Eyes On The Stars

Celebrating the Omega Speedmaster “Silver Snoopy Award” 50th Anniversary

Omega’s jubilee year of being an instrumental member of the Apollo 13 mission celebrates not in gold, but in silver. Fifty years ago, on 5 October 1970, the watchmaker has bestowed the Silver Snoopy Award for its compelling contribution to space mission success. The award, granted to recipients once in a lifetime, became one of the most important homages in Omega’s watch history. In the last 50 years, three editions of the Snoopy watch have been made in its name, and Omega commemorates this year’s milestone with the launch of the new Speedmaster “Silver Snoopy Award” 50th Anniversary timepiece.

The First Mascot

The beloved beagle’s first association with NASA came about when Charles M. Schulz, creator of Peanuts, was commissioned by space federal agency to introduce space mission storylines in the comic. Among the first strips that were published, one included Snoopy standing on the top of his kennel, pretending to set off for the moon.

When Schulz created Snoopy, he envisioned the cartoon beagle as the ideal canine companion – intelligent, loyal, yet strangely ambitious. Snoopy was often depicted as an intellectual character and articulated his thoughts through his countless fantasies of being a visionary, such as being an acclaimed novelist or an expert pilot. And like the poorly scaled proportions of his body that would barely fit in his bright red kennel, Snoopy’s aspirations were beyond the reach of a house dog who barely spoke two words.