I've been skirting around the Spaceman watch range for a while without showing the original design. So today I'm finally blogging one of the originals.
The Spaceman watch was released at the Basel fair in 1972. Four series were released with the oval original coming in 6 colours. Inspired by 1969 moon landing /launch of the first space vehicles, Andre Le Marquand was asked to create a range of unique watches by the owner and the director of the Swiss Catena Bulle watch company. This design was what he came up with and they were a surprise success, with overall about 150,000 being sold.
This design was available with or without date and day, and automatic and mechanical versions. This one is the mechanical version with a date just below the 4pm mark.
This one does not have the correct strap, as the violet dial in version should have a white strap. It could be that the strap has been switched (as they go brittle and split), or it is a copy (of which many were made in Hong Kong). The original straps were made out of an artificial leather called Corfam and manufactured by Dupont. They had an unusual shape with the three prongs going into the case, and were in one piece fitting around the centre of the movement.
The back is made of fiberglass, and has an embossed picture of and astronaut.
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