Introducing: The Awake Mission To Earth Meatball

Space exploration was the greatest adventure of the 20th century. Humanity achieved the peak of manned space exploration over 50 years ago with Neil Armstrong’s steps on the surface of the Moon, and one organization above all epitomizes exploration of the unknown — NASA. In this fourth installment of the Mission to Earth line, Awake pays tribute to NASA and its iconic logo with the Mission To Earth Meatball.

Taking direct inspiration from the instantly recognizable NASA logo, Awake continues to lean into the design aesthetic of the original Mission to Earth project. A matte blue dial with a red chapter ring directly calls to mind the main design elements of NASA’s logo. The chapter ring bears the watch’s engraved serial number and a nod to the famed countdown to liftoff. The sandblasted center dial reduces glare, and while this watch is not a flight-qualified piece, it is not difficult to imagine it being part of a standard-issue kit. Its applied hour markers call to mind the observation windows on the International Space Station. The dial’s perimeter provides additional texture, evoking the tracks left behind by the Lunar Rover during the later Apollo missions.

Direct connection

The Meatball watch is once again connected to NASA directly via the Awake Observatory project and the Eyes On Asteroids experience. The sapphire crystal that protects the dial features NFC technology. Meatball owners can access exclusive content from NASA by touching their smartphones to the watch’s glass. The Awake Observatory Project offers exclusive pictures broadcast by NASA cameras on the ISS. Eyes On Asteroids is an immersive experience that tracks the asteroids that populate the Milky Way galaxy.

Meatball moonwalk

The Meatball shares a similar case construction and features as previous models in the Mission to Earth lineup. Its brushed case is made from 70% recycled titanium, a material used extensively in aerospace and aeronautics. The watch measures 40mm in diameter but weighs only 85 grams. While there are similarities to prior models, the Meatball is heavily inspired by the A7L space suit worn on the Apollo 11 mission.

The crown resembles the umbilical connectors found on the suit and is even engraved with L and O symbols. Additionally, there are arrows to tell the wearer whether the crown is Locked or Open. While the voyages that have inspired the Misson To Earth Meatball do not typically involve a risk of water ingress until the conclusion, the case does offer water resistance to 10 ATM. The white strap also looks like it would be right at home on the A7L. It measures 20mm wide, uses a Velcro fastening system, is water resistant, and features the stars and stripes and the NASA logo.

The movement is the same one that Awake used in its prior Mission to Earth models, the Miyota 9039. The brand has customized this 4Hz workhorse movement with an oscillating weight engraved with NASA’s mantra “Dare Mighty Things.” Once again, the NASA logo appears, covering the attachment point of the weight to the movement. All of this is visible through the titanium and sapphire exhibition case back, which is held into place by six screws.

The Awake Mission to Earth Meatball is the complete package

This next phase of the Mission to Earth series picks up where its predecessors left off. It leans into a modern interpretation of a watch inspired by space exploration. Not only does the watch offer a direct connection to the ISS, but each one also comes with a space traveler. Each of the 250 Meatball watches produced comes with a fragment of the Vesta asteroid. This asteroid collided with Earth in the Tataouine (not Tatooine) Desert in Tunisia on June 27th, 1931. Its journey to Earth resulted in a unique crystallization pattern that is impossible to create without traveling through the atmosphere.

The current NASA logo, revised most recently in 1992, also appears on the box. The inlay in each box features a timeline of past NASA logos. These go right back to the organization’s first logo from 1958. In addition to the logo, the inlay also features information about the asteroid fragment included with the watch.

The Mission to Earth Meatball is a fully realized design concept. You can draw a direct line from the inspiration to the execution. By continuing to use NFC technology to link its watches to NASA through the Awake Observatory Project, Awake is bringing space exploration one step closer to the wearer of the Meatball. Yes, you could achieve this through other means, but it would be significantly less cool! Watch and space lovers seem to agree; each of the prior iterations of the Mission to Earth has sold out.

With Awake only producing 250 Meatball watches, this experience will only be available to a limited population for €825. Learn more on the official Awake website.