60 years ago... Faith 7 May 1963, USAF Major Mercury astronaut Leroy Gordon “Gordo” Cooper is seen at the top of Pad 14 at Cape Canaveral looking over his one-man “Faith-7″ Mercury-Atlas spacecraft. Gordon Cooper choose to wear both his personal wrist watches, an Accutron Astronaut tuning fork GMT pilot watch at his right wrist and an Omega Speedmaster CK2998-4 manual winding chronograph at his left wrist. Both watches had a Jacoby Bender Champion steel mesh bracelet and Cooper compared his timepieces during the 34 hours 3 minutes 30 seconds long mission (22 orbits). In fact, both watches worked flawlessly. All Mercury astronauts received at least one Accutron wrist watch and thus far photos show that 8 of the 12 X-15 testpilots, among whom Neil Armstrong, wore an Accutron GMT pilot watch during X-15 hypersonic research flights. Accutron watches were worn during Mercury-Atlas 9, Gemini III, Gemini V, STS-7 and STS-51D spaceflight missions. Bulova had chosen the name “Accutron” meaning accuracy through electronics. Earlier in 1962, astronauts Donald Deke Slayton and Walter Wally Schirra were spotted wearing an Omega Speedmaster CK2998-4. However, Gordo Cooper wore his CK2998 most often, especially during NASA training between September 1962 and the actual Faith 7 mission in May 1963. Note the running chronograph hand on the Speedmaster. (Photo: NASA)
