Exact version of the First Omega In Space... October 1962

In analogy to our topic on the exact Speedmaster version used onboard Gemini IV ( 4 times 105.003-63 ), it's October 2020 and I'm checking my Walter Schirra Sigma-7 photo folder...
In articles, blog postings and the third edition of Moonwatch Only, I always posted that Walter Schirra's personal Omega Speedmaster might have been a CK2998-4 as it looks like it didn,'t have a lollipop chrono hand ... a striking detail I took along when I commissioned this Walter Schirra onboard Sigma-7 capsule art work...
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In fact, before posting additional photos, I just wanted to request some help of the forum-members in order to identify the wristwatch Walter Schirra was wearing in this 1959 NASA portrait...
Looks like a "military" chronograph with thick case and strong glass ontop ( Valjoux movement ? )
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Following suggestions were e-mailed... but please respond here as it's interesting for the whole wristwatch enthusiast community
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LeCoultre chronograph
Already in early 1961, the Mercury 7 astronauts did receive a 24 Hour dial LeCoultre wristwatch but it was not a LeCoultre chronograph
Concord military chronograph
The best suggestion so far as the 1950s 35mm dial Concord Valjoux 23 chronograph came with such a crown & thick glass 👎
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Anyone Anyone...
Just to remark that these early 1959 black & white NASA portrait photos are rare beasts for collectors...
The lower row of 1960-61 color portrait photos is far better known !
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This it?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-CONCO...LJOUX-23-MOVEMENT-35MM-SERVICED-/293310632708

No lug holes? And doesn’t appear to have the angular lug ends, but that’s hard to say; general body sure is close.



Looking near and “above” the furthest pusher, it almost appears there is an angular feature between the lug and the bezel-like area below the crystal



For that matter, there appears to be more than one “step” in the area between the top of the lug and the crystal.

@SpeedyPhill always appreciate your mystery hunts

Although in the summer of 1959 the "Mercury 7" astronauts were officially issued a bespoke 34mm LeCoultre pilot watch with 24 hours dial & movement, they didn't wear these watches during spaceflight, onlu during training and PR events.
By 1962, the "Mercury 7" astronauts received an Accutron GMT tuning fork movement pilot watch but some of them also had additional personal watches. We know three "Mercury 7" astronauts, Donald "Deke" Slayton, Walter "Wally" Schirra & Leroy "Gordo" Cooper, owned an OMega CK2998-4 chronograph.
Both Wally Schirra and Gordo Cooper wore their Speedmaster CK2998 on their orbital spaceflight missions, and later during Gemini training.
These are their actual watches on display at the Omega museum in Bienne Kanton Bern - Switzerland. New bezels have been added...
Photos: MoonwatchUniverse
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Bespoke artwork comissioned by MoonwatchUniverse to celebrate the First Omega In Space (6 orbits October 3, 1962)
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NASA astronaut Walter "Wally" Schirra was the only astronaut to have flown on both Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spaceflight missions.
By 1964, Schirra's Omega Speedmaster had lost its bezel but he kept wearing it this way as seen in many LIFE magazine articles (showing Schirra during family life & testing SCUBA equipment in his home swimming pool) and in this February 1965 photo as Schirra was backup Command Pilot for Gemini III.
Photo: NASA
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"Mercury 7" astronaut Leroy "Gordo" Cooper, as Schirra, was a petrol head and that's the main reason why they had an Omega Speedmaster wrist watch which was advertised as a sports car racing timing chronograph. NASA photographs suggest that the astronauts must have bought their Speedmaster CK2998 in 1961, Cooper perhaps in 1962.
May 1963, USAF Major Gordo Cooper was the first to compare two wrist watches in space as during 22 orbits of MA-9 "Faith 7" as he wore both his personal battery-powered tuning fork movement Accutron Astronaut GMT pilot watch and his personal manula winding Omega Speedmaster CK2998 chronograph.
As Schirra, Cooper kept wearing his CK2998-4 during NASA training, but not on the Gemini V mission, during which he again wore the Accutron Astronaut GMT together with a NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster 105.003-63 chronograph. This photo shows Cooper during USAF/NASA desert survival training in Chisos mountains near Big Bend Texas, clearly wearing his Speedmaster CK2998.
(Photo: NASA)
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The "Mercury 7" Omega Speedmaster CK2998 chronograph story wouldn't be complete with a photo of Donald Deke Slayton wearing his personal CK2998, a chronograph which turns up in NASA photographs during press meeting for the "Aurora 7" mission of Malcolm Scott Carpenter...
After seeing the Breitling Navitimer chronograph during hus CapCom duty in Muchea - Australia, Carpenter requested a Breitling, wore it for six months requesting modifications, receiving his bespoke Breitling Navitimer 806-24h chronograph just in time to become the first astronaut to wear a Swiss-made wrist watch in space.
This June 1963 photo shows Donald "Deke" Slayton during USAF/NASA jungle survival training at Albrook AFB in Panama. Note the Speedmaster CK2998 lost its bezel.
As always, much more photos at Moonwatchuniverse ...
(Photo: NASA)
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Interesting the bezels seems to be lost so frequently. I’d guess a pretty hard whack would be needed to pop it off. The old crystal sits rather proud too.

Do you have any back story on this?

