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1 September 2024, 06:05 AM | #61 |
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I recall reading somewhere that a Bulova was the runner up.
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1 September 2024, 01:32 PM | #62 | |
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Bulova was one of the remaining 6 who failed to answer the original RFP. They did, however, provide many timers for the vehicles (including, I believe, the one that malfunctioned in Apollo 11’s LM, causing Armstrong to leave his watch in the vehicle as a backup [there’s that redundancy]) when he went out first. Also, later on in the program Bulova’s CEO (Retired General Omar Bradley!) raised a big stink, going as far as Congress, saying the watch worn by the astronauts should be made in America (or, he got jealous of the sales boost the association with the Apollo Program was giving Omega, and came up with a good angle to get some of that pie, maybe?). This caused NASA to have to go through the test and certification process all over again, with Bulova and many others responding this time. Once again, the Speedmaster was the only watch to survive most of the testing, but NASA and Omega had to do some chicanery anyway, with Omega sending unassembled watches that were put together in the USA (along with some parts made here…perhaps the cases?) to get around the “made in America” laws that Bulova and Bradley were leveraging. And here’s the world’s oddest coincidence…Apollo 15 astronaut Dave Scott (or one of his friends, can’t recall the detail atm) was friends with Bradley, who was able to convince Scott to bring a Bulova chronograph along in his personal effects kit, you know, “just in case anything happened to the Omega”). Lo and behold, the only Speedmaster failure on the Moon was when Scott somehow “accidentally bumped his Speedmaster” and caused the crystal to pop off some time before their final lunar EVA. So, lucky him, he had that “backup” Bulova to use on his final time out. I am not one to impugn any astronaut’s honor, but I suspect that’s not *exactly* how that all played out. But, hey, it gave Bulova a hell of a story to market a quartz semi-look-alike 40-something years later |
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1 September 2024, 01:47 PM | #63 | |
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Again, it’s just my opinion (and you know they say about opinions…), but I would tend to believe the mention of “manually winding” was just some of the overly precise and vebose language tech writers love to throw in (and government agencies love to allow them to do so). Thankfully for those of us who have ever worked on any projects that push the limits of technology readiness, it’s also the kind of language that gets sprinkled in patents, making them TOO specific and therefore stupid easy to get around. |
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2 September 2024, 04:14 AM | #64 | |
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2 September 2024, 05:52 AM | #65 |
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2 September 2024, 06:08 AM | #66 |
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2 September 2024, 06:59 AM | #67 |
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there is some debate on whether or not we actually went to the moon. Not wanting to open that can of worms, and Perhaps rolex wouldve been fine. That being said, i think it is impressive that the speedy has such great heritage. Probably the best heritage/history of any chrono.
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2 September 2024, 07:16 AM | #68 | |
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2 September 2024, 07:43 AM | #69 | |
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2 September 2024, 09:04 AM | #70 |
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It is not convincing since MOST of those astronauts had GMTs (or other rolexes) with them (as their personal watches) please go check rolex magazine for tons of pictures and documentation on this matter
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2 September 2024, 09:31 AM | #71 | |
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2 September 2024, 10:45 AM | #72 |
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I’m not sure what you’re saying … the earth isn’t flat?
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2 September 2024, 02:52 PM | #73 |
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Yes, a lot of astronauts wore personal watches under their pressure suits or brought them with them in their personal kits. There is even a website out there that is doing a remarkable job of cataloging every verified watch worn on space on all missions (plenty of Rolexes…GMTs among the pilots in the group, Datejusts [!] among the mission/payload specialists in the Shuttle era). There are also a LOT of G-Shocks and Timexes. Swatches were pretty popular in the early days of the Shuttle Program…oddly especially among female crew members. But the fact remains, only one watch has been, and remains, authorized by NASA for wear OUTSIDE the pressure suit during EVAs (and ascent/re-entry in the Shuttle era), and we all know what that watch os. Get over it. As far as whether or not any personal watches, Rolex or otherwise, were worn under the suits on EVAs during the Apollo Moon Program, that has never been credibly claimed or documented to my knowledge. So…I guess it matter what your definition of “worn on the Moon” is…
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2 September 2024, 06:00 PM | #74 |
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2 September 2024, 06:04 PM | #75 |
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2 September 2024, 08:09 PM | #76 |
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I heard NASA was afraid of Alien's robbing astronauts for their Rolex
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2 September 2024, 08:34 PM | #77 |
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6 September 2024, 06:54 AM | #78 |
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Kind of ironic that all these tests picked the Speedy, and then the hesalite popped out of one moonwalkers Speedmaster during one of his moonwalks, resulting in all the hands getting mangled and totalling the watch.
