Tracking Multiple Time Zones In Austere Circumstances By J.R. Seeger, former CIA SIS Greenwich Mean Time or “GMT” is an internationally accepted timing standard by which all other time zones are defined. A GMT watch tracks one or two additional time zones by way of a fourth hand, a bezel or chapter ring with 24-hour markings, or some combination of the two. Revered by enthusiasts for invoking a sense of nostalgia, GMT watches serve as a throwback to the golden age of travel before cell phones. But for those at the tip of the spear living in Zulu Time, the GMT has a more practical function. Living In Zulu Time While there were earlier attempts at tracking multiple timezones, like the watches US Navy officer Philip Van Horn Weems developed with Longines in the ‘20s, GMT watches as we know them today took off in the 1950s, first with the Glycine Airman in 1953 and followed by the Rolex GMT-Master in 1954. Robust and relatively attainable at the time, this burgeoning category of watches provided the ability to ascertain the time of day in two or even three time zones around the globe at a glance. The Tudor Black Bay GMT (Photo Credit: James Rupley)  For pilots or the then-novel community of international business travelers, watches like the GMT-Master were exceptionally helpful. But why are GMT watches important to the world of Watches of Espionage? In The Shadow World - Timing Is Everything We regularly point out that time is an essential factor in both espionage and special operations, sometimes acting as the difference between life and death if a case officer or agent is not at a given meeting place precisely on time. Lingering on “the X” invites scrutiny and, in the shadowy world of espionage, scrutiny can mean arrest, prison, or even execution. Special operations missions are also exceptionally choreographed, meaning every second counts when a team is linking up on the ground, at sea, or in the air. And this is where a GMT watch serves as an essential piece of kit. Rolex GMT Master Reference 1675 on Billy Waugh’s wrist in retirement. Waugh was a legendary Special Forces operator and CIA contractor. (Photo Credit, Recoil Magazine and Tom Marshall) This level of choreography across assets often involves traveling across multiple time zones. Coordinating a multifaceted mission based on various local timing standards invites uncertainty and risk, with the entire concept of local time potentially meaning different things to different people for any number of different units or assets involved. This is why case officers and special ops personnel live in what is known as Zulu Time. Being on Zulu Time ensures everyone is on time and minimizes the risk of operations failing due to timing errors. Utilized by the military, various government organizations, and the world of aviation, Zulu Time is so named for the Z timezone in the ACP 121 military timing standard of 25 letter-designated zones, with each zone referring to a longitudinal swath of the Earth. As you may have surmised, the Z, pronounced “Zulu” in NATO’s phonetic alphabet, indicates Greenwich Mean Time or GMT, which is also often referred to as UTC or Coordinated Universal Time. If everyone involved in a given mission is working in Zulu Time, no matter where they are in the world, everyone is on the same page. If your watch happens to display Zulu Time in addition to local time, all the better. Vintage Bulova advertisement for the Accutron Astronaut. The 1960s & 1970s: Traveling At The Edge Of Space In Zulu Time The most celebrated story in the history of GMT watches is the legendary affiliation between Pan American Airlines, the Boeing 707, and the aforementioned GMT-Master. While the pages of that story are well-worn, several other GMT watches deserve their place in history especially when being viewed through the lens of our community. In the late 1950s, the CIA and Lockheed’s Skunk Works were working on the Archangel program to produce a manned, aerial reconnaissance aircraft. That program produced the A-12, an aircraft that would fly at the edge of space at speeds greater than 2000 mph. Given the incredible speed, every piece of the aircraft, the cameras, the film, and even the pressure suits for the pilots had to be redesigned to handle the rigors of the mission.  Lockheed’s A-12 Reconnaissance Aircraft  Neither Lockheed nor the CIA were certain what would happen to a standard mechanical watch at the edge of space with the incredible g-forces caused by accelerating to such high speeds. At the same time, the Agency needed their pilots to have a watch that would track both local time at their base as well as Zulu Time, the basis for all of their communications. W.O.E.s Personal Vintage Bulova, Accutron (Photo Credit: James Rupley) Rather than a Glycine or a Rolex GMT-Master, both of which were popular with more conventional pilots of the day, early A-12 pilots were issued a Bulova Accutron Astronaut equipped with a GMT-hand as well as a friction-fit 24-hour bezel. At the A-12’s incredible speeds, a pilot traveled through various time zones in minutes, making the ability to easily track Zulu Time with their watch essential for coordinating and communicating with ground crews and higher levels of operational oversight. 