1962 - 2022 ... Steel mesh bracelets ! Forstner was originally founded as the Forstner Chain Corporation in the early 1920s by William Forstner in New Jersey – USA. In 1939, the watch strap buckle & slider were patented USA and the easy adjustable stainless steel “Komfit” mesh bracelet was produced. The sturdy, but easily removable/breakable “Komfit” design made it the ideal choice to be paired with pilot watches such as the Accutron Astronaut, the Glycine Airman and the Omega Speedmaster chronograph… wrist watch types used by the 1960s NASA astronauts. In fact, all NASA astronauts quickly adopted the Forstner Komfit and later the Jacoby Bender champion (1963) stainless steel mesh bracelets for use in daily life. Moreover, these lightweight straps could be easily outfitted with a foldable Timely wrist calendar, which are still available today! As these could be resized without tools to fit over a spacesuit, and broken in case of emergency, NASA allowed the use of these steel mesh bracelets and these have been worn on 2 Mercury flights, the Gemini III mission, on 2 Apollo flights and later on space shuttle missions up to 1983! Jacoby Bender Champion stainless steel mesh bracelets were produced for least two decades but luckily these historically-significant steel mesh bracelets were revived in early 2019 under the name Forstnerbands ! (Photo: MoonwatchUniverse)