Can’t remeber if that was Dave Scott or Gene Cernan. I think it was Dave Scott because that’s when he switched to his Bulova. |
6 September 2024, 07:36 AM | #79 |
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Stanley Kubrick thought it would look best for the film shoot.
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6 September 2024, 08:45 AM | #80 | |
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Maybe. |
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6 September 2024, 10:06 AM | #81 | |
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Is Luke Talley still around? |
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7 September 2024, 03:27 AM | #82 |
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I don’t have the fantasy to imagine the collective meltdown that some watch forums will have if this is true, taking into account the reaction to the whole moon swatch thing.
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7 September 2024, 04:23 AM | #83 | |
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7 September 2024, 05:29 AM | #84 |
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I have done quite a bit of research into space worn watches, both the Speedmaster and Rolex GMT.
Here is a short piece from an article written about my work. I still love the part at the end from astronaut Ed Mitchell who famously took along two Rolex 1675 GMT watches during his Apollo 14 mission. "There was a discussion one day on one of the forums where someone was asking if astronauts needed to be reminded to wind their Speedmasters daily. At the time I was beginning the preparation process with Ed Mitchell and was also engaged in an email conversation with another astronaut, I decided to pose the question to them both and see if I could get an answer to share. I sent off an email to the astronaut asking “Do you recall getting a reminder from mission control or a specific checklist item reminding you to wind your watches daily?” His reply was “We were all pretty bright guys back then and we were smart enough to remember to wind our watches. It’s like shaving, you just do it every day.” In a brief phone conversation with Dr. Mitchell I got an answer I wasn’t expecting at all. When I asked him the same question there was a brief pause, and then he said: “I never worried about winding my watch, I wore a Rolex.” |
7 September 2024, 06:09 AM | #85 |
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My wife and I were very fortunate to have a personal tour of the main Rolex headquarters in Geneva in 1983. In the main front lobby there was a GMT in a display case that was worn by one of the Apollo astronauts. I do not remember what flight or individual.
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7 September 2024, 06:15 AM | #86 | |
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7 September 2024, 06:34 AM | #87 |
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I believe that is the Rolex GMT that Jack Swigert wore on Apollo 13 that he gifted to Rolex.
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30 October 2024, 10:03 AM | #88 |
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Manual-wind mechanical. According to some reports, a re-branded Universal Geneve (“Buy American” indeed ). Indicative of the lengths of snake-in-the-grass tomfoolery to which Bulova was willing to resort in order to get its watches onto the arms of astronauts. Much like the tomfoolery of today that has folks convinced a cheap, quartz, somewhat-look-alike is “the same watch Dave Scott wore on the Moon.”
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30 October 2024, 10:13 AM | #89 |
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This is where the term for exhibition only was coined?
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30 October 2024, 04:42 PM | #90 | |
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Amazing how many bizarre things are being mentioned, like the manual wind and acrylic crystal, when the Daytona would remain both for decades after. It was the norm. The first auto chronograph to come out was a Seiko which was in fact taken into space by an astronaut. As for why didn't they take a Submariner (wow people are obsessed with that watch); the spec was for a chronograph...
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This "story" from this account is something made up on "Jake's Rolex" blog years ago and was thoroughly discredited on this very forum at the time. |
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