Editor’s note: Matt Hranek’s now sold-out book, A Man and His Watch, is one of the real standouts of the watch year, a beautiful and thoughtful text, packed with 76 stories of watches and the people who wear them. So taken were we by this book, we asked Matt if it would be possible to republish a few of his interviews. He kindly said yes. JAMES H. RAGAN former aerospace engineer, NASA Omega Speedmaster Moonwatches I didn’t get to NASA until the start of the Gemini days, and watches were just one of many, many pieces I tested and procured as part of the flight equipment. It was crucial for each astronaut to have a flight watch to time an event or experiment. Mission control did the critical timing, but if they lost communication with the astronauts — like when they were out on the lunar surface — the astronauts needed watches as a backup. Otherwise, they wouldn’t know how much time was left on their suits before they ran out of oxygen. As a government entity, you can’t just go out and buy pieces of hardware and look at them — you have to do a competitive government procurement,…
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