tribute watch for NASA glistens with shell inspired by ceramic tiles around the space shuttle
the timepiece design builds around the space transportation system, the agency’s program that flew 135 missions between 1981 and 2011.
AMIDA’s Digitrend NASA Tribute with ceramic shell
AMIDA releases the Digitrend NASA Tribute watch wrapped with a shell inspired by the ceramic tiles around the Space Shuttle’s exterior. The timepiece design builds around the visual and material language of the Space Transportation System, the space agency’s program that flew 135 missions between 1981 and 2011. Using the ceramic covers around it, the aircraft was able to survive exit from and reentry into the Earth, as the 24,000 pieces of tiles bonded to the space shuttle’s aluminum skin were able to absorb the heat.
Now, those tiles have turned into the ceramic shell of AMIDA’s Digitrend NASA Tribute watch, a homage to the space agency and its aircraft’s history. The case is built from a metallic monobloc finished in black DLC, a carbon-based surface treatment that sits on the metal in a thin, hard film. The face on the case catches light in the same way a multi-panel tiled surface does, with each plane reading separately against the others.
jumping hour disc seen through a sapphire crystal prism
On the dial side of the AMIDA Digitrend Tribute watch, the NASA worm logotype sits on the case, which back them was the unofficial name for the typographic NASA logo designed by Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn in 1975. It was in use from that year until 1992, which covers the period from just before the shuttle program’s first flight. It was retired and replaced with the earlier meatball insignia in 1992, then officially reinstated by NASA in 2020.
The dial itself uses the Digitrend’s original format: a jumping hour disc visible through a sapphire crystal prism. The hour numeral sits in a window and steps forward in a single motion at the top of each hour. This is a mechanical display, as the disc is connected to the movement through a system of nine components that accumulate energy and release it in one jump. The base movement is a Soprod Newton P092 automatic caliber, which winds itself through the movement of the wrist. The strap is where the tribute becomes most direct because it’s made of leather and a fabric drawn from the surface language of space suit material, fastened with a hook-and-loop closure. The Swiss watchmaker plans to release the timepiece design starting May 2026.
