RR Auction – Richard Gordon’s N°20 gold Speedmaster and Andrey Borisenko’s 164 days in space Speedmaster

RR Auction offers two Omega Speedmasters with space provenance on 25 April: the N°20 gold Speedmaster of astronaut Richard Gordon, and a Speedmaster Professional worn by cosmonaut Andrey Borisenko during 164 days on the International Space Station.

Richard Gordon’s N°20

The first 28 examples of the 18k gold Speedmaster Professional were released as the “Tribute to Astronauts”. N°1 was reserved for President Richard Nixon, N°2 for Vice President Spiro Agnew, and the following 26 for the astronauts. Gordon’s N°20 comes with its box, an insurance appraisal (at a rather low value of $31,000) and, most importantly, a signed letter from Richard Gordon himself. The lot is listed here.

Bidding stood at $47,084 at the time of writing. Comparable results give a sense of the range: the Wally Schirra N°8 sold for almost $2 million on 20 October 2022; the Gus Grissom N°4 for $375,000 and the Alan Bean N°26 for $302,500, both on 20 April 2023; and the Michael Collins N°19 at Heritage Auctions for $765,000 on 2 June 2022.

Andrey Borisenko’s Speedmaster Professional

The Borisenko Speedmaster Professional spent 164 days in space on the ISS. Borisenko wore it on Expedition 27/28 in 2011, the year of the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s historic flight. The lot includes the box, instruction manual, guarantee card, a signed photograph and a signed letter by the cosmonaut.

Bidding stood at $9,435 at the time of writing. A comparable piece is the Speedmaster Professional of astronaut Rick Mastracchio, flown for 188 days on Expedition 38/39, which sold for $55,000 at RR Auction on 15 October 2020.

Photographs: RR Auction.