A little while ago, I was in Sydney attending a conference for my day job. The opening speaker was Ron Garan Jr, a former NASA astronaut, who’s travelled 71 million miles for work, spent 178 days in space, orbited earth 2842 times and enjoyed a grand total of 27 hours and three minutes taking part in EVAs (extravehicular activity) over four spacewalks. As Ron took the stage to share his experiences on the International Space Station (ISS), giving the sort of perspective that only an astronaut can have, I found myself a little distracted. You see, in the world of semi-pro watchspotting, nothing is as cool as an astronaut’s watch, so all I could do was stare at his wrist with laser-like focus. From several rows back it was obviously an Omega bracelet, but I was thrown by the chunkier case and unusual dial configuration. I couldn’t pick the model. Driven by a need to find out more, I hustled to introduce myself to Ron as he walked offstage, and finally caught a proper look at his watch, which turned out to be a second-generation Omega Speedmaster X-33 (reference 3291.50.00 for those playing at home) that had clearly seen a lot of action.…
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