The Sweet Life: A Glimpse into Nature’s Spectacle
“The sun darkens at daybreak and the moon gives no light.” That line from the prophet Isaiah — written to capture divine wrath against Israel’s enemies — was set down in the 8th century BCE. It still lands with force today, because what it describes is exactly what we are about to see: a total solar eclipse.
On August 12, we Icelanders will witness this event, the first total solar eclipse visible here since June 30, 1954. It goes back even further than that, though. The last time Reykjavik went dark under a total eclipse was June 17, 1433 — a full 620 years ago, long before the life of freedom fighter Jón Sigurðsson.
When Worlds Go Dark
Solar eclipses happen, but total ones are something else. Think about standing in a village in the 8th century when the midday sky suddenly goes black. No warning, no explanation — just darkness. Of course people read it as a sign from above.
What actually happens is the moon slides in front of the sun and cuts off its light. That sun sits 150 million kilometers away and could fit roughly 1.3 million Earths inside it, yet for a few minutes the moon — much smaller, much closer — blots it out completely.
Mysteries in the Twilight
The moon has always had a hold on people. In Iceland, its glow has fed stories of werewolves and stranger things. We look up at it and ask the same questions every generation has asked: is there really a man up there? Does a full moon change how people behave?
That obsession has made its way into watchmaking too. My friend Ásgeir and I argue about this fairly often — specifically about how watchmakers manage to track the moon’s phases with such precision. In a previous piece, I wrote about an IWC with a perpetual calendar so accurate it needs no adjustment for the next million years.
This time I want to talk about one of Omega’s most recognised watches — the Speedmaster. It launched in 1957, and astronaut Walter Schirra wore one into space in 1962. By 1969 it had become the official watch of the first lunar mission, beating out Rolex and Breitling in the process.
From North to South
For several years now, the Omega Speedmaster has carried a moon phase indicator built for northern hemisphere observers. Earlier this year, Omega announced an updated version with a dual readout covering both the northern and southern hemispheres. The discs representing the moon on the dial are made from actual moonstone — material from outer space, tying the watch literally to the thing it measures.
The watch is 43 mm across and 13.6 mm thick, water resistant to 50 meters, housed in steel with sapphire glass over the dial.
With the eclipse getting closer, it feels natural to think about all the ways humans have tried to track, understand, and mark their place under this sky. The event on August 12 is a celestial event, yes — but it is also a thread connecting us to every person who looked up at a darkening sky and wondered what it meant.
