SHOOTING FOR THE STARS
THE 60THANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION IN LONDON OF THE FIRST WATCH TO FLY TO THE MOON WAS OUT OF THIS WORLD
8.15pm
Our entourage of four arrive from Thailand at Tate Modern — an imposing and regal building done up to fit the part it will have to play tonight: a spaceship. It’s quite a middle-aged and distinguished crowd that packs the venue, so the Friend of Omega from Thailand, Praya Lundberg, is quite a sexy stunner in the sea of smoke and strobe lights at the entrance.
8.20pm
I’m not hungry yet but give in to the solar lollipops and silver sugar cube. It’s actually a white truffle risotto pressed into a square, I’m told by the waiter, who wears a white bow tie, goggles and lab coat. I’d like to skip the booze and grab myself a can of Active Cell Regenerate Fuel, which turns out to be passion fruit and vodka.
8.29pm
Guests dressed to the nines in black tie are trickling into what feels like a futuristic chamber. The long dining table and chairs are plastic, but the reception area is dazzling, with countless mirrors, backlighting and rows of geometric lasers that shoot up so high they seem to form a gateway to the gods. This is what a space party in your dreams looks like. It’s so grand and intensely cool that I’m too fascinated to even take a selfie.
8.30pm
It’s also a milestone that all 60 historical Speedmasters are on display together. Never have all the models been together in the same place. Of course, all the watch geeks are excited.
9.03pm
We get seated and are giddy, with the rectangular, white plastic box in front of us. The Lost In Space Rescue Kit has everyone unboxing the contents and unwrapping utensils and cutlery from silver, airtight packaging like you see in space. In other words, set the table yourself.
9.14pm
I am sitting literally 3m away from Liv Taylor, Ellie Goulding and David Gandy, among other British luminaries.
9.27pm
George Clooney enters. I don’t even think Queen Elizabeth has this much of a grand entrance. Insert what sounds like the audio version of an intense black hole and enough lasers to induce a seizure. Ibiza would be embarrassed. The Hollywood charmer and brand ambassador is admittedly kooky: he confesses that his very first Omega told the time correctly only twice a day, because he drew it on his wrist. He did get his first Speedmaster as a graduation present, though.
9.31pm
The MC announces Buzz Aldrin’s arrival, and when all the smoke begins to clear, we see an astronaut in full spacesuit regalia hanging from the ceiling. He’s doing flips and spins, too. Isn’t Buzz too old for this stuff? Whatever the deal is, two seconds later he’s down on the ground with his helmet off and walking toward centre stage to be welcomed by Omega CEO Raynald Aeschlimann.
9.39pm
The first dish finally touches down. Served on top of our box and illuminated by the light inside, The White And Dark Sides Of The Moon was a round, crunchy black bread and Scottish langoustines en tartare, in portions the size of those served in space.
10.09pm
Jim Ragan, who was in charge of crew personal hardware at Nasa, takes the stage. He and Omega museum director Petros Protopapas explain that the watch is famously associated with space, but Protopapas reveals that the real reason behind the birth of the Speedmaster was racing and car drivers. Granted, the name is quite telling, and the first ever brochure for the US market only mentions racing. When Nasa started to look for highly accurate and durable chronographs, the only watch to have passed 10 tests, one of which is thermal testing, was Omega. Nasa man Jim Ragan says they were just used as backup, too, because there were already timing devices. They were only used when they lost communications and needed to know how long it was before they could get back. Ragan says: “Omega saved the Apollo 13 crew. It was the only device to time those burns, and they had exactly 14 seconds to come back into the atmosphere. Thank God we got them home.”
10.13pm
What we can hope to see in the future, as mentioned by Mr CEO, is a balancing act of respecting the past and incorporating new technologies. It’s something that’s vintage but at the same time incredibly modern. No wonder the 60th-anniversary Speedmaster is The army of scientific-looking waiters serve a main course of roasted salt-marsh lamb and asparagus. This continues to be a great flight, as the fillet was delicious.
11.03pm
Clooney returns to the stage with his idol, Buzz Aldrin. How is it that Clooney was only eight when Apollo 11 happened?! He teases the space star that he would like to tell Buzz what it’s really like to be an astronaut, after all those blockbusters he’s starred in (even though he’s never actually been outside our orbit). Buzz comes back with: “We do a lot of pretending all the time. It’s called training.”
11.15pm
The band ESKA starts jamming the song Space
Oddity by David Bowie. The light visuals on the stage make me feel like I’m warping through space, and I’m sitting there wishing I could warp back to buying a dress that covers up more so I wouldn’t be freezing here in my seat. It’s a massively high-ceilinged hall, so it’s cold, but I guess it adds a nice touch to creating the whole outer-space feel.
11.32pm
A glitter explosion is what dessert looks like. The comet/moon-themed sweet includes salted caramel sauce, caramelised popcorn, chocolate mousse and crunchy honeycomb all cased within a crisp, white-chocolate sphere. It tastes just as good as it sounds.
12am
Our stellar journey comes to an end, and it’s time to call it a night. This is definitely a time I’ll remember for the next 60 years.