The American Optical Sunglasses That Landed on the Moon Are Coming Back Down to Earth

Aug 30, 2023

By Gerald Ortiz

All products featured on GQ are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

We're not sure how many of you actually dreamed of becoming astronauts growing up (thanks to Jurassic Park, my elementary school class was crowded with aspiring paleontologists), but even as an adult—y'know, the type that does taxes and buys groceries—it's hard to resist the lure of the cosmos. These days, we're not the only ones with space on the mind; Jeff Bezos is busy conquering the galaxy, and when Elon Musk is done running Twitter into the ground maybe he'll finally colonize Mars, too.

More pertinent to us here at GQ, though, is Huckberry's recent collaboration with American Optical, the Massachusetts-based eyewear institution founded almost two centuries ago. For their latest link-up, the duo revived a bona fide piece of American history: the exact sunglasses the Apollo 11 crew brought with them on their 1969 trip to the moon. To help nail the details, Huckberry and American Optical cribbed freely from mementos currently on display in the Smithsonian, and the made-in-the-USA frames are about as true to the source material as it gets.

For all its historical significance, the Apollo 11 moon landing exerts an outsized pull on the fashion imagination, too. The actual suits worn by Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins won't be popping up at Sotheby's any time soon, but that hasn't stopped history buffs and menswear nerds from trying to get their hands on a little moon dust. To honor the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 journey, Omega released a limited-edition version of the Speedmaster the crew wore on the moon, which, as you'd expect, sold out faster than you can say "conspiracy theory". Even if you can find it on the secondhand market (perhaps Mr. Clooney is looking to sell his?), a five-figure watch isn't within most folks' budgets. But the sunglasses the crew wore to visit the big ball of cheese? Well within our orbit—and likely yours, too.

The original sunglasses American Optical equipped Armstrong and Co. with were aviators designed with squared-off teardrop lenses, lightweight metal frames, and sleek gold bars across the brow. The replicas boast the same old-school charm, down to the gold-plated frames and matching yellow-tinted temples. For the space nerds among us, Huckberry's exclusive version also comes with a recreation of ‘60s-era carrying case and a nifty polishing cloth printed with blueprints of the Apollo 11 lunar module. If the matching gold Speedmaster feels about as distant as your childhood daydreams, they’re a pretty killer consolation prize.