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Astronauts wore Rolex GMT's and not just Speedmasters. Say it isn't so...

cvalue13
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And there every tested Brand failed. Except the Speedmaster. So, coexistence is king. As always in life. Kind regards. Achim

Surely.

But only to note one reason a seemingly disproportionate number of “personal” watches were GMT/24hr indicator watches.

It is, however, interesting that later when Omega offered up presumably equally robust speedmasters that included 24hr indicators, Omega for whatever reason stuck with the pure chronos
 
SpeedyPhill
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By now we're all aware that the majority of Apollo-era astronauts had a personal Rolex GMT-master pilot watches.
All astronauts involved in Apollo 14 training (Shepard, Cernan, Mitchell, Engle, Roosa, Evans and Collins) have been photographed wearing a Rolex GMT-master pilot watch... but for the diehard aficionados the question remains:
50 years ago ... Apollo 14 Commander Alan Shepard was a huge Rolex fan, he even wore his Rolex during the January 31, 1971 launchday breakfast, so why didn't he take & fly it on the Apollo 14 Moon mission ?
After all, his crewmembers Mitcheel & Roosa wore their personal Rolex GMT-master 1675 Pepsi during that lunar spaceflight mission !
(photo: NASA)
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Rolex_Apollo_Moon.jpg
 
cvalue13
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but for the diehard aficionados the question remains:

A little-known history about about Commander Alan Shepard is that his nickname amongst the crew was “Alligator Arms,” in virtue of how stingy he was about money. When asked about this photo of the pre-flight breakfast, his crew member Roosa responded:

“Yeah, I remember that breakfast. Most of us were nervous and talking about the mission. But Ole’ Alligator Arms? Hell, Shepard was so tight with money all he could think about was putting NASA’s bottles of A1 steak sauce in his duffle bag. That guy was a special kind of frugal: if we’d just blasted off, and out the rear view he’d seen a nickle on the launchpad, he’d turn the rocket around to pick it up. Hell, the guy wouldn’t even wear his own watch into space - I think he liked the free watches even more than the free A1 steak sauce.”
 
janice&fred
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photo of the pre-flight breakfast

It's also obvious in the picture that the fella on the left was too busy texting on his phone to eat.
 
SpeedyPhill
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janice&fred janice&fred
It's also obvious in the picture that the fella on the left was too busy texting on his phone to eat.
Edgar Mitchell was holding a slice of bread... the others: Thomas Stafford (Speedmaster), Stuart Roosa (Rolex GMT), Alan Shepard (Rolex), Donald Slayton (Bulova on coffin bracelet) Joe Engle (Speedmaster with Timely calendar) and Ronald Evans (Rolex GMT-master).
 
janice&fred
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Edgar Mitchell was holding a slice of bread..

No he was texting. I am certain of this just as I'm certain the picture of Roy Rogers sitting on Trigger was wearing my Omega.
 
arturo7
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SpeedyPhill SpeedyPhill
By now we're all aware that the majority of Apollo-era astronauts had a personal Rolex GMT-master pilot watches.
All astronauts involved in Apollo 14 training (Shepard, Cernan, Mitchell, Engle, Roosa, Evans and Collins) have been photographed wearing a Rolex GMT-master pilot watch... but for the diehard aficionados the question remains:
50 years ago ... Apollo 14 Commander Alan Shepard was a huge Rolex fan, he even wore his Rolex during the January 31, 1971 launchday breakfast, so why didn't he take & fly it on the Apollo 14 Moon mission ?
After all, his crewmembers Mitcheel & Roosa wore their personal Rolex GMT-master 1675 Pepsi during that lunar spaceflight mission !
(photo: NASA)
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Rolex_Apollo_Moon.jpg

I wonder it these guys had any idea that 40 years later, people would be obsessing about their watches.
 
