Spacefarer Wrist watches

September 9, 1962 Mercury astronaut Leroy “Gordo” Cooper during a scuba exercise part of the Mercury water egress training and is seen wearing a snorkel and holding a camera for underwater photography. Note he was wearing an Accutron “Astronaut” tuning fork wrist watch. (Photo: NASA)

November 1985, German physicist & DLR astronaut Reinhard Furrer seen aboard space shuttle Challenger during the STS61-A mission during a medical experiment in the scientific D1 Spacelab module anchored in the shuttle cargo bay. Note Furrer was wearing a Seiko  A829-6019 alarm chronograph and a Sinn 142 wrist watch. The mission,  with its crew of 8 set a record as the highest number of people in space on a single spacecraft and lasted 7 days 44 minutes. (Photo: NASA/ESA)

50 years ago... October 24 1968, NASA test pilot William "Bill" Dana made the final (199th) flight in the hypersonic X-15 flight research program. In fact, a 200th flight was cancelled due to bad weather and the X-15 program was permanently ended on 20 December 1968... Only 3 X-15s were built. Only 12 pilots flew the rocket-powered X-15 aircraft, among who Neil Armstrong (7 flights) and William "Pete" Knight (16 flights) who, in October 1967, set the official world record for highest speed ever recorded by a manned aircraft of Mach 6.7 (7274 Km/hr)... unchallenged today ! The tuning fork Accutron Astronaut wrist watch was their timepiece of choice! (Photo: MoonwatchUniverse)

Omega Speedmaster on a Jacoby Bender Champion steel mesh bracelet, holding a genuine “ Fallen Astronaut “ artwork made by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck. Such a “ Fallen Astronaut “ figurine was left on the lunar surface by Apollo 15 commander David Scott, near the place where the first Lunar Rover was parked at the edge of the Mons Hadley massif, part of Montes Apenninus in the northern hemissphere of the Moon. (Photo: MoonwatchUniverse)

Composition of 2 NASA photos taken August 7, 1971 during the Apollo 15 recovery operations by USS Okinawa in the North Pacific Ocean. Apollo 15 commander David Scott was clearly wearing the Bulova chronograph at his left wrist. Scott’s private Bulova watch was used during the last Apollo 15 lunar EVA and was sold at the autumn 2015 RR auction for US $ 1.625 million. (Photo: NASA)

October 1968, Apollo 7 crew postflight at the Kennedy Space Center shows Commander Wally Schirra wearing his personal Rolex GMT wrist watch. (Photo: NASA)

October 3, 1967, test pilot William “Pete” Knight set a new aviation world speed record as he reached Mach 6.7 with an X-15 rocket plane during hypersonic research trials. Note he wore his personal Rolex GMT on a long webbing strap over his left forearm. (Photo: NASA/UPI)

May 15th 1963,  55 years ago astronaut Leroy Cooper was launched aboard Mercury-Atlas 9 nicknamed Faith-7 for the final one man Mercury mission. During this 34 hours 19 minutes long mission Gordo Cooper took the time to compare his Accutron Astronaut tuning fork watch with his manual winding Omega Speedmaster CK2998-4 chronograph. Both watches were worn over the space suit with a lightweight steel mesh JB Champion bracelet. In 1963, the Komfit Forstner firm was taken over by Jacoby Bender Champion and the steel mesh bracelets became a favorite with Gemini & Apollo program astronauts as they were allowed to wear these during space missions. By then the Accutron had been used by both CIA pilots and test pilots in the hypersonic X-15 research program. (Photo: MoonWatchUniverse)

55 years ago astronaut Leroy Cooper was launched aboard Mercury-Atlas 9 nicknamed Faith-7 for the final one man Mercury mission. During this 34 hours 19 minutes long mission Gordo Cooper took the time to compare his Accutron Astronaut tuning fork watch with his manual winding Omega Speedmaster CK2998-4 chronograph. Both watches were worn over the space suit with a lightweight steel mesh JB Champion bracelet. In 1963, the Komfit Forstner firm was taken over by Jacoby Bender Champion and the steel mesh bracelets became a favorite with Gemini & Apollo program astronauts as they were allowed to wear these during space missions. (Photo: MoonWatchUniverse)

July 1974, the Soyuz 14 crew, cosmonauts Yuri Artyukhin and Pavel Popovich on the Baikonour launchpad ready for their 14-days mission aboard the Salyut 3 space station. Flight engineer Artyukhin wore an Omega Flightmaster cal 911 chronograph, which was auctioned at Heritage Auctions in 2016 for US $ 13750. (Photo: RKA/TASS)

July 1976, Soyuz 21 crew, commander Boris Volynov and flight engineer Vitali Zholobov go over checklists for their mission to the Salyut 5 space station. Note that Zholobov wore an Omega Flightmaster chronograph, which he also wore during the 49 days 6 hours long-duration mission. (Photo: RKA/TASS)

July 1976, the Soyuz 21 crew on the launchpad ready for their 49 days long-duration mission aboard the Salyut 5 space station. Note that cosmonaut Vitali Zholobov wore an Omega Flightmaster chronograph over the left forearm of his Sokol spacesuit. (Photo: RKA/TASS)

Soyuz 19 commander Alexey Leonov seen wearing an Omega Flightmaster chronograph during training for the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission. ASTP was an unprecedented sharing of information with Americans about any Soviet space program. Instead of the Flightmaster pilot watch, both crews choose to wear the Omega Speedmaster chronograph and a total of 11 Speedmaster wrist watches were flown during the historic mission. (Photo: NASA)

Soyuz 19 Soviet-Russian cosmonauts Valeri Kubasov and Alexey Leonov participate in English language training during preparations for the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Note both cosmonauts were wearing an Omega Flightmaster chronograph. However these Flightmaster wrist watches were not worn during the ASTP mission. (Photo: NASA)

The Soyuz 19 crew were the Soviet-Russian part of the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Flight engineer Valeri Kubasov and Commander Alexey Leonov are seen wearing their white Sokol space suit during training in a Soyuz mockup. Note that Leonov wore an Omega Flightmaster chronograph. (Photo: NASA)

February 20, 1962 US Marine Corps aviator & Mercury 7 astronaut John Glenn relaxes before the launch of the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission, the first to orbit an US astronaut. After three orbits, Glenn and his “Friendship 7″ capsule were recovered by US Navy ship USS Noa. Note Glenn wore a TAG Heuer “stopwatch” on a wide strap over his right forearm. (Photo: NASA)

Accutron Astronaut tuning fork “hummer” wristwatch on a 1960s Topping scale model of the North American Aviation X-15. Between June 1959 & October 1968, the hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft was flown by 12 test pilots during 199 flights, breaking records by reaching an altitude of 106 km and a topspeed of Mach 6.7 (7274 km/hr). (MoonwatchUniverse)