Watch Out, But Back In

Watch Out, But Back In

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Way back in 1968, NASA astronaut Donn F Eisele was getting ready for his mission on his first and only spaceflight as command module pilot on board Apollo 7. Eisele was given an Omega Speedmaster Professional Chronograph for the 10-day, 20-hour flight that also saw Wally Schirra and Walt Cunningham, put the Apollo command module through its paces while orbiting Earth 163 times from October 11-22, 1968.

The Omega watch was part of each astronaut’s gear. Starting from the Gemini programme, all the NASA astronauts were given chronographs to time mission events in space and after NASA tested and selected the Omega Speedmaster as its flight-qualified watch, each astronaut was given one. In fact, along with Eisele, Schirra and Cunningham too were issued Speedmaster watches to wear with their spacesuits and other mission attire. NASA numbered and engraved each Speedmaster with part and serial numbers. Eisele’s chronograph was inscribed with the part number common to other NASA Speedmaster watches, SEB12100039-002, and its unique serial number was ‘34’. Incidentally, Eisele also wore a personal Omega Speedmaster on Apollo 7, engraved with the serial number 38. That Chronograph was sold by Sotheby's in 2007 for $204,000.