April 13, 2026

— The first Swiss watch brand to be worn into space is now the newest timepiece to be flown around the moon.

Breitling on Monday (April 13) confirmed what spaceflight and watch enthusiasts had already spotted during the mission: NASA's Artemis II crew, who returned safely to Earth on Friday, wore for part of their 10-day moon mission a previously unseen Breitling Navitimer Cosmonaute model with a 24-hour dial.

Mission commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen also wore NASA-issued Speedmaster X-33 chronographs, continuing Omega's legacy as the first and only watch worn on every mission to launch a crew to the moon.

"People always wonder why astronauts wear so many watches," wrote Wiseman in a comment posted to Instagram. "If you look at the Speedy X-33, it is on GMT [Greenwich Mean Time] and I [wore it] outside my pressure suit. Launch teams build their launch window cadence on GMT so I needed that."

"Breitling Cosmo is on MET, or mission elapsed time. I only use MET onboard and the 24-hour face was extremely helpful," he said.

Navitimer Cosmonaute Artemis II. Click to enlarge video in new pop-up window. (Breitling)

To celebrate its first trip to the moon and Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter, who proposed the inclusion of a 24-hour dial and, in May 1962, became the first person to wear a Breitling into space, the watchmaker has introduced the Navitimer B02 Chronograph 41 Cosmonaute ARTEMIS II.

"The Navitimer B02 Chronograph 41 Cosmonaute stands as both tribute and continuation. A watch conceived for space, and still trusted by those who go there," reads the description on Breitling's website.

Limited to 450 pieces, the hand-wound ARTEMIS II features a "galaxy-blue" dial cut from an iron and nickel meteorite. The fallen space rock reveals its natural crisscrossing Widmanstätten pattern when etched, ensuring no two dials are alike. The watch commemorates its newly-established lunar heritage with the engraving "Artemis II" and the mission patch on its open caseback.

The $11,900 watch has a 41-mm stainless steel body, which holds the Breitling Manufacture B02 movement, and comes with a blue alligator leather strap.

In addition to being worn on the second U.S. orbital spaceflight and most recently on the country's first return to the moon in more than 50 years, Breitling watches have been used aboard the former Russian space station Mir, the now-retired fleet of NASA space shuttles and on both Russian Soyuz and SpaceX Dragon flights to the International Space Station.