From there, the race to the Moon was on with the US lagging behind the Soviet Union.Īs NASA was organizing its second set of human spaceflight missions, known as Project Gemini, scientists called for bids from watchmakers to design a chronograph for the astronauts. While the Soviet Union would ultimately have the honor of being the first to put a human into space in 1961, the United States raised the stakes yet again with Project Mercury which, in 1962, successfully saw astronaut John Glenn orbit the Earth three times. Starting in 1955, the United States was in an aggressive Space Race with the Soviet Union the Cold War rivals doggedly flexed their power and competed to be the world’s best in spaceflight capability. How Omega Became the First Watch in Space In turn, the chronograph was expectedly adopted as a part of the pilot-turned-astronaut’s essential equipment. So, as NASA was ambitiously preparing to launch a man into space in the late 1950s, it was decided that only an intrepid test pilot could endure the foolhardy mission. Soon, chronographs were universally worn by commercial and military pilots and their flight crews. The pushers that started and stopped the stopwatch and the later addition of a rotating bezel allowed pilots to quickly calculate flight time, wind speeds, and fuel levels mid-air. In the early 20th century and with the rise of flight travel, chronograph watches (or watches with a stopwatch) were specially designed for pilots. ![]() We take a look at how the Omega Speedmaster transitioned from being a pilot’s watch to being the first watch on the moon and how it saved the lives of the astronauts aboard the Apollo 13. Since it became officially NASA-certified, the Speedmaster has been worn by history’s greatest astronauts and aboard the most groundbreaking missions including Apollo 11 and Apollo 13. The Omega Speedmaster has been an integral part of the space missions since the great Space Race began in 1955.
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