SpeedyPhill
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@arturo7
Although I started to collect photos in 1971, wristwatch-wise for some of us it started in the early 1980s, drooling over hardcopie NASA lithos & photos which came snailmail to Your doorstep in the well-known brown NASA envelope 😀
 
SpeedyPhill
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The Rolex GMT-master keeps turning up in aviation & spaceflight related events, so we're going to spend a year focusing on these events 😁
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Neil Hutchinson, a NASA Guidance, Navigation & Control systems engineer during the Apollo program and flight director during Apollo 17, Skylab-4, ASTP and STS-1, always wore his Rolex GMT-master 1675 Pepsi pilot watch...
35 years ago, Hutchinson left NASA and he can be seen wearing his Rolex GMT-master in this 1985 video giving a Space Station briefing to both female Teacher-In-Space astronauts Christa McAuliffe and Barbara Morgan.
(Source: NASA)
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SpeedyPhill
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RIP cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov (1927-2021)...
June 15, 2021 Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov passed away aged 93... he flew on Soyuz 4, 8 and 10.
In 1971, during Soyuz 10 training, we see cosmonaut Shatalov was wearing a Rolex GMT-master 1675 pilot watch while his colleagues wore Strela chronographs. Two years later, in July & September 1973, Shatalov was still wearing his Rolex GMT-master pilot watch as a supporting cosmonaut during ASTP-training in the USA.
(Photos: TASS/NASA) #MoonwatchUniverse
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ROLEX_SHA.jpg ROLEX_Shatalov.jpg
 
Geme81
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TLIGuy TLIGuy
I posted this over in the Rolex forum but I thought there may be a little interest here as well since many of us have a bit of space geek in us.

My interest and research is confined to a very small sliver of space occupied by the watches worn by astronauts beginning with Gemini 3 and ending with Apollo 17.

During my research I have seen a few images of Jim Lovell wearing his Rolex GMT. None were great and none could be enhanced without serious distortion to get a good look a the GMT.

The image below has been my favorite Lovell pictures with the crew of Apollo 8. They look ready for the task at hand and Lovell's pose with the bomber jacket wearing the shinny new GMT on his wrist has always been my favorite.

lovell_zps4cf267c0.JPG


Now....I Finally get a good look at the GMT that he has worn all these years. Tuesday I received my images from a signing he did where I had a piece signed. Included in the signing was a CD with images from the event. As I looked through the images I spotted the pictures I had been hoping to find over the past few years.

What a great looking well worn GMT 1675. It also appears that the dial has a Naval Academy crest printed on it at the 9 o'clock position.

If this watch could talk I bet it would tell some great stories.

IMG_0025 2.jpg
beautiful pictures
 
SpeedyPhill
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Single Red Rolex Sea Dweller from SeaLab to Titanic and into space onboard the ISS
Read the whole story at RolexMagazine.com
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2007_STS118_zSeaDweller.jpg
 
SpeedyPhill
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Wrist watch aficionado Walter "Wally" Schirra
NASA Astronaut Walter Schirra, known by most of us for the First Omega In Space FOIS CK2998 (October 1962), was also a great Rolex fan as he had both a Rolex Daytona and a Rolex GMT-master.
1967 video showing veteran Mercury MA-8 and Gemini VI astronaut Walter "Wally" Schirra checking out the modified hatch of the Apollo Command Module... Note Walter Schirra clearly wore his personal Rolex GMT-master 1675 pilot watch with red/blue Pepsi bezel.
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RedMac
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Yes, Phil, Wally wore a GMT, but when it counted he wore a Speedmaster. 😉
 
Wally Schirra with gold 1969 Omega Speedmaster.jpg
SpeedyPhill
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Other NASA related names with a Rolex on the wrist include:
Yeager, Crossfield, Carpenter, Schirra, Glenn, Borman, Collins, Lovell, Worden, Swigert, Mitchell, Shepard, Roosa, Cernan, Evans, Aldrin, Haise, Engle, Anders, Duke, Pogue and several Flight support team members such as Neil Hutchinson and Charles Friedlander 😉
 
RedMac
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Yes, that is true, but they all wore Speedmasters during their flights. Except for Carpenter who wore a Breitling. 😉
 
Breitling SC dial close up.jpg Breitling Aurora 7 Cosmonaute 1.JPG Breitling Aurora 7 Cosmonaute reverse.JPG
SpeedyPhill
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50 years ago ... April 1972, Apollo-era astronauts visited a space shuttle orbiter mockup to discuss instrument panel layout and ergonimics.
James Lovell, Jack Swigert and Buzz Aldrin wore a Rolex GMT-master 1675 pilot watch, in fact Aldrin & Swigert wore a Gold version...
The other astronauts were Karol Bobko, Gordon Fullerton, Henk Hartsfield, Donald Peterson and Thomas Stafford.
Stafford wore a Gold Apollo 11 Speedmaster chronograph which he received in November 1969.
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72-Rolex.jpg
 
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