The First Automatic Watch in Space
In 1965 and 1966, astronaut Pete Conrad wore his personal Airman into orbit, proving it could handle anything.
The Astronaut
Charles "Pete" Conrad wasn't handed a Glycine Airman for his mission, he already owned one. Long before NASA selected him as an astronaut, Conrad flew as a U.S. Navy test pilot, and somewhere along the way the Airman became his watch of choice, worn on his wrist through years of test flights. When NASA assigned him to the Gemini program, he didn't leave it behind. It went with him, first to the launch pad, then into orbit.
Gemini 5
In August 1965, Conrad and fellow astronaut Gordon Cooper lifted off aboard Gemini 5 for what would become a new endurance record, nearly eight days in orbit, longer than any spaceflight before it. Conrad kept his personal Airman on his wrist for the entire mission, trusting it to track time through eight days of orbital sunrises and sunsets. When the capsule splashed down in the Atlantic and the crew was recovered by the USS Lake Champlain, the Airman was still there, fastened and running. It had just become one of the first automatic watches ever worn in space.
Gemini 11
A year later, Conrad returned to orbit as commander of Gemini 11, and this time the Airman's test would be even more extreme. During the mission's spacewalk, performed by Conrad's crewmate Richard Gordon, Conrad's Airman was directly exposed to the vacuum of open space for an extended stretch, no capsule, no pressurized cabin, nothing between the watch and space itself. It kept running. Few watches, before or since, have been asked to prove themselves in conditions like that.
The Proof
Two flights, one spacewalk, and one Airman that came home from both. Conrad's mission didn't just make for a good story, it stood as real proof of what we'd built the Airman to do since 1953: keep working under pressure, whatever the source. Today, every Airman we build still carries that same standard forward, built to the same original philosophy that got one watch through orbit and an unprotected walk in space. It's a piece of our history that keeps finding new believers, generation after generation.
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