New reveals about the NASA Space program watch choice

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60 years ago... NASA started to receive wrist watch chronographs to be tested...
It's January 5 , so remembering NASA astronaut JOhn Watts Young, who by serendipity played a key-role in NASA's Speedmaster history:
Selected in 1962 Astronaut Group 2, Naval aviator John Young flew onboard Gemini III, Gemini X, Apollo 10, Apollo 16, space shuttle "Columbia" STS-1 & STS-9. Totalling almost 35 days in space.
Young also holds the record of T-38 flight time: 9200 hours. Hangar 276 at Ellington field - Houston, housing NASA's fleet of T-38 jets, was renamed “John Young hangar” in October 2021.
Wrist-watch wise we notice the first Omega Speedmaster chronograph on Young's wrist at NASA during a Gemini III weight-&-balance check dated March 3, 1965. Hugely interesting as NASA had just tested chronographs for spaceflight and Gemini III astronauts Grissom & Young each wore an Accutron Astronaut GMT pilot watch and Omega Speedmaster chronograph during their March 23, 1965 spaceflight mission.
A full month before NASA received the first batch of Omega Speedmaster 105.003 (April 23, 1965) and two months before NASA officially announced the Omega Speedmaster as flight-qualified for manned spaceflight (June 1, 1965)!
(Photos: NASA)
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NASA astronaut Walter “Wally” Schirra’s 1988 book “Schirra’s Space” revealed that the 8th LeCoultre “Mercury 7″ wrist watch went to NASA STG engineer Harold I. Johnson, a member of Flight Control Branch Training Aids, who was responsible to get the wrist watches in the first place.
Although in sink with the Zulu time zone of the wordwide NASA tracking station network, the Mercury 7 astronauts only wore the LeCoultre 24 hours dial watches, nicknamed ” the Johnson watches “, during training and PR events between September 1959 and October 1963. #Moonwatchuniverse
 
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Taking early 1960s shipping from Switzerland to the USA into consideration...
Remember in October 1964, NASA requested chronographs to be tested and these were delivered by the end of 1964... NASA still received the Speedmaster 105.003-63 version!
More info on the personal Speedmaster CK2998 chronograph of the Mercury astronauts:
 
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60 years ago... March 20, 1965, Gemini III ready...
By the end of February 1965, NASA testing of chronographs was completed and we see the Omega Speedmaster on the wrists of the Gemini III prime & backup crews!As no Omega Speedmaster chronographs were delivered until April 23 of that year, NASA had distributed the Speedmasters used for testing to astronauts Virgil Grissom & John Young, who during the mission, both wore a battery-powered tuning-fork Accutron Astronaut GMT pilot watch and a manual winding 321 Omega Speedmaster 105.003-63 = March 23, 1965.
Backup Walter Schirra already owned his Speedmaster CK2998-8 (made 15 November 1961) and backup Thomas Stafford got the third Omega Speedmaster chronograph which had been available for testing.
Although March 1 & 2, 1965 were the dates of the Gemini program design certification review for all flight hardware in Washington D.C., the Omega Speedmaster was officially announced as flight-qualified on June 1, 1965.
Anyway, MoonSwatch decided to celebrate March 1, 1965 with a box showing a dummy Longines-Wittnauer and a dummy Rolex chronograph together with a MoonSwatch "Speedie".
This March 20, 1965 photo shows astronaut Walter Schirra wearing his personal Omega Speedmaster CK2998-4 (space-flown on Sigma-7 in October 1962) meeting officials of the NASA Gemini program office and Aerospace Corporations.
(Photos: NASA/MoonwatchUniverse).
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It does seem strange to me that the "test piece" watches were then issued for flight to space. Usually, once a particular item has been subjected to environmental qualification testing, it is considered to be no longer 'fit for flight'. I suppose none of the tests carried out could be considered to be "lifing" tests, but that usually doesn't matter.
 
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So, in the box set above, there are actually two non-functional watches? Or they do function?

I rather like the "X" (Rolex) model on the right, if that actually works...
 
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Wow. First I've heard of anyone doing something like this for sale. Plenty of dummy watches used in sales cases and other displays, but those are not for sale.
 
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This bitty from the king James Bible comes to mind:

“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."
 
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TLDR 😉
AI: pearls before swine, trading the family cow for magic beans