The Speedmaster may always be the central part of the Omega identity, but moon-related watches have not been exclusive to them (e.g. Bulova), and if we go beyond Swiss watchmaking, there seems to be an inexhaustible supply of items produced relating to anything remotely related to lunar expeditions and explorations.

Now there’s a crowdfunded watch by a British startup called Apollo Instruments which, as you may guess from the name, is trying to get a watch based on the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) off the ground.

The DSKY (“Display and Keyboard”) Moonwatch shares the same user interface design as the computers that were on board the Apollo program modules.

Let’s first go into the history of the AGC.

In the early 1960s NASA was planning the Apollo program after President John F. Kennedy’s announcement that they aimed to land a man on the moon by the decade’s end. They selected the MIT instrumentation Lab (now the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.) to develop the onboard guidance, navigation and control systems for both the Apollo command and lunar modules. In fact the first major contract of the program was awarded to MIT on August 10, 1961.

The Lab was headed by Charles Stark Draper, who headed the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department, and they developed both the hardware and the software that enabled the onboard computer to control the descent and landing on the moon’s surface as well as the flight control systems. The same hardware was used in both the command and lunar modules, but they obviously used different software. Astronauts communicated with the AGC using a numeric display and keyboard called the DSKY, hence the name of this new watch.

Although designed by the MIT Instrumention Lab, the AGC was made by Raytheon. It weighed 32kg, had 4kb of RAM and 374 kilobyes of ROM, over 4,000 integrated circuits, and consumed 55 watts of power. The AGC was used on fifteen manned flights, including nine flights to the moon and six successful lunar landings.

So we come to this crowdfunded venture, which basically a novelty watch. The DSKY Moonwatch may not get you to the moon and back, but alongside a digital time and date display it has configurable time zone with GPS updates, stopwatch, timer, alarm, GPS navigation, stand-by status and working keyboard.

Size-wise it measures 38.1mm x 44.2 (l) x 13.05 (h) and made from NC micro machined 316L stainless steel case with ceramic coating.

It is programmable, built on an open-source framework that is compatible with a number of coding environments including Arduino and Python. It also has an 8-channel digital I/O port, which opens up the possibility of using the watch to control or interact with “breadboard interfaces, development enclosures, and robotic device”. The company said it will push out software updates in the future and work with community contributions.

Further details are as follows:

high contrast digital OLED display
14 segment annunciator display
Schott® anti-reflective scratchproof glassProcessor & Connectivity – ATSAMD21 M0 @48MHz, 256kb FLASH | 32kb SRAM | 256Kbit non-volatile FRAM.
USB charging/programming port
External 8 channel digital IO port supporting I2C, SPI, PWM and ISP
Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery with up to 24 hours of power and USB charging.

This is not a smart watch and as a novelty piece, it’s not cheap, at £659 Limited Time Early-Bird Tax-Free Offer for those in the U.S., £779 including VAT for those in the U.K., and £659 excluding taxes for other international orders.

Meanwhile, you can read the Apollo Astronaut’s Guidance and Navigation Course Notes prepared by MIT Instrumentation Laboratory (November 1962) at this link and you can watch a short film from MIT about the Apollo guidance computer and navigation equipment below.

With all usual caveats and considerations to be taken into account for crowdfunded items, you can find the full details at their website here.

[Photo credit: Apollo Instruments]

Categories: Ephemera, Watch Profile, watches