Luminox SR-71 Blackbird Automatic Watch Discussions | Drop

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Luminox SR-71 Blackbird Automatic Watch

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Daisy_Cutter

1288

May 19, 2018

The great irony of Luminox's Navy SEAL line of watches is that most Navy SEALs don't actually wear them (apparently you're much more likely to see G-Shocks on a Navy SEAL mission). https://www.quora.com/What-watches-do-Navy-SEALs-wear
That irony is present with this watch too, in that SR-71 pilots and crew probably could not have used this watch on missions, even if it had been available at the time.
The air friction at the SR-71's immense airspeeds generated intense heat, and the inside of the cockpit windshield would reach 250F. Sometimes the cockpit air-conditioning would fail, and the temperatures would soar well beyond that. Aircrew had to wear silver spacesuits with life support systems to avoid being roasted alive. However, their wristwatches did not have the protection of the spacesuits since they had to be strapped to the outside of the spacesuits in order to be any use.

The direct predecessor of the SR-71 was the A-12, a single-seat aircraft that was more or less the same thing otherwise. A-12 pilots had a problem - the regular mechanical wristwatches they used literally could not take the heat in the cockpit, and would fail. This was likely due to two things: (i) heat expansion of the metal gears in the watches caused them to exceed their tolerances and jam up, and/or (ii) the heat caused the lubricant in the watches to dry up, gumming up the movement. Virtually all mechanical watches would stop working in these conditions. Even the Omega Speedmaster, which famously went to the moon, was only tested to 200F, and may not have survived an A-12 or SR-71 cockpit. The Valjoux 7750 is a sturdy movement, but at the end of the day it is still a mechanical movement with the limitations inherent to such movements.
The solution came in the form of the Bulova Accutron Astronaut, which relied on an electronically controlled tuning fork oscillator for timekeeping. This new design was precise and insensitive to the temperatures experienced in A-12 cockpits, which made it ideal for that environment. When it was found that this watch worked where others had failed, the CIA apparently procured more for A-12 pilots. Presumably the same watches carried on in service when the A-12 gave way to the SR-71.

This particular wristwatch also came with a GMT hand, which might have come in useful since A-12 and SR-71 flight crew regularly crossed multiple time zones on missions. The running seconds might also have come in handy as a backup timer to track missiles launched at the SR-71 - all SAMs had a maximum flight time, e.g. 58 seconds for the SA-2, so if you were still alive after that time, you knew your evasion was successful.
The Accutron Astronaut has long been out of production, which is a real shame because history aside, it is a really clean legible design. Given the recent trend of vintage re-issues though, perhaps we might see this come back on the market again, even if the SR-71 has retired for good. One can only hope.
Hodinkee ran an article on this watch and its fascinating history, and it's well worth a read: https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/bulovas-accutron-astronaut-the-watch-chosen-by-the-cia-for-pilots-of-the-fastest-plane-ever-made

May 19, 2018

Tigerman

412

May 20, 2018

Daisy_CutterThanks for your interesting writing!

May 20, 2018

Daisy_Cutter

1288

May 20, 2018

TigermanThanks! I just realised that I meandered a bit and didn't get round to actually making the point I wanted to make, which is this: this $156 Bulova Accutron on Amazon probably has a stronger connection to the SR-71 than this Luminox. https://www.amazon.com/Bulova-Unisex-Accutron-II-Stainless/dp/B00I6BN6FQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1526822751&sr=8-2&keywords=bulova+astronaut

May 20, 2018