New York, Oct 24 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).– The watch used by the commander of the Apollo 15 space mission was sold at a highly competitive auction for $1,625,000, U.S. media reported.

Commander Dave Scott used a Bulova Chronograph during that 1971 lunar landing, the ninth manned mission of the United States’ Apollo program and fourth to land on the Moon, Forbes magazine reported.

That analog Bulova Chronograph with a Velcro band and clear signs of wear and tear, the only personal watch to have been used by an astronaut on the Moon’s surface, was auctioned off after 12 hotly contested minutes at the RR Auction house in Boston.

A Florida businessman who wished to remain anonymous submitted the winning bid on Friday.

The amount was the highest ever paid at auction for an item belonging to an astronaut, beating the previous record of $1.3 million for a notebook used by Pete Conrad, the third man to walk on the Moon.

Of the dozen astronauts who have stepped foot on the Moon, Scott is the only one who used a watch other than the NASA-issued Omega Speedmasters, all of which remain property of the U.S. government.

Scott opted to wear his own Bulova after noticing that the crystal of his Speedmaster had popped off during his second moonwalk, according to the Apollo 15’s mission transcripts.

“Among the decisions I made, the monitoring and use of time was perhaps the most important,” Scott said in a statement that accompanied the presentation of the watch at the auction.

Scott will donate part of the money for education programs for aspiring, young American astronauts, the auction house said. EFE

The fascinating history of this watch has been dissected with great interest and insight by members of myBulova.com, an Internet forum dedicated to discussion about vintage, antique and classic timepieces by Bulova and other respected watchmakers.

The presence of a watch other than the NASA-approved Omegas aboard an Apollo mission was debated for a few weeks, until an administrator of myBulova.com posted the following March 2014 update:

It is both my great honour and privilege to finally put closure to the belief that a Bulova Chronograph wristwatch was indeed used on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 15 mission, worn by Commander Dave Scott.

 

The [photo that accompanies this article] is courtesy of Mr Lawrence McGlynn and Dave Scott, who has given his permission to publish this photo, for the first time ever, on myBulova.com. I would like to add a big thank you to both of these gentlement for allowing this information to be finally made public and to further add yet another amazing facet to Bulova amazing lost history, one that previously was only speculation.

For more information on the history of timepieces and the Apollo space program, read the entire discussion thread at myBulova.com. There is a good chance that the anonymous Florida gentleman who acquired this space watch is a member of that forum.