1990-1991: Fighting A War In Two Time Zones In addition to the necessity of Zulu Time, there are examples of managing two critical time zones with two separate watches. Nearly every photo of General Norman Schwarzkopf, Commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) during the First Gulf War, shows the general wearing two watches. In a previous Dispatch, Stormin’ Norman explained that he needed to track the time in both Saudi Arabia and Washington, DC, balancing the needs of the Joint Chiefs, the Secretary of Defense, and the President, all of whom were operating on Eastern Standard Time (EST), with troops on the ground operating on Arabian Standard Time (AST).  Why the general opted for a pair of Seiko watches as opposed to any number of GMT watches available in the early 1990s is anyone’s guess, but it’s possible the general simply found two watches to be the easier, or perhaps more attainable, option.  CIA’s Team Alpha prior to Insertion into Afghanistan. Seeger Back Row, Third From Left. (Photo Credit: CIA) 2001: The Global War On Terror Fast forward to 2001 and post-9/11 conflicts in Southwest Asia and the Middle East. When I deployed to Afghanistan as a team leader of one of the CIA’s first teams to enter the country, the most common watches on the wrists of most Special Forces operators and specifically on my team were plastic digital watches from brands like G-Shock and Timex. While not often considered among the GMT category, these straightforward digital tool watches (D.T.W.) displayed a single time zone with another one available at the push of a button. What was the second time zone? Zulu Time or UTC was the most common option. Given the amount of military and government assets in the country at the time, Zulu Time was essential for coordinating complex operations in theater. When a Special Forces ODA in Afghanistan requested logistics support from TF Dagger at Karshi-Khanabad airfield in Southern Uzbekistan (with a half-hour time difference from Afghanistan) or close air support aka “steel on target” from a USAF aircraft based outside the theater or a US Navy fast mover from a carrier battle group in the Arabian Sea, all of the players could be working off of the same time “hack.” Similarly, when my team communicated with CIA headquarters, our satellite communication – whether data or voice – was keyed to Zulu Time so that all of the participants knew when that vital communication would take place. A trio of Rolex GMT Master II models. (Photo Credit: James Rupley) Today: An Abundance Of Choices While digital watches are exceptionally robust and in many cases offer convenient features such as solar charging, many do not provide an at-a-glance view of two time zones. Looking to the world of analog quartz and mechanical timekeeping, there are a number of options available today for GMT enthusiasts whether managing Zulu Time is at the top of your list of priorities or not. Starting with the most basic, certain watches including the Benrus Type I and II of the 1970s utilized a simple time-only movement and display in conjunction with a rotating bezel with 12-hour markings. By rotating the bezel to reflect a given time difference, an operator could relatively easily track another timezone including Zulu Time. Using a time-only caliber, the Mil-Spec Benrus Type I provided a measure of GMT functionality using nothing more than a rotating 12-hour bezel. (Photo Credit: Analog Shift) By a wide margin, the most common format for an analog GMT leans into a fourth hand used in coordination with either a chapter ring or bezel equipped with 24-hour markings. In many ways cemented by the GMT-Master and its modern descendant the GMT-Master II, which is still making its way beyond the boundaries of the Earth’s atmosphere on the wrist of a certain Saudi astronaut, the format can now be found in both quartz and automatic watches at a wide variety of price points. Though technology has drastically improved our operational capabilities when working across time zones, a straightforward and robust GMT watch still serves as a useful tool in any modern operator or case officer’s arsenal. No matter where they are based, and no matter what GMT watch they might use, today’s members of the WOE community will continue to live in Zulu Time. -- If you enjoyed this article, please consider signing up for our weekly free newsletter for further updates HERE.  This Dispatch has been reviewed by the CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board to prevent the disclosure of classified information.   READ NEXT: A Navy SEAL’s Rolex Submariner on the Osama Bin Laden Raid   About The Author: J.R. Seeger served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne and as a CIA officer for a total of 27 years of federal service. He served 17 years in multiple field assignments focused on counterterrorism, counterintelligence and irregular warfare.  During his final, 3-year assignment in CIA Headquarters, he first served as a chief of operations for a geographic division in the Directorate of Operations and then served as a deputy director and deputy chief of the CIA Counterterrorism Center. His seven-part MIKE4 series is about a family who have served in the special operations and intelligence community from World War II to the present.

