Reply With Quotedo you mean Breitling Cosmonaute (not "Navi", although it comes under the Navitimer family)?
I don't quite know what I mean by 'best' but let's go with this and see where it ends up.
Maybe 'best' is the:
- most desirable?
- most space history?
- most accurate?
- first?
- most worn in space?
- first on the moon?
To be honest, I'd happily wear most Speedmasters including the SEs, the X33 and the Breitling Navi. I appreciate the Strela and some of the other Russian space watches but they're not for me.
There's not a right answer to this but...
For you... which is the best 'space' watch?
do you mean Breitling Cosmonaute (not "Navi", although it comes under the Navitimer family)?
For me personally, the Speedy Soyuz. The classic Speedmaster with a dial cut from a piece of Meteorite, what's not to like?
For collecting purpose it would be Sturmanskie Gagarin, the real deal, not any of the re-runs.
I've always been smitten with the first and original Speedmaster Snoopy LE. I'd gladly take that into rotation.
Anything but a Romain Jerome Moon Dust-DNA
Poljot Okeah for me. So nice that I have 2.
Two?Originally Posted by Lampoc
Would you like me to look after one of them for you?
Yes, Scott Carpenter's Navitimer Cosmonaute.
I may well be wrong but I thought it was branded the Cosmonaute after his successful mission.
Rolex GMT.
I have a Speedmaster Professional - it was my 18th birthday present as I was space crazy (still am 30 years on) but I am also a huge fan of the X-33. I've met a few astronauts over the past 20 years, most recently Chris Hadfield, and there is a real connection between the watch you are wearing and the one they are wearing that has been into space...with the pictures and videos to prove it.
321 Speedy
It's just a matter of time...
Instead of voting for the best I would add two real space watches. First is the Sturmanskie 31659 which is unlike the Speedmaster wasn't available for public, but only air force personnel received them. Its use in space is well documented. Here is a page from netgrafik.ch
And here is mine:
..which I sold sadly, but a replacement is on the way 😉
The next is a Heuer Montreal which was used in space, but it's a much less known fact. Hungarian cosmonaut Bertalan Farkas was wearing his air force issued Heuer during his space mission on Soyuz 36 and salyut 6.
Here is a photo in space:
And an image made recently showing him still wearing the watch.
Funny thing is that even though Sinn was said to be the first automatic chronograph in space we all know Pogue wore his Seiko auto chrono up in space before Sinn, but actually Heuer Montreal with Valjoux 7750 was in space in 1980, so also before Sinn. (I'm thinking to make a more detailed thread about it later on.)
Please do this. I have one of those! I'd love to read more about that :-)
This is the one I'd choose and wear myself money no object.For me personally, the Speedy Soyuz. The classic Speedmaster with a dial cut from a piece of Meteorite, what's not to like?
However I own/love this one too (much cheaper!)
I guess some of you knew this was coming
M
To anyone interested in buying one of these new....I saw one in the window of the Omega boutique opposite Selfridges only two weeks ago and tried it on, very nice...sadly it's £5300 and I'd only just bought a Black Bay the week beforeFor me personally, the Speedy Soyuz. The classic Speedmaster with a dial cut from a piece of Meteorite, what's not to like?
I love it but £3000 extra for a slice of meteorite? No thanks!
These
Classic Speedmaster would be my choice, but I do like the Seiko spring drive space watch if I had lots of cash!
http://www.seikowatches.com/world/hi...p_2010_02.html
Yes, but it's always wecome!
I guess some of you knew this was coming
M
Fab!
Me too!These
PS I am sure I read that the original Cosmonaute was 46 or 48mm? Huge for a watch back then. Also, the current version is tiny isnt it (41 or 43mm) - off to check my facts now!
EDIT - I think I must be imagining it - the original, I think, was 41.5mm, and is now 43mm (according to Breitling Source)
You may be thinking of the Cosmonaute Chrono-matic, which was a huge 47.5mm, probably one of the biggest watches available at the time.
The original Navitimer from 1952 was 40.something mm; the 1980s reboot grew it to 41.5mm. I don't know if the first Cosmonautes were the same size, I doubt they would have been any different at the time, as they were basically customised Navitimers with 24-hour gearing.
...but what do I know; I don't even like watches!