Some astronauts even deliberately removed the bezel as the Tachymètre had no practical function in space!
At least half-a-dozen astronauts used their Speedmaster without a bezel, Schirra, Slayton, Lovell, Borman, Stafford,...
1968 NASA astronauts' feedback clearly requested a "60 seconds" bezel, even the famous 14 seconds LM DPS burn on Apollo 13 must have been difficult in a dark spacecraft capsule. Therefore NASA made at least half-a-dozen "60 seconds" bezels for the NASA-issued Speedmaster chronographs for the Apollo 15 prime & back-up astronauts... as told to me by the late Alfred Worden !
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A shout-out also to Breitling as Schirra was back-up for Malcolm Scott Carpenter's "Aurora 7" mission who got a lot of critic but in the end flight hardware malfunctions, such as an automatic control system problem needed attentive adequate subsequent in-flight responses by the astronaut, emphasized that the primary attention of the pilot need to be devoted to spacecraft systems management.
Carpenter wanted to save guard his photo camera from water damage and noticed his life raft was upside down, putting it correctly in the water damged his bespoke Breitling Navitimer.
Anyway the Mercury astronauts agreed "Aurora 7" had too many " Larry Lightbulb " experiments and wanted an operational orbital mission for Walter Schirra, a decision that made "Sigma 7" a success, allowing "Faith 7" to go on with 22 orbits !
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Next year, it will be 10 years since " MoonwatchUniverse " was coined... very fitting the latest discussions with Speedmaster aficionados were about the exact bracelet worn by Mercury 7 astronaut Walter Wally Schirra on his personal CK2998-4 in 1962...
Well we can be sure a Forstner / Jacoby Bender Champion steel mesh bracelet often used during training, even during water egress training and a stretch bracelet during the actual 6 orbits " Sigma 7" mission "...
(Photos: NASA)
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. Omega 2024

Nice it's not a limited edition!

I like the dial color and design...

Time to end the ultimate discussion about early Speedmaster chronographs in the US space program.
Although Omega has produced a couple commemorative Speedmaster FOIS versions ( 2012 and 2024 ), almost 65 years after a few NASA Mercury 7 astronauts bought their personal Speedmaster CK2998 we still don't know which were the exact versions of these chronographs belonging to (1) Donald "Deke" Slayton , (2) Walter "Wally" Schirra and (3) Gordon "Gordo" Cooper 😕.
Neither the website nor the last Omega LifeTime - The Museum Edition (2022) ever mentioned the exact CK2998 version...
An overview:
Donald "Deke" Slayton
IMHO, the earliest NASA photograph showing Slayton wearing his personal Speedmaster CK2998 was taken March 16, 1962.
This makes us think Deke Slayton bought it in February 1962, questioning if the first CK2998-4 were already available ? ? ?
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Walter "Wally" Schirra
IMHO, the earliest NASA photographs showing Schirra wearing his personal Speedmaster CK2998 were taken during training a backup astronaut for Scott Carpenter's "Aurora 7" mission on May 4 and May 13, 1962. Schirra wore his CK2998 during MA-8 "Sigma-7" spaceflight mission.
So Schirra might have bought it in April 1962, again the very first CK2998-4 might have been available ? ? ?
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Gordon "Gordo" Cooper
IMHO, the earliest NASA photograph showing Cooper wearing his personal Speedmaster CK2998 was taken March 6, 1963.
Earlier NASA photographs show Cooper wearing the LeCoultre "Mercury 7" but mostly two versions of the Accutron Astronaut GMT.
Cooper might have bought his CK2998 in early 1963, so probably a Speedmaster CK2998-4 (as mentioned by Omega museum in 2018)
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To trigger the solution of this quest for the " exact CK2998 versions " of these three "Mercury 7" astronauts, I believe the Omega museum in Bienne has both the CK2998 watches of Walter Schirra and Gordon Cooper... so they must have the serial numbers of these watches to finally answer the question !
(Photos: Moonwatchuniverse)
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to be continued...

@bsowers34
Obviously to clearly distinguish from the original 1962 FOIS...

That's not a good reason...

Still waiting for the Seamaster 1000 reissue...

First Omega In Space… produced 1961
Finally an official communication that the first Omega in Space, a personal CK2998 by Walter “Wally” Schirra during the MA-8 “Sigma 7” mission was actually a CK2998-4 version produced on November 15, 1961.
It must have been one of the first batch CK2998-4 delivered to the USA as Walter Schirra probably bought it in April 1962! The earliest NASA photographs, showing Schirra wearing his personal CK2998-4 are dated May 4, 1962 as he was training as a backup for Carpenter’s “Aurora 7” mission.
Thus far no official information about the personal CK2998s of Donald “Deke” Slayton and Gordon “Gordo” Cooper. Slayton got his first (February 1962?) and Cooper probably got his in November 1962 so it must also have been a CK2998-4.
In May 1963, during Cooper’s MA-9 “Faith 7” mission, Cooper compared his personal wrist watches, lefthand wrist his Omega CK2998-4, righthand wrist an Accutron Astronaut GMT pilot watch. Moreover in Mercury control center, Cape Canaveral Florida, both Donald Slayton and Walter Schirra wore their personal Speedmaster CK2998 as well !
(Photos: NASA)
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