There has only ever been one personal watch which visited the moon and that watch was worn by Dave Scott on the Apollo 15 mission in 1971. Even though NASA’s official watch was the Omega Speedmaster, Dave Scott wore his own personal Bulova Wrist Chronograph – which he purchased for just $500!
The Bulova Moon Watch has now sold for $1,625,000 at an auction held by Boston-based RR Auction House.
Why Was This Watch Worn On The Moon
As usual for any NASA mission, astronauts were provided with Omega Speedmaster’s. However, on this mission Dave Scott decided to carry his own personal Bulova Wrist Chronograph as a backup.
It is understandable that Scott would want to take a backup watch with him as checking the time while on the moon is vital for all astronauts. The only way in which astronauts could tell how much oxygen was left in their life-support systems was by checking the time. This is one of the reasons why NASA were very stringent in choosing a specific watch partner for their missions.
For the first two moonwalks Scott used the standard issue Omega Speedmaster watch. But after returning to the cabin from the second moonwalk he noticed that the crystal of his watch had popped off. He then decided to use his own personal Bulova watch on the third moonwalk. The watch can be seen on his wrist when you look at the picture of Scott saluting the United States flag (pictured above).
Although there was never an official Bulova moon watch, NASA did make use of Bulova technology. Bulova Accutron devices were used on 46 NASA missions during the 1950’s and 1960’s, which demonstrates how highly thought of their devices were by NASA. On the first moon landing – the Apollo 11 mission – in 1969 an Accutron timer was used by NASA. The timer was placed in a communications relay device which was placed into the Sea of Tranquillity to help control data transmissions.
Selling The Bulova Moon Watch
The watch was sold at the RR Auction House in Boston. The reason that Dave Scott gave for selling the watch was so that he could help to raise money to support scholarships for the next generation of astronauts.
The watch was brought by a business mogul from Florida who managed to come out on top in the 12 minute bidding war. Paying $1,625,000 for a watch which was originally worth just $500! The price of $1,625,000 is the highest ever paid for an astronaut owned artefact. Bobby Livingstone, executive vice president of RR Auction said that the watch is “worth what it sold for.”
Along with the watch, which shows wear and tear from the time it spent on the moon, there was a 5 page letter from Dave Scott. In the letter Scott explains that “among the decisions I made, the monitoring of time was perhaps most important.”
Images: NASA
