![]() ![]() Ragan, then a young engineer at NASA, wrote the specification. Deke Slayton, then chief of the astronaut office, knew they would need timepieces certified to be able to withstand extreme conditions. For the last two Mercury missions, the astronauts had worn their own watches. ![]() The partnership between Omega and the Museum was coordinated by the same person who handled the watches at NASA: James H. On one watch’s face, for instance, the luminescent paint is chipping off it will be conserved during Omega’s next visit. Subsequent visits will focus on conservation treatment. “They are very, very generous to do this.”ĭuring the first visit, in 2013, Alain Monachon, heritage project manager at the Omega Museum, assessed each timepiece in the collection. “They pay for their own travel they bring their own supplies, tools, and replacement parts,” says Levasseur. You’re holding that extra weight of history.”įor the past two years, Petros Protopapas, the director of the Omega Museum, and David Julmy, the Omega Museum’s master watchmaker, have flown from Switzerland to Washington, D.C., to conserve the watches. “I remember when we did our first conservation on this,” she says. Her other favorite is the iconic Armstrong watch. There would be a desire to have one fit really well when they were inside the spacecraft. But the Velcro strap would have to go around the spacesuit. There were two different ways astronauts could wear their watches: with a metal strap, during training, like you’d wear a watch on the ground, or with a Velcro strap. It’s the only one in our collection that has a metal band on it. ![]() “I have a couple of favorites,” she says. When asked if she has a favorite watch in the collection, Levasseur pauses. The construction of the case is so durable that they’re water-resistant, airproof-no material can get inside the watch.” (They don’t any lunar dust on the watch surface was returned to NASA when the watches were cleaned after each mission.) Says Levasseur: “That’s one of the reasons they were chosen in the first place. “People want to know if they contain lunar dust, that’s the most popular question,” she says. Of the visitor questions directed to Levasseur each year, most are about the watches. “And that legend has created a sort of an aura around the astronaut watches.” (Seven of the Museum’s watches have been stolen, all while on loan to other facilities.) “I’ve heard a lot of possible stories about where it might be,” Levasseur says. Some of the mystique may go back to Buzz Aldrin’s watch, which was lost in 1971 while in transit to the Museum. Vintage timepieces are a hot topic, says Levasseur, and astronaut watches especially so. But it also has a digital background that astronauts can use when they are inside the International Space Station. Omega’s new X-33 watch is partly mechanical-it doesn’t require winding-and it has hands like a traditional watch. One is sensitive to light direction, the other to temperature-and both become a problem when an astronaut goes outside on a spacewalk. But digital watches have either LED or LCD screens. No other watch has ever been flight-qualified by NASA.”Īstronauts eventually asked Omega for a digital display the watches they were using were battery-less, and had to be wound by hand. “That is particularly true when it comes to spacewalking. “Omega has always been the official watch of NASA,” says Levasseur. Some 35 are at the Museum, with another 17 on loan. NASA donated more than 50 of the watches to the Museum in the mid-1970s. space program in 1965 the model had been worn from the Gemini program into the early space shuttle years. The Omega Speedmaster Professional was chosen by NASA for the U.S. The Smithsonian quickly sent the correct watch. Meanwhile, the watch that had been listed as Armstrong’s (and was actually Collins’) was out on loan at the Armstrong Museum in Ohio. Museum director Collins had been wearing the watch to work each day, unaware of the snafu. When the watches were returned to the Apollo 11 crew they must have gotten mixed up. When astronauts return from a mission, space curator Jennifer Levasseur explains, all equipment-including watches-is cleaned and inventoried. ![]() When it was inventoried, however, its serial number indicated it was actually Neil Armstrong’s watch-and had been on Armstrong’s wrist when he landed on the lunar surface. When Michael Collins, Apollo 11’s command module pilot, was the director of the National Air and Space Museum, he wanted to add the watch to the Museum’s collection. Most impressive of all: It had flown on Apollo 11, the first mission to land humans on the moon. It was a grand watch, a combination timepiece-stopwatch built by Omega to be water-resistant, shock-proof, and able to withstand 12 Gs of acceleration. ![]()
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