Home Watches Buzz Aldrin Is Auctioning Off His Personal Watch Collection Days Before Apollo 11’s 57th Anniversary
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Fifty-seven years ago next Monday, Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the lunar surface wearing the Omega Speedmaster that would forever after be known as the Moonwatch. Now 96, and the last living member of the Apollo 11 crew, Aldrin is letting go of a sizable chunk of his personal collection through Sotheby’s Space Exploration sale in New York.
Before anyone asks, we’ll just answer the question. No, the flown Speedmaster ref. ST105.012 isn’t in the catalog. That watch vanished in transit to the Smithsonian in 1971. It still has never resurfaced, and technically belongs to the U.S. government, so it couldn’t cross an auction block even if it turned up tomorrow.
What the Buzz Aldrin Family Trust has consigned instead is 24 watches spread across 14 lots. And for hardware owned by the second human to walk on another world, the estimates actually look almost reasonable.
Eight are Omegas, headlined by a circa-1990 Speedmaster Professional ref. 3590.50 that Aldrin picked up himself decades after losing the original. Sotheby’s pegs it at $8,000 to $12,000, barely a premium over what anonymous examples fetch.
There’s also a NASA-spec Speedmaster X-33 Gen 2 with the blank caseback typical of issued units, the same model Artemis II astronauts recently wore around the moon. Its $4,000 to $6,000 estimate has predictably been steamrolled by early bidding. A Moonshine Gold Speedmaster 3861 tops the group at $40,000 to $60,000.
Then there’s the oddball lot which features a box of eight quartz souvenir watches accumulated over decades. The watches here include a Toy Story 3 piece (Pixar named Buzz Lightyear after him, so it tracks) and one from the elementary school that bears his name. A $3,000 to $5,000 estimate buys the whole strange little time capsule.
Auction: Sotheby’s Space Exploration
Location: New York
Consignor: Buzz Aldrin Family Trust
Watch Lots: 14 (24 watches total)
Omega Models: 8
Headline Lots: Speedmaster 3861 Moonshine Gold ($40,000-$60,000), LeCoultre Shark Deep Sea ($10,000-$20,000), Speedmaster Professional 3590.50 ($8,000-$12,000)
Live Sale: July 15, 2026, 10AM EDT
Online bidding is already open, with the live sale kicking off July 15th at 10am EDT at Sotheby’s New York, five days shy of the landing’s 57th anniversary. Estimates run from $2,000 for the humbler pieces up to $60,000 for the gold Speedmaster, though several lots are already trading well above their high estimates. Head over to Sotheby’s website to browse the full catalog.
Buzz Aldrin Watch Collection Sotheby’s Space Exploration Auction
Sotheby’s is auctioning 24 watches from Buzz Aldrin’s personal collection starting July 15th, headlined by a Moonshine Gold Speedmaster and a vintage LeCoultre dive chronograph, with several estimates sitting under $10,000.
