Breitling Cosmonaute The history and development of a legend

[george_]

The Cosmonaute began life over forty years ago as a 24-hour version of the much-loved Navitimer pilot's watch. The following year it was worn in space during the second orbital flight by an American astronaut. Sadly, when the time came for NASA to choose the watch to be issued to astronauts for the later flights leading up to the first moon landing in 1969, and beyond, the Cosmonaute was not in the running. Ironically, one of its most desirable and iconic features, the slide rule, precluded the water and air tightness thought by NASA to be so necessary for a watch to be issued for use in a low-pressure environment; the Cosmonaute and the 12-hour Breitling Navitimer were not seriously considered. The watch that won the honour was of course the Omega Speedmaster, a watch without the low case-hermeticity of the Breitlings. And it was the Lémania 1873/1877 movement as used in the Speedmaster that was chosen by Breitling to power the revised Cosmonaute from the 1980s until it was updated to the current automatic flyback version.

But let's go back to the beginning of this story...


The First Cosmonautes - refs 806 and 809

1959
In 1959 Lt Cmdr Scott Carpenter was selected as one of seven astronauts for the NASA Mercury program. Carpenter was a US Navy test pilot who had flown in combat in the Korean war and who wore a Breitling Navitimer (12-hour version) during the 1950's. After selection he contacted Breitling and suggested they make a 24-hour version of the Navitimer pilot's watch.




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