Unless you’re living under a rock, you surely heard about the Blue Origin launch on Tuesday, which saw Jeff Bezos and friends – including NASA legend Wally Funk – take a 10-minute cruise high in the sky. They all wore custom Speedmasters – adding to the famed watch’s legacy. In the spirit of this event, I thought this unheralded space film fit the bill.

Full disclosure, when I tried to play this movie, I spoke the title into my Apple TV remote. Instead of taking me to the film, my television began playing The Beatles “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” I wasn’t mad. In fact, I listened to the whole thing (and yes the song also appears in the film in a truly trippy montage).

The film is undeniably visually interesting. You almost can’t tell what time period it takes place in. The synth-heavy, ’80s-evocative soundtrack gives you that classic sci-fi feel though the film is based on real events. Add all that to Portman’s performance which, while melodramatic, is quite unhinged – and I mean that as a compliment.

As any good astronaut movie should, this one features the iconic standard issue Moonwatch (likely with the previous generation 1861 movement) – on the wrist of Jon Hamm who plays Mark Goodwin, fellow astronaut and eventual love interest of Cola. But that’s not the main attraction.

Now, Hollywood doesn’t feature a whole lot of women wearing heavy-hitting watches, which is really unfortunate. Outside of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) rocking her eponymous Seiko in Aliens, the pickings are slim. That’s why I was really excited when I saw what Portman was wearing. While the film may not be great (though it ain’t 21% bad), her watch surely is.

That watch would be the Omega Speedmaster X-33 – the brand’s modern evolution of the original Moonwatch. It debuted in 1998 and became standard issue for astronauts after going through a lengthy prototyping phase. This meant giving the watch directly to astronauts and pilots to put the watch through its paces and provide feedback on ways to improve it and get it ready for duty (one such tester was David Williams, who appeared on Talking Watches with our own Cole Pennington).

The watch features time and date functionality (with a pre-programmed perpetual calendar) as well as an alarm, mission time with alarm, UTC with alarm, and chronograph. All of this is communicated through an analog digital orientation with an LCD display sitting beneath the hands.

Cola’s X-33 is the original 1998 design, but the watch has seen updates in recent years. Nowadays, it’s known as the “Skywalker,” which for those in the know, is strangely appropriate. Portman famously played Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Ok, great, but what does that have to do with anything? Well, nerds, Amidala marries one Anakin Skywalker and later becomes the mother of Luke Skywalker – and his sister Leia Organa/Skywalker/Solo.

Part of me (all of me) wishes she wore the newest version of the watch just so I could write something to the effect of “The mother of Luke Skywalker wears a ‘Skywalker.'” I’ll settle for what I’ve got. What’s truly great about this movie is that she wears the X-33 almost the entire film – it basically never leaves her wrist.

The film opens on a wide shot of outer space, followed by a close-up of Cola. As we marvel at the vastness of the universe through her eyes, there’s a quick cut to a drone shot of suburban Earth. The camera makes its way to Cola sitting in her car in the rain [00:05:33]. The contrast between the look on her face inside her spacesuit during an EVA compared to that through the windshield of her truck, is markedly different. This is our introduction to her character. As she picks up her niece from school and prepares to drive off, the camera re-focuses, revealing the unmistakable dial of the Omega X-33.

As noted earlier, the film follows Cola’s re-entry into life on Earth. As a result, she experiences something of a mental breakdown which quickly affects her marriage. Early on, she joins Goodwin (played by Hamm) and two other colleagues for a night of bowling and beer and we first see the romantic connection between them – I’ll put it this way, he shows her how to bowl (Ghost-style). The group retreats to a table at the bowling alley bar for beer and whiskey [00:27:36]. In this scene, Cola, holding a bottle of Texas’s finest Shiner Bock brings her X-33 into full view of the camera as she gazes back into Don Drap – uh – Goodwin’s eyes.

Lucy in the Sky (starring Natalie Portman, Jon Hamm, and Dan Stevens, and Ellen Burstyn) is directed by Noah Hawley, with props by Trish Galloper Glenn. It’s available to rent on iTunes or Amazon.

Lead image courtesy, 20th Century Studios.