5 legendary wristwatches that went to space

Not so long ago, the wristwatch used to be a proper tool. Used by professionals in different environments, and for a wide variety of jobs, the watch wasn’t just part of someone’s “look”, but also an essential item. A recreational diver (as well as a professional one) would use their dive watch, while a scientist working in a laboratory might use a watch with extra magnetic resistance.

In fact, wristwatches used to be marketed as such, e.g. chronographs with a pulsometer scale on the bezel were pitched to doctors, because they would use one to calculate the pulse rate. And once recreational sports like mountaineering, diving and spelunking took off in the 1950s and 60s, purpose-built watches like the Seiko Willard, or the Rolex Explorer II were marketed as kit essentials.

In fact, watches were important enough that when the “Space Race” between the Soviet Union and the US began in the 1960s, watches became an important part of the story. So, what are the watches that went to space? Well, there are many including, in modern times, Casios and Apple Watches. But for sheer iconic status, you can’t beat these five.

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Strela Chronograph

If the narrative of space exploration is too US-centric, then so is the story of watches in space. And while everyone knows that the Omega Speedmaster was the first watch on the moon in 1969, in 1965, Russian-made Strela became the first watch to be worn during a spacewalk, by Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov. Built by the Moscow Watch Factory (which had also supplied the first man in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, with his Sturmanskie watch). A chronograph was an indispensable tool for the space-men, since so much of their work had to be meticulously timed, from oxygen levels to timing rocket burns.

Breitling Navitimer Cosmonaute

By the early 1960s, the Breitling Navitimer had been established as one of the most trusted aviation watches for pilots. The key factor that made the watch a hit with the pros was its circular slide rule, allowing pilots to make on-the-fly in-flight calculations. In 1961, US cosmonaut M. Scott Carpenter approached Breitling to make him a purpose-built Navitimer, this one with a 24-hour chronograph scale (instead of the standard 12-hour scale), because it’s impossible to otherwise tell morning from night in space. Breitling obliged, and in 1961, the Cosmonaute became the first Swiss chronograph in space, when Carpenter flew to space on the Aurora 7 rocket.

Omega Speedmaster Professional

NASA had been tinkering with the idea of selecting an official watch—a chronograph of course—for its astronauts, and the process speeded up once Carpenter took the Navitimer to space. The space organization invited brands to participate, and received watches from Omega, Rolex and Longines. After rigorous durability tests, NASA settled on the Omega Speedmaster, a watch released in 1959 for motorsport enthusiasts and drivers. From 1965, the Speedmaster Professional became a part of the official gear issued to astronauts of the Gemini and Apollo missions. Thus, the watch featured on the wrists of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin when they touched down on the moon in 1969. A new horological icon was born.

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Bulova Lunar Chronograph

While the official Speedmasters issued by NASA had to be returned to the organization once astronauts returned to Earth, members of the expeditions were allowed to carry personal watches too. During the Apollo 15 mission in 1971, astronaut Dave Scott’s Speedmaster’s crystal popped out during an EVA (extra-vehicular activity) on the Lunar Rover. He put on his personal Bulova chronograph to help him finish the mission. Thus, it became the only other known watch to be worn on the moon’s surface.

Seiko 6139 “Pogue”

It wasn’t just Swiss watches that were worn in space, but a Japanese trailblazer made it there too. In 1969, Seiko had become one of three brands to successfully release an automatic chronograph—the others were Zenith and Heuer—and it was thefirst of the three to come out that year. By the early 70s, automatic chronographs were the rage—the Speedmaster was a mechanical chronograph—and surely enough, these watches were favoured by aviators and astronauts because these didn’t need to be manually wound each day.

In the 1970s, NASA’s focus shifted from moon landings to space stations, and the first of these was the Skylab. Astronauts would stay in these stations and conduct scientific experiments for months on end, in a testament to new space tech and human endurance. During its final crewed mission between November 1973-February 1974, William R. Pogue wore the Seiko 6139-6005, making it the first automatic chronograph in space. This funky watch, with its cushion case, brilliant gold dial and a “Pepsi” blue-and-red bezel, attained iconic status. Fittingly, fans call it the “Pogue”.

Once, wristwatches were more than accessories—they were essential tools built to withstand the harshest environments imaginable. Nowhere was this truer than in space, where extreme temperatures, zero gravity, and relentless radiation demanded unwavering precision and resilience. These timepieces weren’t worn for style; they were mission-critical instruments, used to measure experiments, time rocket burns, and track day and night in a place where such markers vanish. In the golden age of space exploration, watches were engineered as tools for human endeavour—purposeful, reliable, and tough. Their presence in space serves as a powerful reminder of when function, not fashion, defined what we wore on our wrists.

Handwound is a monthly column on watches and watchmaking.

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