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It's offered to your attention the Breitling watch Navitimer Cosmonaute 1962 used by Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov onboard the International Space Station during ISS-45/46 mission. This limited series of 1962 watches is devoted to the space mission of Scott Carpenter on May 24th, 1962 onboard Aurora 7. This particular watch has the number 22. Sergey Volkov worn it periodically within the flight. He broght the watch back to the Earth onboard Soyuz TMA-18M.
Cosmonaut personality.
Sergey Volkov is the first Russian cosmonaut of the second generation. His father cosmonaut Alexander Volkov flew onboard space stations Salyut-7 and MIR, retired in 1998. During his first space mission Sergey Volkov met the first American second generation astronaut Richard Garriott. They landed together. Commander of the ISS-17 mission at the age of 35, Sergey Volkov was the youngest person to command the ISS in its history. Like his father, Sergey accomplished 3 space flights. Sergey spent almost 548 days in space. He made 4 spacewalks of the total duration of over than 23 hours. Titled as the Hero of Russia, Sergey Volkov has many awards. He left the cosmonauts team in 2017.
The watch model.
The watch Navitimer Cosmonaute was originally made for astronaut Scott Carpenter after he wrote to Breitling to design a watch specifically for spaceflight, which was done. Nevertheless, Breitling called the watch "cosmonaut" (and not "astronaut"), because in 1962, apparently, there was still a strong impression of Gagarin's flight and, in general, the successes of the USSR in space. So this model went down in history.
Provenance.
In 2012, Sergey Volkov was invited to the official presentation of the anniversary version of this watch model at the Breitling headquarters in New York, where he was the only "cosmonaut" among the American "astronauts". Carpenter was there too. After this presentation, there was another, already in Moscow in GUM, where representatives of Breitling handed this Navitimer Cosmonaute watch to Sergey Volkov as a gift. In addition to this model, they also presented him another model of Breitling watch.
Use and repair of Breitling watches in space by Sergey Volkov.
In 2015, Sergey decided to take both Breitling watches into space for use during the ISS-45/46 expedition. To avoid scratching the Navitimer Cosmonaute during daily work and leave it in good condition, he wore the watch just several times within the flight. He wore the second Breitling watch more often, but mostly he kept it in the Soyuz spacecraft, set to Moscow time. However, a bolt popped out of the metal bracelet of this other Breitling watch, and Breitling sent a spare bolt and proprietary screwdrivers to the ISS to repair the bracelet. Since the official watch of the cosmonauts and astronauts aboard ISS is Omega, the astronauts must either wear Omega watches or without watches on photos and videos. Therefore, Breitling is nowhere to be found among the official mission photos and videos from the ISS. However, there are personal photographs of Sergey Volkov wearing a Breitling watch aboard ISS. For example, there is a photo available where Sergey Volkov and Scott Kelly repaired the bracelet of the other Breitling watches, while the Breitling Navitimer Cosmonaute watch was on Volkov's wrist. Sergey is ready to provide these photos to the buyer. He can print and sign them if necessary.
Condition - perfect.
COA from cosmonaut Sergey Volkov is available with the item. Besides that, additional personilized Certificate of Authenticity (COA) can be issued by Sergey Volkov for the buyer. Sergey is willing to do that to confirm the item provenance, with photo and video shooting of the process, if necessary. Sergey can also sign the watch strap if necessary.
Non-questionable provenance from the first hands of cosmonaut!
Flown in space for 181 days!
#22 of 1962 Breitling Navitimer Cosmonaute watch limited series!
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