I was always fascinated by the space race between the US and the then USSR. The first satellite launched to space was from the USSR - Sputnik. The first watch in space was Soviet-made and made famous by being worn by the first man in space - Yuri Gagarin - in 1961. That was a Poljot Sturmanskie manual wind watch. John Glenn followed in 1962 and wore a Heuer 2915A.
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| Vintage Sturmanskie in my collection |
The USSR was ahead of the US for a while with another cosmonaut making the first space walk. I still have to acquire a Poljot Strela chronograph like the one worn in that walk by Alexey Leonov in 1965. The US though, went beyond orbits and spacewalks and successfully landed men on the moon in 1969. It is now 50 years since the first moon landing via the Apollo 11 mission. That mission also launched another watch model into its top iconic status that remains and would likely endure - the Omega Speedmaster Professional. There are basically two models of this watch - the ones flight qualified by NASA and the 'normal' Speedmasters that also have several variants.
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| My most cherished watch is one I saved for so many years |
But there is another moonwatch. As the story goes, one of the astronauts of Apollo 15 damaged his Speedmaster but brought along his back up watch, which was a Bulova prototype chronograph. This was a privately owned watch by the astronaut and not official issue by NASA. The watch though became part of history and Bulova produced a more affordable version of the watch with a high precision quartz movement.
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| The back of my Bulova moonwatch. This one cost less than 10% of my Omega. :) |
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