The Pilot that never went to the moon

I have to give credits to LIW because the Bulova Lunar Pilot found itself on my doorstep waiting for my return from work less than a week after I put my order with Marc. I somehow managed to unpack the quite large box and post on NWA before calling it a day.

Here I must confess that buying the Lunar Pilot wasn't a quick affair as it took me some serious mental arm twisting to convince myself to buy it, because taken out of the context of the Apollo 15 so convenient "accident" with the NASA issued Omega, there's nothing really special about it: It's actually a failure.

The watch worn on the moon wasn't even one made by Bulova, it was a re-badged Universal Genève prototype that was rushed to NASA where it failed the evaluation and lost it's place in history to the Omega Speedmaster. This can be easily seen when looking at the pictures from an auction that listed a UG prototype which is identical to the original Lunar Pilot, down to the same spelling mistake on the bezel.

Was it on the moon? Well yes but not really. Except for a passing resemblance, the modern Lunar Pilot has nothing in common with the watch worn on the moon. But to be fair, it's pretty much the same story with the Speedmaster and it has never stopped Omega from capitalizing on this piece of history. At least in their case it never involved a watch that somehow found itself in the pocket of an Apollo crew member.

So let us get back to my LE Lunar Pilot. I almost bought one of the newer 43.5mm after I managed to convince myself that it's not too large for me (it still is BTW). What stopped me was the realization that Bulova opted for a polished case on these models and I disliked it enough to pass them.

The launch of Bulova Limited Edition of the Lunar Pilot was a non-event for me because I didn't care about the meteorite dial and I cared even less about the price increase that goes hand in hand with the launch of every LE.

What took me some time to catch was that the LE case was made of titanium and was finished in satin. I like titanium and the matte finish of the case is what drew me in. It's that simple.

The watch came fitted with a leather pseudo NATO strap, which I don't like at all. I can live with it for a time until I'll find a more comfortable and esthetically pleasing alternative. I guess that it's still a bit better than Bulova going all in for authenticity and sending it fitted to 30cm of Velcro strap sourced from Home Depot.

And so I find myself drinking coffee 53 years after the Apollo 15 landing on the moon and truly enjoying it. Yes, it does wear too large for me, yes its connection to this moon mission is only something that Bulova would really like to make you believe in, and it's also true that my passion for chronographs is long gone. But none of this matter if I find myself enjoying wearing it.