The personal Bulova Chronograph watch wore by the American astronaut Dave Scott while he was on the moon has sold for whopping $1,625,000 in an auction.
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Given the final selling price, RR Auction’s exec VP, Bobby Livingston, unsurprisingly said: “We are extremely pleased with the results and honored to have been able to offer such an historically important timepiece – the only American-made watch that was worn on the surface of the Moon”. Instead, the watch was mounted to an experiment that orbited, but didn’t land on the moon. The sale, which opened at $50,000 online on October. 15, ended Thursday evening during a live auction where the victor and his competing bidders participated by phone.
But after his second moonwalk, Scott noticed that the crystal of his Omega popped off when he returned to the cabin, so he strapped on his personal backup watch, the Bulova. It is not that other astronauts who stepped on the moon have not worn their timepieces, but generally they are issued by NASA and are normal Omega Speedmasters.
As far as astronaut relics are concern, Scott’s watch is so far the most expensive artifact sold ever, shattering the record set in 2001, when Astronaut Charles Conrad’s cuff checklist was sold for a huge amount of $1.3 million. The watch also evidences significant wear from splashdown and recovery and its use while on the surface of the moon. The watch was sold by Boston-based RR Auction house.
Scott did not want to go against the norms and has worn the NASA-given watch for his first two moonwalks.
It has only a Velcro and cloth strap but was sold at auction for £1 million ($1.55 million). Among the decisions I made, the monitoring and use of time was perhaps the most important… Although the watch is not in good condition now, but apart from being rare, it played a crucial role in the safety of the mission as time was a very crucial parameter. Back in 1912, Bulova was the first company to have standardized production of watches. The mission landed near Hadley rille, in an area of the Mare Imbrium called Palus Putredinus (Marsh of Decay). Commander David Scott and Lunar Module Pilot James Irwin spent three days on the Moon, including 18½ hours outside the spacecraft on lunar extra-vehicular activity (EVA).
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The Apollo 15 mission was Scott’s last lunar flight where the crew found the 4.5-million-year-old Genesis Rock, one of Apollo program’s most famous rocks.
