big wings, four exhausts) and timing accuracy (computer generated videos of ticking movements and super-macros of seconds hands ticking away to Formula 1 car sounds) is plenty enough to populate the waiting lists for the GT3’s and Daytonas of the world.

I know that it is not every day that a watch can be part of something as epic as a moon landing — but, I think, big brands have become outrageously comfortable in their position and dedicate far too little effort writing the next chapter of awe-inspiring performance with their current watches. And if Fortis can stick a dozen of its watches into a freaking rocket and shoot them into the sky, then imagine what the mightiest of this industry could do with the watches that we love… if they tried.