It has been a couple of years now but I remember Jim Ragan telling me "Never believe what you read on the internet," after asking him to sign March 1, 1965, on his case back for my collection as the Speedmaster Qualification date. Jim told me he would sign a piece for my collection but said he would only sign the June 1, 1965, date as the "official" date that NASA qualifies and accepts the Speedmaster for the Gemini program. I relented and he told me that if anyone questioned the date when I shared it I could tell them "You heard it straight from the hoses mouth that June 1, 1965, is the correct date."

A few weeks later, shared at an event hosted by Omega, the PuristPro website posted the first picture of the stamped NASA June 1, 1965, letter "officially" accepting the Speedmater for use.

While it is true that testing is tied up around March 1, 1965, and watches do fly in March 1965, it is not until later that it is made official by NASA.

A copy of the June 1, 1965, stamped letter now appears on the Omega website.



Jim Ragan's case back has always been the most well received piece in the collection. I think the picture I did for his piece is one of the better composed pictures I have done. Jim was kind enough to share one of his last few original NASA business cards which is pictured in the image as well.

Also, for those of you that have endured me flogging my collection over the years you may have noticed the time on the watches are set to the time of the event on the case back. Since Jim's piece does not include a time the watch is set to 6:01 with the chronograph hand set at 65 on the tachymeter scale representing the date and year.





Jim was also gracious enough to sign this picture as well.



I'll leave you with a great interview with Jim Ragan "The Original Speedy" from MONOCHROME.

 

That is seriously awesome—thanks for sharing.

 

One question chrono at 65 seconds?

Seriously cool yet again!!

 

On the tachymetre scale. I’ll clarify it above.

 

Ahhh that makes sense!!!again killer collection!!!

 

Awesome as always !

Wonder if any OF member has an Ed White with an EOA production date of either June 1st or 3rd of 1965 ...

 

Well, let's see if anyone does. How about this...

Post a picture of your Ed White 105.003 extract and the member with the extract date closets to the June 1, 1965, qualification date will win an original vintage Apollo era Garland P-35 mechanical pencil like the one that was first used during the Apollo 7 mission.

Extracts must be submitted between now and June 3rd at 3:45 Eastern standard time, exactly 54 years after Ed White preforms his EVA.



CONTEST ENTRIES:

JUNE 1, 1965
JUNE 22, 1967 @Taddyangle

 

Qualification testing of a piece of equipment is not formally competed until the Test Reports have been written, reviewed, approved and then submitted to the appropriate authority. A gap of a few months isn't at all unusual nowadays.

 

Love this thread!

 

That is beyond cool! Thanks for sharing!!

 

Amazing. And the composition on the pictures are amazing.

One question regarding the pen, I thought it was the Fischer pens going into space?

 

Moreover I never saw photos of the actual testing ( December 1964 - March 1965 ) as the well-known pictures of James Ragan were taken after the 3rd or 4th batch NASA Speedmasters was acquired... These are definitively " Professional " versions of the chronograph
.

 

The pens were made by Fisher. The above is a pen(cil) made by Garland.

I would be interested to know if any images exist from the earliest testing as well. In watching the video above there appears to be quite a bit more documentation that is available but has yet to be shared. This confirms what I have been told about the amount of information they still have. I noticed what looked like one or two images I have not seen before in the binder, if the binder is only watch testing related, as we'll as the document signed by Tom Stafford in the video that Jim is seen flipping through.

Not looking to get proved right or wrong on this one but this is a picture I don't recall seeing but is in the binder.

 

Thanks for clarifying the pen/pencil part!

 

Very interesting read. Thankyou.

 

Really enjoyed this - great post - thanks

 

Indeed @TLIGuy
It would be very interesting to see if the Omega heritage team might bring more information forward during the opening of the new Omega museum in Bienne/Biel...

 

Does anybody have an Ed White produced on June 1, 1965? That would be cool

The closest I have is a 105.003-64 produced on June 18, 1965

 

Very interesting thread and some great photos.
I think I may have posted this before, but just may be of some interest, to see that my Speedy was produced the day before yours. I wonder how many numbers apart they are!

Mine is 24951072.

 

Mine: 24539411
Yours: 24951072 @SouthernScot

Surprised how far off the numbers are, yet within 1 day.

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