zctpm72

You are correct, my mistake. I've just double checked my facts. It was a Rolex Oyster on his wrist (model not known by me). The info was sourced from 'The Best of Time - Rolex wristwatches'. He did indeed break the sound barrier on October 14th 1947. The information in the book is slap bang in the middle of the GMT's role for pilots in the space program. Sorry about that glaring error. I beleive the rest is correct though.

I'm not sure how accurate the Apollo 13 film was as regard watches. It's a well known fact that Lovell used his speedmaster to time the engine firings that saved the craft but the other pilots, I believe, actually wore Rolex GMT Masters. Jack Swigert (pilot on Apollo 13) had the actual watch he wore mounted and sent back to Rolex with his thanks. There is a picture of him and nine other Nasa astronauts on the wall in geneva all wearing GMT-Masters. The story goes it was actually a mix up at Rolex which allowed the Speedmaster to be used by Nasa. Apparently Nasa phoned up Rolex in New York and asked them to supply 50 GMT's for the space program. At the time Rolex couldn't ship out that many from the states and only had a handful in stock. Understandably Nasa went elsewhere, hence the Omega's. Also understandably when head office found out they were less than happy with the New York management. Nasa had originally asked for GMT's because that is what all of their pilots were wearing both personally and occupationally. It was always the favoured watch of US pilots at the time. Also the first watch to break the sound barrier on the wrist of one Chuck Yeager. That said, I still love the Speedmasters and Seamasters. It gets the most wrist time.