New reveals about the NASA Space program watch choice

10 years ago... lots of missing information... all before " Moonwatch Only "
In fact there're lots of NASA photos of the March 1965 Gemini III mission as both Virgil Grissom and John Young can be seen during suit-up, leaving the trailer and entering the capsule, wearing an Omega Speedmaster chronograph and an Accutron Astronaut GMT tuning fork movement pilot watch.
During Gemini IV in June 1965, both Edward White and James McDivitt each wore two Omega Speedmaster chronographs, so 4 Speedmasters on Gemini IV...
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Currently working on a pre-Speedmaster NASA era topic ... 1959-1965

Without starting a new topic, I'm going to focus on the wrist watches worn by astronauts BEFORE they received an Omega Speedmaster...
NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster that is 🤔
This topic has already shown that Donald "Deke" Slayton, Walter "Wally" Schirra and Gordon "Gordo" Cooper were wrist watch aficionados and each owned an Omega Speedmaster CK2998-4... which Schirra (1962 Sigma 7) and Cooper (1963 Faith 7) wore on their spaceflight mission.
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60 years ago... November 5, 1963
NASA reorganised the complete Project Mercury personnel structure in order to strengthen upcoming Gemini & Apollo management.
Two weeks earlier, the "Mercury 7" astronauts had already said goodbye to the Mercury program with a last group photo. In this color photo, Scott Carpenter was wearing a new Breitling Navitimer chronograph as his space-flown version got water damaged during the May 1962 "Aurora 7" mission splash-down & recovery operations in the Caribbean sea, North-east of Puerto Rico. Donald "Deke" Slayton also owned a reverse panda dial Breitling Top Time chronograph.
However, since 1961 all Mercury astronauts received at least 1 Accutron “Astronaut” GMT pilot watch with tuning fork movement and Gordo Cooper even wore it on his “Faith 7” mission in May 1963 and later during Gemini V in August 1965.
By October 1964, NASA started the search for an official astronaut chronograph, which was announced in June 1965. However, Gemini III flew already in March 1965 and both Gus Grissom & John Young each wore an two wrist watches, an Omega Speedmaster but still an Accutron Astronaut GMT pilot watch as well !
Moreover, all Mercury astronauts wore the Accutron Astronaut as a daily beater, and still received these during events & ceremonies. Becoming head of the Astronaut Office and later Director of Flight Crew Operations, Donald "Deke" Slayton wore an Accutron Astronaut between 1962 and 1973 !
(Photos: NASA & MoonwatchUniverse)
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Transportes Aéreos Portugueses 😎

40 years ago... The Right Stuff - How the Future began. movie based on Tom Wolfe's 1979 bestselling book on test pilots and astronauts.
(Photo: Warner Bros / The Ladd Company)
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Remarkable physical/medical test phase scene with at left "John Glenn " (Ed Harris) wearing his watch with expendable bracelet on the inner wrist. A nice little detail as we know US Marine Corps aviator Colonel John Glenn often wore his watches this way.
Looking at some early NASA astronaut group presentation photographs, September 1962 "Next Nine" or October 1963 "The Fourteen", we often notice most of these military pilots wore a Bulova 3818 military wrist watch.
Moreover, some astronauts (e.g. Neil Armstrong) still wore it afterwards as a daily beater or during press conferences 😗.
(Photos: NASA)
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Oh man, you're going to SERIOUSLY tempt me to go through the movie frame-by-frame. Unfortunately, it results in anachronisms (literally!) like this one:

Of course 3 "Mercury 7" astronauts owned an Omega Speedmaster chronograph, Walter "Wally" Schirra and Leroy "Gordo" Cooper wore their personal Speedmaster CK2998 in space and Donald "Deke" Slayton was the first NASA astronaut spotted wearing an Omega Speedmaster CK2998 in May 1962...
Again notice the running chronograph hand in this 1965 photograph !
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Thanks again for keeping this topic alive!

