A story about how Speedmaster became official NASA watch.

[Guest Sql_pl]

The true story, without embellishment, is so remarkable that it’s worth a trip back to the 1960s to re-examine how the Speedmaster came to be considered in the first place, the nature of the strenuous tests to which it and four other chronographs were subjected and finally, how it was chosen over its competitors to accompany every manned space flight since the launch of the Gordon Cooper’s Faith 7 mission as part of the Mercury program on May 15th, 1963.

Chosen to compete

It all began in the early 1960s when two NASA officials anonymously visit several Houston jewellery stores, including Corrigan’s, which at the time was the city’s best-known watch and jewellery retailer.

The men from NASA bought a series of chronographs of different brands, charged with the task of finding the best watch available for their astronauts to wear in space.

The solo-flight Mercury space programme was almost completed (in fact, Wally Schirra had worn his own Speedmaster on his Mercury flight on the 3rd of October, 1962) and NASA was preparing for the Gemini (two-man) and Apollo (three-man) missions. There were plans for the astronauts on these missions to move about in space outside the ship. One of their key pieces of equipment would be a wristwatch which could withstand the difficult conditions of space.

Every time an astronaut suspended in the vacuum of space turned his wrist, the watch would suddenly come out of the shade and be exposed to the unfiltered rays of the sun and temperature increases of more than 100

[Fidestro]

Very Cool. I read a similar article once upon a time that said that Nasa even has "loaner" Speedmasters to be checked out by individuals preparing for missions to become familiar with the operation of the watch.

If I could only buy one at that price...

[Guest Sql_pl]

I wonder what other competitors were apart from a 6263 Daytona.

[Maxim]

That's a really good interesting write up! Thanks for contributing.

[Fidestro]

I just looked up more on this from wikipedia and the watches in competition that failed in testing were from Breitling, Heuer, Rolex, Longines, and Bulova.

[Guest Sql_pl]

Thanks Fidestro.

[Limestone]

I wonder what the outcome would be if these brands was tested again today...

Which one would be the winner today of the original tested brands?

Omega, Breitling, Heuer, Rolex, Longines, and Bulova.

Or would there be any other brand that would have been the "new moonwatch"

[andreww]

Very interesting as to how things were done in different eras. Then, NASA engineers went out and bought their own watches for testing. Today, I'm sure that the rights would have been sold to the highest bidder, provided they could make a watch that would survive certain criteria. I know these days its all about the almighty dollar, but I prefer those days of yesteryear when things were done honestly and fairly. I'm not one that puts much stock in endorsements (pay someone enough and they'll say anything) but Nasa's endorsement of Omega is probably the most meaningful of any. Unsolicited, unbiased, and undisputed, just as it should be.

[Guest Sql_pl]

Which one would be the winner today of the original tested brands?

Omega, Breitling, Heuer, Rolex, Longines, and Bulova.

Would be more difficult as most chronographs now are automatic and it has to be manual to work in space.

BTW don't you think Rolex should do the exact same with their Daytonas as Omega did? I mean they should make 16520/116520 bigger cased automatics additional models of the line and keep producing 6263/6265s as a classic manual chronograph. They would probably sell nicely.

[Fidestro]

.... I'm not one that puts much stock in endorsements (pay someone enough and they'll say anything) .....

This from the guy with Travolta/Breitling as an avatar!

[whitestripes]

It is a common misconception that automatics wont work in space. That is simply untrue. The rotor is not powered by gravity, but momentum. If it's in one spot, the swing my wrist the opposite way is what makes it move. Not gravity.

[Guest Sql_pl]

Good to know.

[krustybrand]

Wasn't Nanuq the one who devised the torture testing methods?

[deltatahoe]

first off, congrats on your new watch & thanks for posting M -- definitely a good read

BTW don't you think Rolex should do the exact same with their Daytonas as Omega did? I mean they should make 16520/116520 bigger cased automatics additional models of the line and keep producing 6263/6265s as a classic manual chronograph. They would probably sell nicely.

couldn't agree more with this statement

deltatahoe

[chrgod]

Interesting read, a classic story.

For the Russian space program, the Fortis B-42 7750-based chronograph is the "official watch". So automatics can be used in space.

A nice article of "Space watches" is available as free download from the WatchTime archive.

Go to http://www.watchtime.com/print-archive/ and search for "space".

[TeeJay]

A very interesting read I'm sure I read somewhere that the requirement of a manual movement was because NASA minds didn't think that an automatic would work in space.