Other 'Achievement' or 'famous' watches?

[julian2002]

After reading the Smiths / Rolex Everest thread with great interest I got to pondering other watches that have been attached to human achievement.
The most personal to me would be Thor Heyerdahl's Eterna or maybe Rolex or possibly Longines as my grandfather was an avid sailor, building 9 boats throughout his life.
However, there are plenty of others that could be considered just as important or fascinating as Hillary's or Heyerdahl, even the story of Newman's Daytona is enthralling.
So which watches connected to human achievement (or fame) tickle your fancy? Is there a mystery attached to their provenance or location?

For me as stated before it's Heyerdahl's Eterna. Heyerdahl posited that there was a lot of commonality between Polynesian and South American culture and that Polynesians were of 'Incan' descent, to prove this he built a 14 foot boat out of balsa wood and made the 4,300 mile journey himself. The story goes that one of the few concessions to modernity was that he contacted Eterna and commissioned a timepiece specifically for the voyage, however in the Kontiki museum the timepiece displayed is a Longines and an Eterna identified as Heyerdahl's had never shown up.

[Sinnlover]

I think a watch went to the moon. Finding out which one would be cool...
:-)
The glycine Airman (also went in to space) is a watch and story I like
Designed by the owner of Glycine after a chat with a Thai Airways crew on the flight deck.



I also think his watch would have a few stores to tell if it could. Pretty sure he would have been wearing an A11 when he first broke the sound barrier though.

[Speedy2254]

I think a watch went to the moon. Finding out which one would be cool...
:-)
The glycine Airman (also went in to space) is a watch and story I like
Designed by the owner of Glycine after a chat with a Thai Airways crew on the flight deck.



I also think his watch would have a few stores to tell if it could. Pretty sure he would have been wearing an A11 when he first broke the sound barrier though.

Chuck Yeager did ads for Rolex later on.

[forpetesake]

I care not who did what whenever whilst wearing whatever.
My Casio GW-M5600 gets me through thick and thin every working day without any fuss.
That qualifies it as my 'achievement' watch. I'm sure we all have our own.

[Gerald Genta]

I think the Omega speedmaster would have to be up there for most.

Edit: Sinnlover beat me to it

[bobbee]

Bulova have a few.
The Lone Eagle model of Lindbergh's 1927 Atlantic flight fame.
The 'Round The World' model worn by Post and Gatty on their famous 1931 circumnavigation flight.
The 1925 watch presented to Baseball Hero Bucky Harris by President Coolidge, leading to the long-lived 'President' line of models.
The Accutron Astronaut models used by flyers, astronauts and also various Accutron satellite and space vehicle clocks and recording instruments.
The famous 'Moon' watch.

[abraxas]

Cartier Santos
Longines Weem
Universal Polerouter
Rolex Deep Sea

[abraxas]

The Harwood on the first round the world airship journey (this is my favourite).

http://www.harwood-watches.com/en/history/index.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4jq7oRxw-g

[animalone]

Although it isn't connected to any landmark achievements in exploration.
One watch that has fascinated me for a while now is the Brook & Son Submarine.
Although I'm still surprised at how little know it is, considering how advanced it was for its age.
Here we have a watch that was not only "Waterproof" a decade before the Oyster case but also antimagnetic 20 years before the Tissot claim.

(not my watches sadly, sill on the hunt for one of my own)

David Boettcher has done some wonderful research on it and his blog is well worth a read.
http://www.vintagewatchstraps.com/blogsubmarine.php

[Der Amf]

well worth a read.
http://www.vintagewatchstraps.com/blogsubmarine.php

Truly

[Mr Curta]

Probably worth its own thread. Q&A with DS here: https://www.fratellowatches.com/frat...ut-dave-scott/

[Chinnock]

Sinn 140 first automatic chronograph in space.

[sweets]

Sinn 140 first automatic chronograph in space.

Claimed but disproved, Seiko got there first.
Dave

[Saint-Just]

Cousteau also had spirotechnique, doxa... and the ploprof of course

[carvass]

Cousteau also had spirotechnique, doxa... and the ploprof of course

A good read about:

Cousteau and the timepieces of the Calypso team:

https://monochrome-watches.com/coust...o-team-part-1/

[synequano]

Probably this particular Panerai 3646....

The story is available on Wikipedia

[Mr Curta]

Bin Laden's F-91W

[ed335d]

William Pogue's 'Pogue'

https://www.dreamchrono.com/2013/11/seiko-6139-pogue/

Mick Jagger and the 6309 and Heuer Carrera

[Chris_in_the_UK]

Mike Horn - Panerai.

[SimonK]

Tudor Oyster Prince - British North Greenland Expedition (1952-54).

