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Space Watches

Astronauts cannot use normal wrist watches what we use here in earth because of zero gravity and other extreme conditions encountered in space. The first space watch was made by First Moscow Watch Factory & the name of the watch was POLJOT "Shturmanskie".

"Shturmanskie" means Navigator's. On April 12th, 1961, this watch was used for the first time by Yuri Gagarin on his first flight to space. From 1964, First Moscow Watch Factory watches have been marked by their trade name, "POLJOT", which means 'flight' in Russian. In 1970's POLJOT launched Poljot 3133, a new chrono movement with 23 jewel movement & manual winding. This was said to be a modified version of the Swiss Valjoux 7734. User of Poljot 3133, V.V. Polyakov set a space record for the longest flight history.

The U.S space agencies selected OMEGA speedster as their brand of wrist watch for its astronauts. TAG Heuer became first Swiss made watch to be used in space. It was used by John Glenn, an an American astronaut in 1962, who used Heuer stopwatch when he piloted the Friendship 7, the first manned U.S orbital mission.

The Breitling Navitimer Cosmonaut was designed with a 24-hour dial to avoid confusion between AM and PM, which are meaningless in space. It was first worn in space by US astronaut Scott Carpenter on May 24, 1962.

Compiled By: Veera D'Souza

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