posted 12-23-2011 12:14 PM               

Despite the brevity of his 2004 mission, Kuipers said that he lost track of time while in space. To help address this, Dutch watchmaker Roland Oostwegel created the "R.O.1 SPACE Special Edition," a timepiece that features a dial that displays mission elapsed time in days and weeks.

Kuipers launched with the special watch, which like all his and his crewmates' other equipment had to be certified for use on the station. Fabricated out of carbon-fiber so it is lightweight, the watch also features a sub-dial display for the time it takes for the space station to circle the Earth, 91 minutes and 59 seconds.

To celebrate Kuipers' mission and the first Dutch watch in space, Roland Oostwegel also created a limited edition series of similar watches for those on the ground. Unlike Kuipers' "special edition" timepiece though, the stainless steel, titanium, gold, and ceramic Earth-based versions swap out the mission elapsed time feature for a day and date calendar display.

The limited edition R.O.1 SPACE watches start at €4900 (about $6,400).