This New Watch Is Being Purpose-Built for Space Exploration—and It’s Not an Omega

When you think spatial exploration and watchesA name immediately comes to my mind: Omega. Since his Speedmaster Chronograph was selected by Nasa Half a century ago, it became synonymous with travel in space. The calendar of a 13 -second engine burns to save Apollo 13 has cemented its role in the history of space, and Omega did not fail a single opportunity to deepen the partnership, to officially appoint it Moonwatch to create endless commemorative limited editions (even if it is in no way the only watch Leaving our planet.)

Now, with Private space flight Proliferating and inhabited missions to the moon Back on the agenda of NASAA Californian start-up wants to establish a new standard for space watches. Barrelhand, whose watches rely on expertise in 3D printing and materials science, says that his Monolith will be the only watch goal for spatial exploration.

“”Space is the most severe environment we have ever been going, “explains the founder Karel Bachand.” When we did it 50 years ago, there were no tools for that. NASA just tried to find standard watches that were the best available. When the speedmaster was selected, it was never designed with space in mind, it turned out to be the tests better than the others. improvement.

Bachand says that even during the tests, NASA engineers reported that Speedmaster’s precision suffered under extreme temperatures or acceleration, and that there were also other known problems. “Lume scalded,” explains Bachand, “or the strap was signed with the dust of the moon, because it’s Velcro. There are tons of improvement opportunities, but in the past 50 years, there has been no innovation, especially for a key tool that is life or death in space exploration. ”

Omega would say that his speedmaster Skywalker X-33 The model, which has been tested and qualified for use in space by the European space agency, is the modern response to speedmaster. But he has some shortcomings – for example, he is not certified for EVA (additional vehicle activity).

“The X-33 was an excellent step forward,” explains Bachand, “but is only evaluated for intra-vehicular use due to electronics on board. The display of liquid crystals was essentially frozen on a space step. You need mechanical performance; Something that can keep track of time when all other systems fail. ”

Quartz watches such that the X-33 would also be vulnerable to higher levels of radiation in space, which can damage various electronic components. A mechanical watch does not have such a problem, but must be able to operate in a more extreme range of temperatures than it would never be confronted with the earth.