Man has always been a very curious creature. He is ready to do everything to find himself in places where he seemingly has no place: to plunge to the bottom of the ocean, climb the highest peaks, and even go into outer space. And a man is always accompanied by a true assistant - watch.

Inside Longines, outside - Rolex

As it is known, the World's water reclaiming would not have happened without the invention of chronometer. It is the accuracy of marine watch that controls coordinates setting in the sea. British masters Harrison, Graham, Arnold (now Graham and Arnold & Son collections of watch brands are created ) started their path to glory from manufacturing marine chronometers, originally Swiss houses Jaeger-LeCoultre and Ulysse Nardin specialized on marine chronometers manufacture (ie therefore, anchor became the last's emblem). Until the beginning of XX century, watches were mainly navigational devices on the sea. Recent researches related to the South and North poles conquest are obliged to Longines chronometer brand. In 1906 a Canadian Joseph Bernier expedition left Quebec towards the North Pole, and reached it in nearly a year. The total voyage took 429 days, and two marine chronometers Longines Express Monarch served main navigational tools. «I really admire these chronometers - Bernier wrote after his return. - For the whole time of expedition, one of them was 13 seconds slow, and the second - just 4». By the way, the expedition allowed Canada approving its ownership of 740 000 km2 of Arctic islands, and virtually monopolizing the Northern Sea Route. And in a few years, Longines brought success to Canadians' competitors - Scandinavia, or to be more exact - Roald Amundsen, who took Longines Navigation Chronograph in a famous South Pole expedition, the watch was specially developed for work at low temperatures in 1889. When there appeared no blind spots on the world's marine map, people became interested of what exists on the seabed. There appeared bathyscaphes, diving suits, and with them - quite timely - waterproof watch. The garland of the sea depths conquest still undividedly belongs to Rolex. In 1952 a Deep Sea model was mounted on the outer wall of Trieste bathyscaphe, which sank to Mariana Trench to a depth of 10 916 meters, almost reaching the bottom (12 000 feet). This level of water resistance was provided not only by a sealed housing, but also a special fluid that filled the watch inner chamber instead of air. By the way, Trieste bathyscaphe, designed by a researcher Auguste Picard, was fitted with Longines quartz chronometer inside.

Higher

Rolex watches proved being convenient not only for diving, but also climbing. Fashion for this accessory among climbers was introduced by Sir Edmund Hillary, who first climbed on Everest (8 846 meters) in 1953 with Rolex Oyster Dayjust on wrist. Since then the brand is considered to be almost traditional for mountain tourists. A professional climber described a beautiful picture of rise to Everest today this way: «many inexperienced climbers are broken, frozen, remain in the mountain's ice, but Rolex continues going». In 2004, a Russian climber Victor Bobok conquered Everest. His ascension is interesting that Victor and his partner rose through an entirely new and untapped route: from China through the northern wall, which represents rather a cliff. Thus, mountaineers combined high-altitude climbing and technical rock climb, which is a huge load. Russian climbers used Ironman Triathlon Fitness Monitor from Timex, watch with a fitness system that controlled the intensity of stress. While this is not a necessary function, a climber still needs a reliable and accurate watch. Why? At least, not to miss a session due to civilization.

And higher

In 1911, the first flight watch appeared: it was created by Louis Cartier for his friend, a Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont. Aviation was still so weak that there were no specific devices for air navigation. In the 20's an American officer Philip Van Horn Whims, together with Longines, patents Longines Weems Navigation Watch, easy to synchronize with an accurate radio time: the device has a rotating basel and a special face design. By the way, Whims taught in the same military academy, where Charles Lindbergh studied airmanship, he made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic, orientating only on chronograph readings - his plane was not equipped even with radio. Later, Charles introduced improvements in Longines navigational watch design, creating a draft model of Lindbergh Angle Horaire - «Time angle». It was a real high-precision navigation device able to compute longitude. Angle Horaire was used along with a sextant and navigation calendar. A little later, two courageous Americans finally tamed the sky with Lindbergh watches: in 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly through Atlantic, and Amy Johnson flew from England to South Africa and back. Watch became and remained an air navigation device until the end of World War II. Today, they produce a lot of aircraft watches, but they represent already an element of style, rather than actually necessary device.

To infinity

In 1961, there happened an event that became a landmark in the history of curious mankind: the first flight into space. Naturally, watch manufacturers could not ignore it: The first Russian watch factory «Flight», whose «Pilot» was at Gagarin's wrist during the flight, started producing models with «space» names: in 1962 - «Orbit», 1963 - «Space». However, watch designed by «Flight» back in 1959 became a true space one: «Beam» 3017, a chronograph with 45-minute counter of minutes, telemetric and tachometric scales. «Beam» was designed exclusively for Air Force commanders and released with military receive. Alexey Leonov left in open space for the first time in space history with this watch.

However, those were essentially normal watch. Later Soviet Union began developing special devices for space travel. One of the old «Flight» workers told that in the 80-ies they developed quartz watches that could withstand strong magnetic field. After many years, resigned from the factory, the engineer decided to get there, what actually the figure in the technical project was. Looking in a directory, he was shocked: the given strength of magnetic field was so huge, that watch would remain almost the only active device on the ship. It is a pity nothing else is known about that model.

NASA also chose space watches. For this purpose, the agency representatives visited Houston city watch store incognito and bought ten chronographs of different brands. Unusually stringent tests carried out in two years winnow the four brands. Manufacturers of the remaining six were offered to put 12 models to more sophisticated tests on cold, heat, pressure and vibration.

Finally, on March 1, 1965, it was announced that NASA chose the only chronograph - Omega Speedmaster, which was officially recommended for use by astronauts in space flights. Leaders of the aerospace agency had to defend their choice even in the U.S. Senate: Union of American businessmen accused NASA, which preferred Swiss watches, of national industry ignorance. However, Speedmaster coped with its task in the open space (Gemini IV expedition in 1965). Omega watches success was finally enshrined on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong walked on the lunar surface with Speedmaster, belonging to Edwin Aldrin. He left his own watch inside the ship, instead of damaged onboard time meter.

It is anticipated that the first landing of man on Mars to be held in 2020. During that time, watch manufacturers will certainly manage to create a model that will work even in Martian environment, and considering Mars time.