Spacewalk Watch Boost for Children's Hospital
August 27, 24
(IDEX Online) - The luxury Swiss watchmaker IWC Schaffhausen yesterday (Monday 26 August) sent four specially-designed timepieces into space.
They'll be auctioned for a US children's hospital once they've safely returned to Earth.
IWC Schaffhausen, a subsidiary of the Richemont Group, provided four crew members on the Polaris Dawn commercial spaceflight mission with a Pilot's Watch Chronograph Edition, featuring a white ceramic case and a space-blue dial.
The crew took off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, USA, and will attempt the first private spacewalk.
The titanium case backs of the watches are each engraved with the name of a crew member.
The watches will be auctioned at Christie's New York to raise funds for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which researches cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
Pic courtesy IWC Schaffhausen shows mission commander Jared Isaacman, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon.