Corey Stoll wears an Omega Speedmaster

An hour and a half into First Man (2018), the three Apollo 11 astronauts sit at a press conference table, the NASA insignia on the wood in front of them and a model of the lunar module behind, and the man in the middle, Buzz Aldrin, does most of the talking. Hodinkee's scene-by-scene accounting of the film's Omegas timestamps the moment at 1:30:38, with the three astronauts fielding questions, "Aldrin taking the lion's share of the answers," and their issued Speedmasters along for the press duty. Corey Stoll plays Aldrin in Damien Chazelle's Armstrong portrait, and as the article put it, "it doesn't get more Speedy than Buzz."

The mission-scene watch is the Omega Speedmaster Professional reference ST 105.012, in Hodinkee's words "the first 42mm Speedy, the first with crown guards, and the first reference to feature Professional on the dial," running the manual-wind caliber 321. NASA had already tested and certified the smaller 105.003; the 105.012 followed it onto the wrists of the Apollo crews. On the real mission, Armstrong's stayed aboard the lunar module while Aldrin wore his out onto the surface, which made the 105.012 the first watch worn on the Moon.

The production took the wristwear seriously. Omega produced "more than 10 period-specific Speedys, in two different references" for the film, and the watches track the history: Ryan Gosling's Armstrong wears a 1950s Omega CK 2605 at his desk, the 38mm 105.003 in training, and the 105.012 for the mission; Jason Clarke turns up as Ed White wearing the eponymous 105.003. Lukas Haas plays Michael Collins, who orbited above while the other two walked, and who in real life wore a Speedmaster 145.012 of his own.