August 1971... a prototype 44 mm Bulova chronograph was worn on the Moon by Apollo 15 commander David Scott
November 1972... Bulova trying to get on the Moon:
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In a letter dated November 17, 1972 NASA administrator James Fletcher acknowledged the fact that the Bulova chronograph was unacceptable for flight as it stopped during the humidity and acceleration tests. NASA will continue to use the Omega watch in the Apollo program.
However, as Apollo 18, 19 and 20 had been cancelled (September 1970), Bulova saw the final Apollo 17 mission as the last chance to get their chronograph onto the lunar surface.
At that moment, in August 1971, a 44 mm prototype Bulova chronograph 885104 had already been worn/tested on the lunar surface by Apollo 15 commander David Scott.
Bulova reminded NASA that many specially-commissioned clocks and watches were already in use onboard military aircraft & spacecraft and other branches of the US Government.
Bulova pointed out the obvious advantages of their chronograph:
Vapor blast dull finish to stainless steel case & crown eliminating glare and reflection
Large specially designed low friction chronograph levers ideal for use with gloves
Five time increase in brilliance in total darkness of hour markers and hands
Uncluttered dial with trade references reduced
Flat crustal tempered glass anti-reflection coating MIL-C-675 specification
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Again, NASA engineers concluded that despite some of the Bulova features and the “Buy American” were desirable, changing watches would require a competitive procurement and requalification. An action which would require considerable expenditure of money and manpower, which is not programmed into present resources allocation.
In a letter dated November 17, 1972 NASA administrator James Fletcher acknowledged the fact that the Bulova chronograph was unacceptable for flight as it stopped during the humidity and acceleration tests. NASA will continue to use the Omega watch in the Apollo program.
During the 1972-1973 Skylab space station program, three battery-powered Bulova timers were flown onboard NASA’s first manned space station. These portable flight-qualified analog timers were built by McDonnel Douglas Astronautics and the Bulova Timer Laboratory for exclusive use onboard the Skylab Orbital Workshop.
In 1975, a Bulova clock was integrated into the Apollo-Soyuz American Command Module molecular biology/biochemistry electrophoresis experiment.
In June 1983, onboard space shuttle Challenger mission STS-7, NASA astronaut Norman Thagard wore a three-line dial Bulova Accutron Astronaut tuning fork pilot watch besides his NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster, commemorating the May 1963 “Faith 7” flight of Leroy Gordo Cooper who wore his personal Accutron Astronaut and Omega Speedmaster CK2998-4 chronograph.
Anno 2023, we celebrated 60 years Bulova Accutron pilot wrist watches in space and a thematic collection isn't complete without one !
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The upcoming 60th anniversary of the offical testing chronograph for NASA (October 1964 - April 1965) is going to reveal exciting information!
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In fact, Mercury 7 astronaut Walter "Wally" Schirra, known for the First Omega In Space (worn during MA-8 "Sigma 7" in October 1962), bought an Omega Speedmaster CK2998 chronograph because of its sports car racing heritage & association.
Remember Schirra (and other astronauts) was a true petrol head and owned several sports car among which an Austin Healey and a red 1963 Maserati 3500GT at the time, with a personalized license plate MSC - Manned Spacecraft Center.
Schirra enjoyed his Italian sportscars, in 1968 he bought a Maserati Ghibli and in 1971, Schirra bought a Maserati Bora.
(Screenshot: San Diego Air & Space Archives)
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Love this thread.

I did some research of my own as I embark on my build. I’ll share it here later.

Omega Speedmaster sports car racing heritage
These 1968 photos show legendary Lamborghini test driver Bob Wallace (1938-2013) wearing an Omega Speedmaster chronograph on flat link bracelet testing a newly produced V12 engined P400 Miura. The New Zealand engineer worked 12 years for the Lamborghini factory.
OMEGA’s famous 1957 Speedmaster "space watch" also has a motor racing heritage, still celebrated with the Speedmaster Racing chronograph!
Yep, it's not always "spaceflight" on MoonwatchUniverse 😗
(Photos: Lamborghini)
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Format is messed up but here's what I've collected for my tribute build... (please correct any errors, and I welcome additions!)

