When it comes to presidential watches, President Nixon may not exactly be the most interesting president, but he did receive a historic gold Omega Speedmaster, along with a Vulcain Cricket, as gifts. Two pretty iconic timepieces. On the other hand, when it comes to American presidents, Richard Nixon is pretty well-known – and not at all for a good reason.
President Richard Nixon and the Watergate Scandal
Richard Nixon during his farewell speech / Credit: Oliver F. Atkins/White House Photo/Nixon Presidential Library and Museum/NARA
On June 17th, 1972, five burglars were arrested at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, in the Watergate complex, in Washington D.C. Two years later, this incident led to the first and only resignation of a US president, with Richard Nixon leaving office on August 9th, 1974. While President Nixon and his people initially claimed there was no involvement from the president in the attempted burglary in the Watergate complex, recordings of Nixon’s conversations over the phone and in the Oval Office eventually emerged, becoming the smoking gun in his trial; proving his involvement in the break-in.
Why did they break in? The five men, four of them being former CIA operatives, broke into the offices of presidential candidate George McGovern and were wire-tapping them and stealing documents. While Nixon was re-elected in the 1972 election by a landslide, this revelation led to a broader conspiracy by Richard Nixon being exposed, which eventually led to his resignation.
The Watches of President Richard Nixon
Vintage Vulcain Cricket / Credit: Crown & Caliber
The events described above largely happened between 1972 and 1974, meanwhile, on the horological side of things, president Richard Nixon is largely remembered for two distinct timepieces. The first is a Vulcain Cricket, that then-Vice President Richard Nixon received in 1955 after introducing the National Association of Watch and Clockmakers to congress for a meeting. Thus, while Nixon did eventually become president, and did receive a Vulcain Cricket as a gift, unlike other American presidents, the two were separate occurrences.
Nixon’s gold Omega Speedmaster ref. BA 145.022 / Credit: SCMP
The engraving on the back of Nixon’s Omega Speedmaster, commemorating the Apollo 11 mission / Credit: SCMP
The second timepiece that Richard Nixon is known for is an Omega Speedmaster ref. BA 145.022 – the first gold Omega Speedmaster ever, that is sometimes even referred to as the ‘Nixon’ Speedmaster. Omega made 1,014 examples of the gold Omega Speedmaster ref. BA 145.022, with the first being presented as a gift to President Nixon in 1969 (pictured above), to commemorate the successful mission to the moon by the crew of the Apollo 11. President Nixon, however, declined the Omega Speedmaster as a gift, supposedly citing its value as being too high. The back of the timepiece was engraved: “RICHARD M. NIXON”, “to mark man’s conquest of space with time, through time, on time”, and “PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES”.
While the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s watches share no direct connection, Nixon received the gold Speedmaster during his first term as president, at which time his conspiracy had supposedly already begun. By the time it started to unravel in 1972, he was looking at his second-term and would have perhaps still had the Vulcain Cricket, which he did keep, supposedly having it serviced in 1960 and remarking how well it was running.
By: Andres Ibarguen
Read more:
Perlstein, Rick. “Watergate Scandal.” Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/event/Watergate-Scandal.
Pulvirent, Stephen. “Just Because The Very First Gold Omega Speedmaster Ever Made (And The Newest One, Too).” Hodinkee, June 19th, 2019, https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/in-depth-a-vulcain-cricket-with-presidential-or-vice-preside.
Fung, Gloria. “Why Nixon had to say no to this Omega watch — and why it's back in a limited edition.” SCMP, June 11th, 2019, https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/watches-jewellery/article/3014009/why-nixon-had-say-no-omega-watch-and-why-its-back.
Sirianni, Mark. “Presidents and Their Timepieces – Nixon and Ford.” Watch Doctor, November 22nd, 2015, https://blog.watchdoctor.biz/2015/11/22/presidents-and-their-timepieces-nixon-and-ford/.