[Camguy]

Holy sh#t...they actually sent one of these into orbit.

Jacob & Co., Bucherer Blue

 

[Camguy]

If they can send old people with a lot of money up, it can't be that much out of Jacob & Co's piggy bank to send a watch, especially when you say it's for charity. With enough money, you can send all manner of rich kids to space. I'm sure the crew would rather deal with something that doesn't say stupid things along for the ride. Heck, this watch has gone where many toothbrushes have gone before.

No doubt, but I think it's pretty impressive that delicate, tour de force of an astrolabe can survive a freakin' rocket launch regardless of the ticket price. They didn't float it up gently on a nice pretty sliver balloon (cough...Fortis...cough).

 

[Camguy]

I'm sure it wasn't bolted to the platform or in any way held so that it felt the bulk of the shock and vibration from the launch. It would be pretty easy to mitigate... even having someone just wear it would provide a lot of shock and vibe isolation. And you could isolate and cushion it a lot more than that if need be.

As were the Speedmasters on the wrists of Neil, Buzz, and Ed, and they're damn near worshipped. 7g is 7g, not to mention the noise...an intense vibration itself...and reentry's gotta be quite a ride.

I mean, look at the thing! I think it's one of the ugliest watches ever made, but sorry...it's an horological coup de maître

 

[Camguy]

It is... but they don't get anywhere near that in a human launch. Significant for the time they feel it, but not a ton. And the biggest issue for most mechanical objects is the vibration by far... but as mentioned, the watch won't really experience that.

NASA tested a handful of watch brands for space travel, only the Omega survived, much less excelled. That suggests to me rocket launches are tough on watches.