« Watches in Space – Memorable Moments, Famous Watches »
Every space pilot's kit naturally includes a watch, which is why so many of the great moments in spaceflight history are tied to exclusive watch models. Find out which watches have already traveled to orbit and which masterpiece remains the only watch ever to land on the Moon.
The First Watch in Space
On April 12, 1961, the launch of the first Soviet rocket opened the chapter of human spaceflight: Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly into space aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft, and with him went the first watch, a "Sturmanskie" made by the First Moscow Watch Factory. This first flight lasted 106 minutes, and both the pilot and his watch returned safely to Earth. Russian wristwatches remain popular with collectors to this day, even if it is mainly the ruggedness of these timepieces that is appreciated. Developed for the rather rough conditions of service in the Russian army, these watches are not something connoisseurs associate with the kind of luxury offered by a Rolex or Tag Heuer.
A Tag Heuer Stopwatch Orbits the Earth
When John Glenn orbited the Earth three times in five hours aboard the Friendship 7 space capsule on February 20, 1962, the American pilot was wearing a Swiss precision instrument: his Reference 2915A stopwatch from Tag Heuer. "What can you say about a day in which you get to see four beautiful sunsets?" the U.S. astronaut Glenn later remarked about the day that Elon Musk, CEO and founder of the private American space company SpaceX, described fifty years later as "a great day for America and for the whole world, and undoubtedly an important step in spaceflight." On May 25, 1961, barely six weeks after the first human spaceflight, U.S. President John F. Kennedy announced before a session of Congress that the country would undertake a crewed flight to the Moon and back before the decade was out. The race for supremacy in space between the Soviets and the Americans had begun. For the space mission, Glenn wore a rubber band made specially by NASA around his wrist, to which the Tag Heuer was attached. The original watch worn by John Glenn has since found a well-deserved place in the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C., but a replica is also on display in Switzerland, at the Tag Heuer 360° Museum in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Tag Heuer's Reissue After 50 Years
To mark the 50th anniversary of the Reference 2915A's spaceflight, Tag Heuer released a successor model, the Carrera Calibre 1887 SpaceX, whose design takes its cue from the original. The case, which houses the state-of-the-art Calibre 1887 automatic movement, is just slightly larger than the historic original. The Carrera Calibre 1887 SpaceX was also tested in space: the Dragon capsule of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried the watch to the ISS, the International Space Station, and this capsule now adorns the caseback as an engraving. Visually, the Carrera is a true homage to the Reference 2915A: the Arabic numerals are the same as on Glenn's watch. A brown leather strap, as was fashionable in the 1960s, completes the wristwatch.
Reaching New Heights with the Breitling Navitimer
Three months after John Glenn, American astronaut Malcolm Scott Carpenter launched in his Aurora 7 spacecraft and orbited our blue planet three times before landing safely back on Earth. On his wrist, a Breitling Navitimer flew with him into space – a watch still counted among the classics today and reissued time and again. The Breitling Navitimer Cosmonaute chronograph displays all 24 hours on a single dial, so Carpenter could always read the correct time in space, regardless of whether it was day or night in the darkness of space. The Breitling Navitimer Cosmonaute has been reissued again and again by Breitling for more than half a century and is made with a case in either red gold or stainless steel. An edition with a black steel case was developed in 2013, limited to just 1,000 pieces. The Breitling Navitimer's case measures 43 millimeters in diameter, the mechanical movement is hand-wound, and it offers a total power reserve of 70 hours. The bezel features a slide rule, so navigation, average speed calculations, rates of climb and descent, and fuel consumption calculations can all be carried out directly on the watch. Like the Tag Heuer, the Breitling Navitimer Cosmonaute has a dial marked from 1 to 24, showing the entire day in just one rotation.
The Case in Red Gold, Stainless Steel and Black Stainless Steel
The stainless steel version has a black main dial, white hands and white subdials. The dials of the red gold and black steel versions are also black, with the hands adding red accents. The insignia of the Aurora 7 mission are engraved on the caseback as a reminder of Malcolm Scott Carpenter's flight. The fact that the Breitling Navitimer bears the name Cosmonaute may be owed to the watch's origins: Breitling's headquarters are located in La Chaux-de-Fonds, in the Jura near the French border. French is the main language spoken there, and Cosmonaute is the French term for astronauts.
The Man on the Moon Wore an Omega Speedmaster
Walter Schirra, the fifth man in space, had already worn an Omega Speedmaster in 1962, but these wristwatches only became truly famous when, in 1969, the Omega Speedmaster landed on the Moon with Buzz Aldrin – Neil Armstrong had used his Speedmaster to replace the broken clock in the lunar module – as the first, and to this day only, watch on the Moon. Before that, the Omega Speedmaster passed every NASA test, withstanding bitter cold as well as heat of 93 degrees Celsius, surviving vibrations, shocks and weightlessness, and remaining unfazed by magnetic fields. As a result, in March 1965 NASA declared the Omega Speedmaster "flight-qualified for all manned space missions." To this day, Omega Speedmaster wristwatches are part of the equipment of both Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts, and the Speedmaster is the only watch approved for extravehicular activity on the ISS.
Part of Every Space Mission
The Omega Speedmaster still bears the title Moonwatch today. It impresses with its ruggedness, complemented by precision and excellent legibility. The movements in the Omega Speedmaster are hand-wound and have been continuously refined. While the first Moonwatch used the Calibre 321, it now comes with the Calibre 1863. Alongside the Omega Speedmaster, NASA missions also have a Casio wristwatch, the G-Shock, and the Timex Ironman Triathlon Data Link on hand to keep the correct time.
Fortis Wristwatches Have Experienced Weightlessness, Too
Fortis's Lemania 5100 movement is surely the movement that has had to endure the toughest tests. It was pushed to its physical limits in the TsF-18 high-speed centrifuge at the cosmonaut training center near Moscow, where the Fortis movement was subjected to a force of 12G – twelve times the Earth's gravity. By comparison, equipment used in a fighter jet only has to withstand 9G. The movement also came through the parabolic flight, which simulates weightlessness, flawlessly and impressed with its precise performance. Even a vacuum test in the training center's pressure chamber had no effect on its accuracy. Having proven its suitability in these tests, the Fortis movement was allowed to fly into space on the Soyuz TM-19 mission and was worn in open space. For more than eleven hours, the Fortis chronographs had to withstand temperatures ranging from 130 degrees Celsius to minus 170 degrees Celsius – that is how great the difference is between the Earth's shadow and direct sunlight. Russian cosmonauts have worn Fortis chronographs as official equipment since 1994. Thanks to Swiss neutrality, however, the distinctive Fortis wristwatches are popular not only in Russia but all over the world – and not just among pilots.
