Remember 2011? I sure do. I was a full-time graduate student and a full-time HODINKEE'er. I remember going to visit the Vacheron Constantin manufacture for the first time and being shown this picture ?a black and white image of a watch with the Apollo 14 logo on it. At the time, even Vacheron itself didn't know what the watch was or why it was made ?but they knew it should exist somewhere. I immediately wrote the post here and sent an email to Eric Wind saying, "We need to find this watch!" Five years later, here it is.
The watch is very much real, and it is now, thanks to the folks at Christie's New York (including Eric in his position there) coming up for sale. What it is is an early and special yellow gold watch with painted dial given to only three people: Alan B. Shepard Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell, and Stuart A. Roosa, or the crew of Apollo 14.
ADVERTISEMENTIndeed, this watch was presented to the Apollo 14 astronauts in 1971 as a token of admiration from the citizens of Geneva, as they are prone to do for efforts of great achievement. Vacheron now confirms just three pieces were made ?it is reference 6351 ?though the details about the presentation are still relatively foggy.
Inside you will find Vacheron's lovely caliber 1003 manually wound time-only movement, and along with the sale will come a box and several presentation materials to astronaut Edgar Mitchell. This watch is one of those that always stuck with me through the years and now I am thrilled to know the rest of the story. Christie's will offer this watch in its December 6th, NYC sale. The catalog will be available for viewing Friday, November 11, 2016. It will be available here.
Also, I have been informed Mr. Shepard's watch also made an appearance in 2016. Details here.
Christies Vacheron-constantin A Unique Roger Smith A Breitling Raquel Welch And An Unusual Angelus Repeater 1253