I've got one of these - a bit of a frippery, but absolutely superb in the metal. Exceptional quality throughout. I'll take some pics later. http://www.luxurybazaar.com/items/it...ood_Black.html
I had thought that the forum was united on the theory that the Bulova Accutron was the original and best?
Speedy Pro 321.
Most of the other "space watches" were worn on what was basically the inside of a bus.
Speedy Pro's were worn on the majority of EVA's and on the Moon.
Cheers,
Neil.
There's a fascinating Venn diagram overlap between watch nerds and space geeks, and I'm happy to say I'm plumb in the middle of it. However, it does lead to some really savage arguments (see the comments on Jake's Rolex blog about astronauts and their GMTs).
My thinking is this. If you're an astronaut, you can wear whatever watch you like and I'm not going to argue with you. Everyone else's opinion is just tyre kicking (or rather, rocket kicking).
Seiko spacewalk deserves a mention but I think personally would have to go with the speedmaster (even if the marker at 12 looks a bit like a willy)
I'm in the Speedmaster camp.
How about the most under-rated ?
My favourite - the Yema Spationaute III Aragatz - as worn by French and Soviet cosmonautes, including Jean-Loup Chretien (first French space-walk) and Sergei Krikalev (most hours spent in space) on various joint missions to MIR between 1988 - 1992. Powered by Seiko 7A38 15 jewel quartz chrono' movement - so pretty accurate.
Few more pics of mine in this thread: http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...=1#post3521380
I have a Navitimer but recently have fallen in love with the Speedy!!
It's the Strella for me ,but only because it's my only space watch...and it was worn outside the 'bus' ;)
Last edited by Dentsmithy; 20th May 2015 at 21:01.
That's true but the thread asks specifically about space watches as well as moon watches, of which there are only two...Speedy Pro 321.
Most of the other "space watches" were worn on what was basically the inside of a bus.
Speedy Pro's were worn on the majority of EVA's and on the Moon.
...but what do I know; I don't even like watches!
The strurmaski was worn inside in 61, the strela on the outside in 66 so its the only first space watch, the moonwatch will always be the speedy pro....
Revisiting the history of the Omega Speedmaster with the astronauts who wore them
“Well, that was the last burn… What we had to do was get back in the proper quarter to come back in and make a safe landing because we were still a little bit off. The Command Module of course, was completely dead. We used the Lunar Module as the life boat, it was the landing engine of the Lunar Module we used to make the corrections. So what we had to use was the Omega watch to time the 14 second burn of the Lunar Module engine, to get back into the proper quarter to get back in to make a proper landing.”
X-33 gets my vote - see under 'review' section why.
Martyn
Last edited by MartynJC (UK); 21st May 2015 at 08:49.
And for those on more of a budget there was the Seiko A829 , a favourite of Shuttle crew in the early 80s...Rotating bezel changed the functions available.
( pic nicked from the pocketcalculatorshow site )
That's a lovely set indeed.
The strurmaski was worn inside in 61, the strela on the outside in 66 so its the only first space watch, the moonwatch will always be the speedy pro....
..which you own a 1/3 of now.... I only still have the Speedy from that bunch now (and the postcards somewhere)
Ah, I wasn't sure if that was mine or one of your others!
Lets not forget this one
Didn't you buy that LTD edition from me?, years ago?Lets not forget this one
Edit, trade for the Wempe, with a Sinn U1 included, that was it :)
Daddel.
Got a new watch, divers watch it is, had to drown the bastard to get it!
Hi Richard
No mate this one was a buy from a guy in Germany,
Cheers
I did mean the one with the space picture without seconds hand.
Also long gone from your collection :)
Daddel.
Got a new watch, divers watch it is, had to drown the bastard to get it!
No mention of the Flightmaster yet?
On the Apollo - Soyuz mission cosmonaut Alexei Leonov wore a Flightmaster...
Going back a long way in time Kevin Campbell, a past member on this very site had a flown Speedy from a Russian cosmonaut complete with photos and declaration - very cool.
Cheers,
Neil.
Relevant post from hodinkee yesterday:
http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/revisit...-who-wore-them
Edit: woops didn't realize this had been posted in this thread already..
Yours indeed - I only have the white dial one left (the one on the right)...
I also had an early late-50s one once too ...
http://www.netgrafik.ch/russian_space_watches.htm
Last edited by Xantiagib; 22nd May 2015 at 08:09.
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