What We Know
Last summer, during Geneva Watch Days, in a dusty, rubbish-strewn hotel room stripped to its bare walls with exposed wires and concrete floors, I was given a classified briefing. With high-powered lights shining directly into my eyes to conceal the agent’s identity, I was led to a folding table and chair setup where a briefcase snapped open, revealing secret documents and a watch. More than half a year later, I can reveal that that timepiece was Amida’s latest version of its Digitrend. This driving watch debuted at Basel in 1976 and was revived with a modern update a couple of years ago. This watch also draws inspiration from the same era, with style, materials, and design cues from the NASA Space Shuttle program. It’s the Amida Digitrend NASA Edition.
Amida is a design-forward, boutique brand that’s made the Digitrendits its flagship and sole model, featuring a dashboard display and jumping-hour complication. Following its revival debut in 2024, it produced an “Open Sapphire” version, which showed the wearer how its in-house-developed jumping-hour module, fitted to a Soprod P092 movement, works. Now it’s making the (giant) leap to space travel with a Digitrend that draws from the early days of the NASA Space Shuttle program.
The watch uses the same 39.6 mm x 39 mm stainless steel monocoque case as the original. The unique sloping top, which curves from 15.6 mm at the dashboard display end to 6 mm at the other, is housed in a polished white ceramic top shell featuring the NASA ‘worm’ era logo in red on the bottom right side. It’s a nice callback, as ceramic was also used on the Space Shuttle exterior to dissipate heat during re-entry. The dashboard jumping hour display in black with white jumping hours and scrolling minutes features NASA red accents framing the numbers, rather than the orange on previous models.
The display is surrounded by a ridged, black DLC-coated frame that contrasts with the white ceramic top shell and continues around the case sides and back. The open case back, displaying the movement, is surrounded by the same black DLC case material as is the signed crown.
It should be noted that the digital dashboard display style with a covered top case, sometimes called casquette in French, hasn’t been unique to Amida. It has been used and revived by other brands, most notably Girard-Perrigaux with its high-end electronic digital display version, the Casquette 2.0.
The rubberized leather strap leans heavily into the Space Shuttle brief, with a quilted, square-patterned exterior in white ‘beta cloth’ that Amida says is similar to the materials used in NASA shuttle-era spaceflight suits. With a black DLC-coated buckle, the strap uses velcro (a Swiss innovation invented in the 1940s) and another material used in NASA space missions for a secure closure.
Despite its unusual case shape and unconventional time display (originally designed to be viewed at a glance with one’s hands on the steering wheel while driving), the Digitrend wears well, even on my sub-seven-inch wrist. The lugless design allows the strap fixtures and spring bars to disappear on the bottom side of the case, and the lug-to-lug measures a very reasonable 39 millimeters.
The Amida Digitrend NASA Edition is limited to 100 pieces and is available now on the Amida website, priced at CHF 3,400, excluding local taxes and shipping.
What We Think
We’ve seen a lot of NASA-themed products and designs, including watches, in recent years, as the U.S. space agency seeks new sources of revenue amid a period when private companies are leading space exploration and innovation. Still, I’ve got a healthy appetite for the nostalgia attached to the Space Shuttle program. I’m old enough to remember the genuine excitement and global interest in using novel ways to explore the stratosphere with reusable spacecraft. I can also recall the news and the shock of the tragic accidents that ended the program and forced a reconsideration of how we conduct human spaceflight.
With its NASA edition, Amida shows there’s room to iterate on the Digitrend beyond its original purpose as a driving watch. Dripping with nostalgia while expressing fresh design ideas, it reminds us of the mighty risks and rewards at play when we’re willing to push beyond the confines of home.
The Basics
Brand: Amida
Model: Digitrend NASA Edition
Reference Number: LRD-04
Diameter: 39.6 mm x 39 mm
Thickness: 15.6 mm
Case Material: DLC-coated Stainless Steel (316L) with Polished White Ceramic top shell
Water Resistance: 50 meters / 5 ATM
Strap/Bracelet: Rubberized leather with beta cloth insert, steel loop buckle with Velcro system
The Movement
Caliber: Base caliber Soprod Newton P092 with an in-house developed jumping hour module
Functions: Jumping hour, scrolling minutes
Diameter: 25.60 mm (base caliber)
Thickness: 4.6 mm (base caliber)
Power Reserve: 44 hours
Winding: Automatic
Frequency: 4 Hz / 28,800 VPH
Jewels: 23
Chronometer Certified: No
Pricing & Availability
Price: CHF 3,400 (excl. VAT)
Availability: Online orders open immediately (March 30, 2026, 16:00 CEST)
Limited Edition: Limited to 100 pieces
For more, click here.
