The Omega x Swatch ‘Mission To The Moonphase’

Sometimes you know a thing is coming and it still manages to surprise you. Such is the case with the latest in the Omega MoonSwatch lineage. Swatch has spent the better part of the past couple of months teasing a Snoopy-themed variation of the model and today, it came through. This is the MoonSwatch Mission to the Moonphase.

This all-white colorway features a white dial, white case, and white velcro strap. It has all the fixings of a normal Omega MoonSwatch until you peer at the upper right sub-register which is where you’ll find the familiar Snoopy and Woodstock characters lying atop the Moon much the way they would on Snoopy’s doghouse in the Peanuts comic strip.
This image is immediately reminiscent of the 1,970-piece Omega Speedmaster Silver Snoopy limited edition from 2015 which showed Snoopy in the prone position on the dial with the Apollo 13 mission text “What could you do in 14 seconds?”

The white dial and placement of Snoopy in a sub-register is carried over into this new Omega MoonSwatch. But with the Mission to the Moonphase, Snoopy has a far more active and functional role (on par with his rocket around the Moon on the caseback of the 2020 rendition of the Silver Snoopy Speedy).
Here we find Snoopy on the moon phase disc in the two o’clock subdial which is labeled to represent the 29.5 days it takes for the Moon to complete a phase. But of course, there’s more to be seen here when the lights go out. A hidden quote from Snoopy’s comic strip is revealed under UV light which reads “I can’t sleep without a night light!” This again references the 2015 model which had a comic strip quote that read “Failure is not an option.”

The Omega MoonSwatch quote is far more playful because – well – a MoonSwatch should be playful. Unlike the 2015 Speedy, this watch has a white bezel insert which matches the dial, and the case…and the strap. It’s all-white-everything with this one in a way that is so fun and reminds me (very much) of the Speedmaster White Side of the Moon.
So while Swatch has announced this watch on its social media platforms today, the watch isn’t available just yet. But it will be in just six days time, on March 26. What’s the significance of that date you ask? Well, it marks exactly two years, to the day, since the first MoonSwatch was launched back in 2022 – a day we won’t soon forget as it launched MoonSwatch madness.

And while 2023 proved to be the year of Moonshine Gold, I think we are all very happy to see something fresh in the MoonSwatch line by way of colorway, Snoopy character integration, and the new moonphase complication. There has been a Swatch moonphase chrono to our knowledge in the past but none have been executed in this fashion, with no date, and with the moonphase appearing where it does on the dial. Add that to the fact that the illustration of the complication itself is so very creative here.
And I know what you must be thinking next: Ok, this is cool but it will probably only be available for one day just like the Moonshine models. That appears not to be the case, and it looks like the new Mission to the Moonphase will be added to the permanent collection just like Ocean of Storms Scuba Fifty from earlier this year. Of course, with the added complication comes a price premium and this new MoonSwatch is priced at $310 in the U.S.

Now one cannot help but connect this to another high-profile white dial Speedmaster released just weeks ago from Omega (one that was also teased in advance by one Daniel Craig… noted MoonSwatch wearer). This is one heck of a one-two white-dial punch from the Swatch Group and I’m here for it.
As someone who has closely followed the story of the Omega MoonSwatch over the past couple of years, I find this to be really a well-executed release. It balances lighthearted fun with technical innovation and plain old good design. That’s a winning trio if you ask me, and bodes well for the future of the series going forward.