How an Omega watch helped save the Apollo 13 crew

We have a few watch aficionados here in the studio, but Senior UX Designer Shane Richardson may be the biggest. He recently picked up the book A Man & His Watch, which features stories about iconic watches. We were instantly curious, peppering him with questions about different brands and what kind of stories could make up a book like this. Of course, we went to the extreme. Has a watch ever prevented a major disaster? A real life-or-death scenario?

‍

Perhaps the most famous example of this was NASA's Apollo 13 moon mission. 56 hours into the voyage, disaster struck. The crew of James Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise had to change course and find a way home. Sure enough, their issued Omega Speedmaster watch played an important role in helping them pilot back to Earth and turn the mission into a "successful failure."

‍