posted 10-17-2008 01:39 AM            

As I mentioned, I plan to write a super-detailed article on the watch space race in the future. I intend to cover every watch I know of in this article and I am excited to see the documents you speak of so I may incorporate the information from them into the story.

Please seek to understand a few things. First is that I am a Rolex watch historian which means I try to dig up as much meaningful true history as possible. Sometimes I hit a dead end and other times I hit it out of the park.

The person I did the podcast interview with seems to be a very credible witness but also understand this is an extremely sensitive subject for them. After I mentioned how significant this story was, after I recorded the podcast, they got really uneasy with me.

This is purely speculative conjecture on my behalf, but if I understand it, they seemed to be saying that somebody from Omega paid somebody at NASA to make the choice.

From their tone and lack of specific detail, it would appear this was NOT documented and I agree that if it can not be documented that it is just a story.

Since you interviewed many NASA pioneers, you know building trust and rapport is very time consuming and challenging. I don't want to do anything to alienate my source and once my article that will accompany the podcast is done, I will release them.

With all the people I interview, I give them editorial review because I want them to feel 100% comfortable with what I publish. As a matter of fact, I tell people before our interview that I am only here to document and celebrate their life, which is why I think people feel so comfortable with me. I don't dive bomb my interviewees or try to trick or embarrass them. In the final analysis I am simply telling their story.

I will say that the person was NOT an astronaut.

posted 12-20-2008 05:56 PM               

Cooper felt the "G" forces had a definite effect on the mechanical wind-up movement. He hit the start button right at 20 seconds and checked it at about T+7 minutes it was a little bit slow, the Bulova was right on.

posted 01-05-2009 05:19 PM               

So Bob and Scott meet during training for Sealab I in Florida ca. late 1963. Naturally, conversation soon turned to hardware, specifically, Scott's fancy Breitling (the replacement Breitling). He obliged Bob's curiosity about what Bob called "the astronaut watch" and took it off his wrist for Barth to inspect (and admire) more closely.

"What's this?" Barth asked, poking at a kind of bulge on the caseback. It was kind of a button that provided a little give if you pressed down on it fairly hard.

"Oh, that," Carpenter replied gravely. "Breitling made that especially for Mercury astronauts since they knew that we might be lonely, up there in space all alone." He's stringing Bob along, who is still listening earnestly. "And so Breitling decided to install a special button for us Mercury astronauts."

"We could press the button if the solitude got to be too much for some of the guys," he explained. "And Breitling designed it to push back. It was like having a buddy right there inside the spacecraft."

By now, Bob's awe began to wear off a little. He realized Scott was pulling his leg. They had a good laugh.

posted 01-07-2009 08:35 PM               

We talked about our watches and it was great to hear him relive the details of his Breitlings. He sent his flown one back after it got water in it and never saw it again. He did a "Hmmm..." and said he should call Breitling and track it down one day (Kris?, Kris?)

Meeting him and spending 10 minutes talking to him is my greatest space history memory!

posted 01-10-2009 06:17 PM               

About the replacement Breitling and its mysterious caseback, Carpenter had this to add today. "Bob forgot the punchline!" which was, when the button "pushed back, it made you feel wanted."

And then he explained that the joke really belonged to Bill Dana, who concocted the wide-eyed anecdote to all "the big astronaut watches" worn by the guys.

So, what about the "button" Bob says he saw on the caseback? The button that he thought was the battery case, I asked my dad.

"An invisible soft spot," he replied, channeling Bill Dana.

That pushed back?

posted 02-20-2018 05:06 PM               

But on the British GQ website, under the heading "Lift off! A History of Watches in Space," it says that Scott Carpenter was the first, wearing a Breitling 24 hour Navitimer. Which is right?

posted 08-11-2018 10:47 AM               

• May 2017: "Speedmaster for Space!"
  
• April 2018: "Time to Fly"
  
• August 2018: "To Russia with Love" or how Omega's Alaska Project researched for Apollo ended up with the Russians...

posted 08-21-2018 12:22 AM               

There are several versions with white and black dial as well as in Cyrillic or international inscription.

You can find these gems on eBay quite easily. Many of them are in NOS quality and in the meantime I have my third one and these are undestructable. For more information see Poljot Guide.

posted 01-02-2019 05:04 PM               

The Russian watch early history is still up for debate due to the lack of inventory records.

posted 01-03-2019 11:21 AM               

• Omega 1965, June 3 by Ed White and James McDivitt
  
• Bulova 1971, August 2 by David Scott
  
• Fortis 1995, May 12 by Vladimir Dezhurov
  
• Fiyta 2008, September 27 by Zhai Zhigang and Liu Boming
  
• Seiko 2008, December 23 by Yuri Lonchakov

posted 03-07-2019 11:11 AM               

• Omega Speedmaster 1965, June 3 by Edward White (2x Speedmaster 105.003-64)
  
• Glycine Airman 1966, September 13 by Pete Conrad sat in open Gemini XI capsule during Gordon's EVA
  
• Bulova chronograph 1971, August 2 by David Scott Apollo 15 lunar EVA 3
  
• Fortis Cosmonaut 1995, May 12 by Vladimir Dezhurov Mir18 cosmonaut
  
• FIYTA chronograph 2008, September 27 by Zhai Zhigang chinese taikonaut
  
• SEIKO SpaceWalk spring drive 2008, December 23 by Yuri Lonchakov (2x SEIKO SpaceWalk watches)

posted 03-11-2019 02:51 PM               

In summary: watches exposed to open space:

• Omega Speedmaster 1965, June 3 by Edward White (2x Speedmaster 105.003-64)
  
• Glycine Airman 1966, September 13 by Pete Conrad sat in open Gemini XI capsule during Gordon's EVA
  
• Bulova chronograph 1971, August 2 by David Scott Apollo 15 lunar EVA 3
  
• Fortis Cosmonaut 1994, Sept 9 by Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Malenchenko Mir-16
  
• FIYTA chronograph 2008, September 27 by Zhai Zhigang Chinese taikonaut
  
• SEIKO SpaceWalk Spring Drive 2008, December 23 by Yuri Lonchakov (2x SEIKO SpaceWalk watches)

posted 12-12-2019 10:01 AM               

Hodinkee article on the late John Glenn's wristwatches.

How could a tray of John Glenn's watches have been offered in an estate sale without me hearing about it? Checking the usual discussion forums and social media, it seemed that the estate sale had gone under the radar of the entire watch collecting community. Most troubling was the mental image of the local estate "pickers", walking out of the Glenn house with those watches.