[NickRed71]

Tudor Oyster Prince - British North Greenland Expedition (1952-54).

Indeed, specifically the 7809 reference. Here’s one Tudor made a short while later.


There’s a good thread on the BNGE Tudors on VintageRolexForum. There’s an endurance element to BNGE that none of the Everest expeditions can match, as the two missions each lasted for one year.


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[bedlam]

Dave Scott - his Speedmaster was the first watch to fail on a moon walk (popped the crystal) and was replaced with a Bulova

[M4tt]

Dave Scott - his Speedmaster was the first watch to fail on a moon walk (popped the crystal) and was replaced with a Bulova

I’ve always been a bit suspicious of this. He’s the only one who took a reserve watch and the only one to have a watch fail. I remember doing a research methods course that included a bit on the statistics of combinng the likelihood of events and the likelihood drops remarkably rapidly...

[Mr Curta]

Sturmanskie would certainly have you believe that Gagarin wore the 1МЧЗ, and in the famous image below it looks more like the Sturmanskie than the Pobeda with the striking 'Chapaev' dial design. It would be interesting to know what inscription, if any, is used to describe the watch on display in the Cosmonautics Memorial Museum. I hope to visit one day.




There are a few later images where he is clearly wearing the Pobeda. Maybe it was presented after the event.

[M4tt]

First spacewalk (in export version):

[gbn13]

Roger Smith’s Rolex Explorer.

[Piemuncher22]

A couple of watches spring to mind;
I remember a little while ago a watch came up for auction which was once owned by an escapee of Stalag Luft III. I remember thinking at the time, that would be a lovely thing to own. The other is of T. E. Lawrence’s Omega which I think now resides in the Omega museum.



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[konlew]

Breitling Emergency (first version), saved some lifes.

[PhilT]

I got a fair amount of grief from my mother for wearing a Timex Ironman on my wedding day (went through a lot with several variants of that watch). Clinton did me a favour...

[RAJEN]

I got a fair amount of grief from my mother for wearing a Timex Ironman on my wedding day (went through a lot with several variants of that watch). Clinton did me a favour...

Clinton is a proper watch buff
Here is an article about his watches


https://www.google.com/amp/s/deploya...-states/%3famp

He has many others as well including several Kobolds and a Frank Muller.

[Mystery Scott]

Ian Fleming’s 1016 must have seen some decent action in various ways.


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[M4tt]

Longines/Wittnauer Weems MkI:



As worn by pretty well anyone who flew anywhere in the thirties and actually arrived. It wasn't just a watch, it was a navigation philosophy.

[M4tt]

Just to get the other non radioactive version in, here's the watch worn by Илья Курякин:

[ghu1967]

Maybe stretching the ‘watch’ theme a bit, but there can’t be many more revolutionary than John Harrison’s Marine Chronometer H4.


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[mindforge]

Great thread, thanks for posting. Have always loved my dad's all original Ed White that he got from his dad.

[JoeyTudor]

As part of my research for an article I wrote on the sole surviving Land Rover from the London-Singapore First Overland expedition in 1955-56, I was lucky enough to interview one of the expedition members, Tim Slessor. The book he authored on the expedition is widely regarded as one of the greatest travel books ever written.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxfo...ern_Expedition

While reading the book, I noticed a mention of the Smiths watches that the expedition party was supplied with, so I made sure to ask about them during my correspondence with Tim. I had a faint hope that he might still own/wear the watch, but he told me that it broke after ten years of hard field use - after returning from First Overland, Tim went on several other expeditions (writing books for them too). He’s not a watch enthusiast and the watch was merely a tool to him, so when it failed it was disposed of one way or another. He couldn’t quite remember the circs; this was 50 years ago after all!

I’m no Smiths expert, but I believe these would’ve been Everest models as the dates of the trip roughly tally with the launch IIRC, and it would seem a no-brainer to link then PR-wise. I sent Tim a link to various Smiths models but he couldn’t pick a particular one out as being recognisable as the models the party was given. I would love to find out and treat myself to one as a memory of my time researching/writing the Land Rover’s story and spending several enjoyable hours interviewing Tim, but if he doesn’t know I don’t know who will for sure today! Perhaps someone with more Smiths knowledge than me could dig into the numerous pictures from the expedition and have a stab at identifying them...

If you’ve made it this far into my post, then you should probably consider reading his book on the expedition - witty, well-written and an insight into the world as it was in the mid-50s. Only a few quid off Amazon, I’m sure i can post/PM a link if anyone’s struggling to find it.

Pic is of the six expedition team members and all their kit (including six Smiths watches in there somewhere)!




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