This is a cropped photograph of Gordon Cooper explaining the 16mm handheld spacecraft camera to Alan Shepard. Q: Are both Cooper and Shepard sporting Accutron Astronauts? The JBC looks awesome.
Indeed this is an interesting photo as Alan Shepard flew on Mercury-Redstone 3 "Freedom 7" in May 1961 and didn't wear a wristwatch ! This photo dates from May 1963 when Alan Shepard was assigned backup for Mercury-Atlas 9 "Faith 7" for which Leroy Gordo Cooper was the prime pilot. Both astronauts do indeed wear an Accutron Astronaut wrist watch... Cooper went on to wear both his (personal) Accutron Astronaut and (personal) Omega Speedmaster CK2998 aboard the "Faith 7" mission ... Another interesting fact; although it looks like astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad wore a Bulova Accutron Astronaut on the 1965 Gemini V and the 1966 Gemini XI missions, these watches were probably similar looking Glycine Airman with 24 hour bezel...
Well all Mercury 7 astronauts received an Accutron wrist watch... both USAF test pilots and civilian research pilots wore these from October 1960 onwards... These show up in USAF and NACA group photos of test pilots with Robert Rushworth, Neil Armstrong, Joe Walker... In May 1963 Leroy Gordo Cooper wore and compared an Accutron Astronaut hummer with an Omega Speedmaster chronograph on the Mercury-Atlas 9 "Faith 7" mission. In fact, the first stainless steel version with black dial just mentioned Accutron ( M2 type worn by X-15 pilots) and the word Astronaut was added during the Mercury program (1962) available to the public by August 1963 when X-15 pilot Joseph Walker flew the rocket plane in space over a height of 100 Kilometer (FAI boundary of space)... This vibrating tuning fork design watch was ahead of its time, a decade before quartz, and the Accutron was built for space and harsh cockpit environments (A12, X-15,...), and these were produced until the mid-1970s... . USAF test pilot Joseph Walker wearing an Accutron Astronaut wrist watch over his silver David Clark pressure suit...
As I'm reaching 1000 likes ... I have to refer interested readers to the Tumblr photo blog with Accutron contributions: https://wristwatchlover.tumblr.com/archive
June 2019... celebrating 60 years since the first free (glide) flight of the X-15 hypersonic research rocket plane at Edwards AFB. The first powered X-15 flight took place on September 17, 1959... More at: https://moonwatchuniverse.tumblr.com/archive