Gagarin's flight[edit]
On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. And since, it is absolutely unclear what watch he wore during the first human space flight. Was it a Sturmanskie, a Pobeda or even a Rodina.[1][2] Today's owner of the brand Sturmanskie (Swiss company - Volmax, not PMChZ), is promoting the story that he wore a Sturmanskie that he got when graduating from his pilot school in 1957 in Orenburg, though this Sturmaskie model was distributed to graduating students only up to 1953. In 1993, another Gagarin space watch was sold by Sotheby's for 25,875 dollars. It was a "Rodina". Probably, the most reliable source of information is the Moscow Museum of Cosmonauts, and they display the watch he wore during his flight: a Pobeda[3]
wikipedia
1st space walk[edit]
In 1965 cosmonaut Alexei Leonov wore a FMWF Strela (transliteration of СТРЕЛА, which actually means "Arrow") chronograph during his historic first space walk, thus cementing Poljot's place in space history. As with Gagarin's first flight, Leonov's watch was not specially commissioned. The Strela replaced the Shturmanskie as the standard issue pilots watch. In the late 1970s, the Strela itself was replaced by a new breed of chronographs based around the (then new) 3133 movement (an original Russian movement similar in functionality to the Swiss Valjoux 7734, but with higher number of jewels 23 vs 17 and lever movement operating at 21,600 bph vs 18,000 bph). Poljot 3133-based watches continued where their predecessors left off and were taken into space by cosmonauts from Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine. On the wrist of cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, a Poljot 3133-based watch set a space record for the longest space flight in history.
