Richard Garriott & Seiko in Space

[Subfiend]

I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to watch my friend Richard Garriott launch to the International Space Station today. I hope he enjoys himself and he returns safely.

Richard is following in his father Owen Garriott’s footsteps to become an astronaut. Owen Garriott is a former NASA astronaut who completed two space missions during his career, spending a great deal of time on Skylab and then the Space Shuttle. Richard is the the first second generation American in space, and also the sixth private astronaut to go to the ISS. He would have become the first second generation astronaut in history, but the Russians put the son of one of their cosmonauts on the last Soyuz mission this spring so they could claim the prize first. I think they bumped the first South Korean astronaut simply so they could claim this "first."

Richard has a partnership with Seiko watches for this mission.

Seiko developed a special Seiko Spring Drive Spacewalk watch for this mission, which Richard will be testing in space. It's not an Omega or a Rolex, but at least the guy is doing his part for the WIS community.

http://www.richardinspace.com/index....es.Commercial_

[Goodwatch]

Seiko is a manufacture and their mechanical Grand Seiko series is not to be sniffed at! The Spacewalk is a stunning watch but if I got it right, only 100 will be made. And with stunning watch, I mean really stunning

Only 100 hey? That sounds like at least $10,000 a pop

[BigHat]

Originally Posted by Goodwatch

Seiko is a manufacture and their mechanical Grand Seiko series is not to be sniffed at! The Spacewalk is a stunning watch but if I got it right, only 100 will be made. And with stunning watch, I mean really stunning

Only 100 hey? That sounds like at least $10,000 a pop

Try $25,000. 53 mm too

Jack's pics:

[Goodwatch]

Originally Posted by BigHat

Try $25,000.

It was just a wild guess

[BigHat]

Reminds me of some of the AP ROO LEs. The prices don't matter because you "ain't gettin" 1 of 100 anyway.

[Jedi]

What a cool timepiece.

Pity it's not available on the open market.

Shame.

[Subfiend]

Here is the link to the Seiko site for the watch:

http://www.seikospringdrive.com/spacewalk/

Initially, Richard was supposed to test the watch on an Extra Vehicular Activity, or EVA. This is NASA parlance for a space walk. However, the EVA will not occur.

Frankly, I am not surprised. NASA has given only tepid support for private astronauts. In fact, NASA TV has been referring to Garriott as a "Space Flight Participant." NASA initially tried to block private astronauts from visiting the ISS, but it lost a showdown with the Russians over this issue when Denis Tito was about to fly in 2001. Tito went up, paving the way for five others, but NASA has steadfastly refused to allow private astronauts to make space walks. Maybe someday.

[Goodwatch]

When I think of the number of watches that will supposedly be made, 100, I find it a bit curious why Seiko would do all that research and set up all that tooling just for a 100 watches. Can someone shed a light on this?

[BigHat]

Originally Posted by Goodwatch

When I think of the number of watches that will supposedly be made, 100, I find it a bit curious why Seiko would do all that research and set up all that tooling just for a 100 watches. Can someone shed a light on this?

Frans,
I can only share thoughts from what I think was a WatchTime story. I remember getting the impression that they were going to test the waters with this one.
I think you're right, they'll likely be something that stems from this, but I'm sure they won't totally devalue the $25,000 investment of the original owners.

It's a great dial layout, Ti is a great case material, the feature set is perfect and the crown location is quite novel.
It's also 53mm in size. That's not going to be a big seller in the open market. Maybe something 8-10 mm smaller and slightly less interesting in the $10K range you earlier estimated. I think it will be a great watch to have in the collection. I have been interested in Spring Drive for awhile.

[Subfiend]

It is very possible that Seiko was counting on the exclusivity of a watch that had been worn and tested on an EVA, perhaps stealing some thunder from Omega. That could add to its cache among collectors.

Seiko made a big splash by announcing this watch at Basel 2008 in March/April 2008. A big part of the promo was the EVA factor. It was not until June that it was revealed that the EVA was a no-go. Reading Seiko's press release on the subject, you could almost taste the company's disappointment.

It must be galling for a watch manufacturer to be shut out of the public's fascination with space exploration. Considering all the red tape and hoops an equipment manufacturer has to jump through to be approved for space flight, this must have seemed like a short cut to a marketing bonanza. Richard Garriott's web site says "a significant slice" of his $30 million payment to participate in the mission has been recouped from commercial partners, but there are very few commercial partners actually listed. This tells me Seiko paid a bundle.

[cody p]

awesome timepiece!!!

[dcmachead]

Originally Posted by cody p

awesome timepiece!!!

It's a gorgeous watch, but it makes me think of a VW Phaeton--great car technically, but at the end of the day it's still a VW.

[Terry Newton]

Originally Posted by dcmachead

It's a gorgeous watch, but it makes me think of a VW Phaeton--great car technically, but at the end of the day it's still a VW.

Yeah; but what a gorgeous VW it makes.

Terry Newton