Wally Funk Watch Collection - Every Watch She's Been Spotted Wearing
Wally Funk currently has 1 watches in his collection. Check them in our database.
Introduction to Wally Funk
Wally Funk is an American aviator and astronaut whose career spans more than six decades. Born in 1939, she trained as part of the Mercury 13 program in the early 1960s — a group of women who passed the same rigorous physiological and psychological tests as NASA's male Mercury astronauts but were never given the chance to fly. Funk went on to log thousands of flight hours, became one of the first female air safety investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board, and spent decades as a flight instructor. On July 20, 2021, at the age of 82, she finally reached space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket alongside Jeff Bezos, becoming the oldest person ever to fly in space at the time.
The Wally Funk watch collection, as far as we have been able to document, centers on a single, deeply significant piece: an Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional ref. 310.32.42.50.01.001. Omega gifted a personalized example of this reference to each member of the New Shepard NS-16 crew to commemorate the flight. Funk wore hers on the day of the mission itself. The caseback of her specific watch is engraved with her name, the Blue Origin flight number, and the Blue Origin feather emblem, distinguishing it from any standard production model available at retail.
What makes Funk's Omega particularly significant is the context it carries. The Speedmaster has a long and well-documented relationship with human spaceflight — NASA qualified the reference for crewed missions during the 1960s — so there is a certain logic to Blue Origin and Omega pairing on this crew gift. For Funk, a woman who was locked out of the space program for the better part of six decades, wearing a Speedmaster into space carries a weight that goes well beyond the watch itself. It is a rare, individually documented artifact sitting at the intersection of aviation history, space history, and watchmaking.
Wally Funk Spotted Wearing Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Ref. 310.32.42.50.01.001 on Blue Origin New Shepard Spaceflight
Inserted 03/12/2022
The Omega Speedmaster's connection to spaceflight is unmatched in horology — and ref. 310.32.42.50.01.001 keeps that legacy alive as the current Moonwatch Professional, beating the manually-wound calibre 3861 with co-axial escapement and Master Chronometer certification. Omega gifted engraved examples to each crew member aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard on July 20, 2021. Among them was Wally Funk, 82, the pioneering aviator and Mercury 13 alumna who became the oldest person ever to reach space — finally fulfilling a dream deferred for six decades.
