Okay, so the other day, I got this random thought stuck in my head: what watch actually went up there, you know, to the moon? It sounds simple, right? But then I started thinking, how would I even know for sure? Lots of brands probably claim stuff.
So, I decided to do a little digging myself. First thing I did was just type the basic question into a search engine. Lots of results popped up, obviously. A name kept showing up: Omega Speedmaster. Okay, that’s a start.
But I didn’t want to just take the first answer. I wanted to know the story. How did that watch get picked? Was it just some marketing deal?
Finding the Real Story
Turns out, NASA was pretty serious about this back in the 60s. They didn’t just pick one off a shelf. I found out they actually went out and quietly bought watches from different brands. Just walked into stores, like regular folks, in Houston apparently. Sneaky.
They got watches from a few big names. I saw mentions of Rolex, Longines, and Hamilton alongside Omega. Then came the hard part: the tests. NASA put these watches through hell, basically.
- Extreme temperatures: They baked ’em and froze ’em.
- Shaking and impacts: Simulated the rocket launch vibrations and potential knocks.
- Vacuum: Tested them in conditions like outer space.
- Humidity, oxygen environment, noise… the list went on.
I read through some descriptions of these tests. It wasn’t just pass/fail; some watches totally failed spectacularly. Hands warping, crystals popping off, movements stopping dead.
Guess which one survived all this torture? Yep, the Omega Speedmaster Professional. It wasn’t necessarily the most accurate under normal conditions compared to some others maybe, but it was the only one that kept working reliably enough through all the crazy tests NASA threw at it.
The Official Choice
So, NASA officially picked it. It became the official watch for the astronauts. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the moon during Apollo 11, that was the watch they were issued.
There’s a little detail though. Armstrong actually left his Speedmaster inside the Lunar Module as a backup because the module’s own timer wasn’t working right. So, the first watch worn on the moon’s surface was actually on Buzz Aldrin’s wrist.
I also stumbled across some stuff about other watches used in space later, and even a bit of drama with another brand during a later Apollo mission, but the main one, the first one on the moon during that famous landing, was the Speedy.
So yeah, that’s what I found out. Started with a simple question and ended up learning about NASA’s crazy watch testing process. Pretty cool stuff. It wasn’t just marketing; that watch earned its spot.