Speedmaster 145.012-68 references at NASA
NASA assigned Number Astronaut Program
72 Pogue Skylab 4
73 Collins Apollo 11
74
75 Shepard Apollo 14
76 Stafford ASTP
77 Mitchell Apollo 14
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79 Stafford ASTP
80 Weitz Skylab 2
81 Conrad Skylab 2
82 Kerwin Skylab 2
83 (not assigned)
84 (not assigned)
85 (not assigned)
86 (not assigned)
87 (not assigned)
88 (not assigned)
89 (not assigned)
90 (not assigned)
91 (not assigned)
92 (??????) Auctioned 10-11 December 2022
93 (not assigned)
94 (not assigned)
95 (not assigned)
96 (not assigned)
97 (not assigned)

Is it ~255 km/h on his speedometer 😗 😁

Oh, No!

He's only going 62!

I think the dials show 6200 rpm and 255 km/hr

Never heard so many "inaccuracies" in a 5 minutes video ! 🤦 So let's summarize:
In Ocotber 1964, NASA contacted 10 different watch brands to submit a request for proposal specific for a chronograph wrist watch;
American Elgin, Benrus, Bulova, Gruen, Hamilton, Lucien Piccard, Longines, Mido, Omega and Rolex. Only 4 brands answered, of which 3 brands had watches available, as Hamilton offered stopwatches.
So NASA bought three wristwatches of each brand to be tested for certification as standard flight crew chronographs. The Omega Speedmaster chronograph won and became flight-qualified chronograph on June 1st, 1965.
The black & white photos shown in this video were made in 1967 and show NASA engineer James Ragan taking care of NASA-issued Speedmaster "Professional" 105.012 versions, not the earlier Speedmaster 105.003-63 version which was tested and spaceflown on Gemini III (March 1965: Young & Grissom both wore a Speedmaster and an Accutron Astronaut pilot watch).
#MoonwatchUniverse #NASA #Speedmaster
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Edit: “off the cuff” conversation but really any video with NASA in the title needs an in-depth preparation & research !

So much great NASA information in this thread...amazing. It is significant that so many of the Mercury guys owned 2998-4s. One would expect to see that iteration's values/demand move upward once collectors learn of the connection. I haven't been paying attention, especially for the last few years, but has anyone noticed the -4 getting any extra attention? Seems significant to me that THREE (Slayton, Schirra Cooper) Mercury astronauts wore not just a 2998....but a -4.

65 years ago... the "Mercury 7" NASA astronauts needed a watch... and it had nothing to do with Omega !
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In April 1959, the world witnessed the "Mercury 7" astronaut group announcement, and it's interesting that the NASA Space Task Group (STG) decided to procure the Mercury astronauts with a 24 hours dial wrist watch. The STG had worked out and set up a world wide network of tracking ground stations divided over both Earth's hemispheres supplemented with tracking ships where needed. This Spacecraft Tracking & Data Acquisition Network used a 24 hours time scale, so the choice for an astronaut's wrist watch fell on a bespoke LeCoultre based on the black dial Quartermaster.
NASA STG engineer Harold I. Johnson, member of Flight Control Branch Training Aids, procured 8 black dial LeCoultre 24 Hours watches, which were distributed to each of the NASA "Mercury 7" astronauts. When exactly ? ? ?
I'm trying to find out when this was exactly done, as for the moment the earliest photos I have on file are these showing the LeCoultre 24 Hours dial watches during the summer of 1959 and during 1960, July 12-17 Desert Survival training at Stead Air Force Base - Nevada.
In the end all Mercury 7 astronauts wore these LeCoultre watches during training and special events, but not during actual spaceflight missions.
Today, 65 years later, the LeCoultre watches of John Glenn, Walter Schirra and Virgil Grissom have been sold at auction...
(Photos: NASA & RRauction)
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