A space age way to look at the time...

[Lew Archer]

Yesterday, I walked into Feldmar's, a truly great AD in Los Angeles. Browsing the Breitling display case, I spotted a handsome Navitimer...

Not just any Navitimer, but a limited edition Cosmonaute, a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the 1962 Mercury mission in which Astronaut Scott Carpenter orbited the earth three times aboard the Aurora 7 capsule. During that historic flight, he wore a manual wound Breitling Navitimer, but with a 24 hour display.

The 2012 Cosmonaute is a also manual winding watch, with Breitling's own B02 movement and a 24 hour display. The Aurora 7 insignia is engraved on the case back. This particular Cosmonaute had the black leather strap with the deployment clasp. Very handy and extremely comfortable.

Around 1973, as a little boy, I stood at my father's side in a New York City Jewelry store on the Upper West Side while he purchased an Omega Speedmaster Professional. My father showed me the engraving on that manual winding watch's caseback---which proclaimed it was flight qualified for all manned space missions and was the first watch worn on the moon.

In that moment, my love of watches was born. My dad shared that love, but particularly liked a watch with a story. What a story the Cosmonaute has to tell.

I recall the Apollo missions vividly. As a little kid, I'd watch the televised launches while wearing my astronaut's costume...dad set a dining room chair on its back for me to sit in, astronaut style, and would shake the chair to simulate G force as we watched the real launch occur. He wanted me to remember history being made and he succeeded.

Scott Carpenter's flight was two years before my birth, but I was captivated by the Mercury story told in Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff" and the film version of that book.

This 2012 Cosmonaute surely has "the Right Stuff". It took my breath way. So, I took another breath and bought it.

Here are a couple of quick photos: