A different kind of emu...courtesy of Russ Fortson
THE SPEEDY PRO CAL.321(CONTINUED - PAGE 4 OF 4)
"Shute! You park your new car well away from trouble
and some bozo puts a scratch in the paintwork!"
The Answers!
WELL, HOW DID YOU GO? Did you manage to find any 'deliberate mistakes'? I hope you didn't find any non-deliberate ones!
Page 1
'the Speedy Pro, the first (and only) watch worn on the moon.' Whilst it has been established the Speedy Pro was indeed the first watch worn on the moon, there is strong evidence to suggest (despite Omega's advertising) that it is not the only one. David Scott, an astronaut on Apollo 15, stated in a letter that he wore his backup watch (a Waltham chronograph) on his third EVA (extra-vehicular activity or in this case, a moonwalk) because the crystal on his Omega had "popped off" during the previous EVA. Information from Chuck Maddox's website.)
'It was only 34 years previously that the Atlantic had been flown for the first time—by Charles Lindbergh in 1927 in the Spirit of St Louis.' Lindbergh was the first to fly the Atlantic non-stop and solo, but the very first people to fly completely across the 'pond' were the 6-man crew of the US Navy flying boat NC-4 in May, 1919. However, this flight took 19 days, with multiple stops along the way. One month later, British aviators Alcock and Brown flew non-stop in their Vickers Vimy from Newfoundland to Connemara, Ireland in 15 hours 57 minutes, becoming the first to do the crossing non-stop.
'Corrigan's Jewelery Store' It is most likely true that a flight equipment purchaser from NASA did buy at least one Omega Speedmaster (and possibly four other brands of chronograph) from Corrigan's in 1961, and the store manager's name was Leon Davis. However, the description of the encounter between 'Tony Carretta' and Mr Davis came entirely from my imagination.
"Hmmmm. Manual wind or automatic?" A watch retailer who knew his stuff would never have asked this question, as automatic chronographs didn't exist in 1961; three manufactures, Zenith-Movado, Seiko and a consortium consisting of Breitling/Buren/Hamilton/Heuer-Leonidas and Dubois-Dupraz, all showed their new auto-winding chronograph designs at the Basel Watch Fair of 1969.
'Apollo 13' There are many conflicting accounts of who actually did the timing of the critical burn and how long it was. The account I have given of Apollo 13's journey is the culmination of sifting through the many NASA documents (which themselves are often contradictory) available on the web, and coming up with the most consistent story. To my best belief, it happened the way I've written it.
It's a little-known fact that in the movie 'Apollo 13', the part of CapCom2 was played by Ned Vaughn, an avid watch collector and proud owner of a mint condition 1967 Speedy Pro. Furthermore, Ned is a cousin several times removed of Kevin Bacon, who played Jack Swigert in the movie. The only part of this paragraph which is fiction is that Ned Vaughn is not a cousin of Kevin Bacon, twice removed. As far as I know that is. Mind you, they say that everyone is connected to Kevin Bacon within six degrees of separation...
Page 2
'...in 1957 it was adopted as the basis of a new, tough sports model, the Speedmaster, complementing the existing Seamaster, Railmaster and Landmaster ranges' There was no Omega Landmaster—it's a current Seiko model.
'Unbeknownst to Omega, NASA had bought five different makes of chronographs off-the-shelf for testing in 1964' NASA bought the five chronographs in 1961, but only three makes underwent the 'torture tests' in 1965: Longines Wittnauer, Rolex and Omega.
'In 1968 it phased out the cal. 321 and replaced it with the cal. 861, another Lemania design. Referring to the picture (left),..' A bit picky this one, but the picture is actually of a cal. 1861, not 861. The 1861 has the nylon brake part. From 1997 the nylon part was replaced by a metal one and the movement was rhodium plated to 'look nice' through the standard display back.
'Not so obvious is the extra two jewels added, bringing the total up to 19.' Only one jewel was added, making 18 in all.
Page 3
'(1 ångström = 10-12 metre.)' Actually, 1 ångström = 10-10 metre. You'd have to be pretty good to get that one!
'That's why the Omega X-33, the Casio G-shock and the Timex Ironman are used by NASA for EVA's today.' These digital watches are certainly approved for use by astronauts inside a space craft, but as far as I am aware the Speedmaster is still the only watch approved for use in space outside a space craft.
So that's it. I hope you enjoyed the read and had a bit of fun along the way. Those of you getting 6 or more right deserve a special prize, which you can get by clicking here. You may be flogging a dead horse, though.
My thanks go to all my sources of information, and to those who have graciously given me permission to use their pictures. Here's to the next time.
©Les Zetlein October 2002. All rights reserved.