79 years ago the most important Allied coordinated effort of WWII took place. These watches kept soldiers on time.  On Tuesday June 6th, 1944 the largest seaborne invasion in history occurred. Nearly 160,000 allied troops managed to change the course of WWII by storming the beaches of Normandy and setting off the liberation of France from the Nazis, and later, a victory. The invasion began at 6:30am, when soldiers started storming five beaches–Omaha, Utah, Gold, Sword, Juno. Approximately 11,000 aircraft and 7,000 watercraft supported the invasion. Shortly before the landing, under the cover of darkness, Paratroopers, including commandos from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), were inserted into strategic spots inland in order to weaken the German defense network and provide a strategic advantage to the soldiers arriving by amphibious craft.  Operation Overlord, June 6, 1944 Today marks the 79th anniversary of the day this incredible effort took place. Roughly 73,000 Allied soldiers were lost over the course of the invasion.  “D-Day” as its known, typically refers to these Normandy landings, but in the larger military context, it refers to the exact time a combat action takes place. D-Day and H-Hour refer to the day an hour a coordinated effort is initiated. “D-Day”, in the case of the Normandy Invasion, was actually set for June 5th, but General Eisenhower made the choice to delay the attack due to rough seas and inclement weather.  General Eisenhower reportedly wore a Heuer Chronograph, as identified by @niccoloy (Government Archives)  In war, time matters. A massive concerted effort between Allied nations meant every single soldier had to be on time and operating in unison. The tool that helped orchestrate an invasion that shifted the outcome of the war? The humble wristwatch. In the 1940s, watches were hardly considered as the luxury accessories they are today. Soldiers wore watches that were issued to them as a part of the set of tools needed to do a very important job.  Photo Credit: Vertex Watches  History buffs, WWII enthusiasts, and even re-enactors pay incredible attention to details surrounding WWII, but somehow one of the most important pieces of kit–the watch–is often overlooked. At W.O.E. we care about nothing but details, so today, on the anniversary of D-Day, we’ll take a look at some of the watches that were on the wrists of soldiers, sailors, and airmen that were involved in the invasion.  The A-11 (produced by Bulova, Elgin, Waltham and others) Personal collection of former CIA Officer and W.O.E. contributor, J.R. Seeger. Commonly referred to as “the watch that won the war”, the A-11 was the most ubiquitous service watch during WWII. It’s a specification, rather than an actual watch, and that meant that various companies could produce watches to this spec and in turn, the government would purchase these watches and distribute them to service personnel. For its time, the specification set was exacting, the watch needed a black dial with white numerical indices, a manual-winding, hacking movement with center seconds, 10 minute markers, an hour and minute hand. The case came in at a compact 32 millimeters. The watches saw service with the Brits as well as the Americans.  The Army Ordnance Watch Army Time Piece (ATP) watch of the UK forces and the US Army Ordnance (ORD) on original OSS manual (Seeger’s personal collection) While the A-11 was rated for aviation operations (and specific maritime operations), the “ORD” watches were general-purpose watches issued to US soldiers en masse. The specification outlined in the TM 9-1575 War Department Technical Manual for Wrist Watches, Pocket Watches, Stop Watches allows for some variation in design, so Waltham, Hamilton, Bulova and Elgin all put their own twist on these watches meant to be mass produced for soldiers. These watches are distinguished by their white dials and “Ord Dept” engravings on the caseback.  The “Dirty Dozen” MoD Watches The Dirty Dozen - all twelve W.W.W. watches (Credit: A Collected Man) Most popular among collectors is a series of 12 watches produced by the likes of Buren, Cyma, Eterna, Grana, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Lemania, Longines, IWC, Omega, Record, Timor, and Vertex. On all of these British-issued watches you’ll find W.W.W. (Watch, Wrist, Waterproof) and a broadarrow insignia engraved in the back. It’s unknown how many of each were produced because it’s believed that only WC, JLC, and Omega recorded their production at 6,000, 10,000,  and 25,000 respectively. The Dirty Dozen were general service watches, and that meant they saw service with various service roles across all functions of the military. While these pieces were not delivered until after D-Day at the conclusion of the war, they are a product of this conflict. IWC Dirty Dozen piece with original box (Credit: A Collected Man) We tend to romanticize the equipment used by service members carrying out brave efforts that changed the course of world history. Watches are certainly among the kind of things we tend to prescribe a certain importance to–and that’s not to be ignored, timekeeping is absolutely vital especially when it comes to a massive coordination such as Operation Overlord. But watches only supported the mission as a piece of gear with an assigned function. They were, and always will be, tools to get the job done. Today we honor and remember the valiant efforts of Allied service members 79 years ago to this day, and the actions taken by them that resulted in a free world that flourishes.    If you enjoyed this article, please consider signing up for our weekly free newsletter for further updates HERE. Read Next: CIA’s JAWBREAKER Team And A Rolex Submariner  

We asked former senior Case Officer, J.R. Seeger to write a piece on advice for a young Case Officer/Intelligence Officer for shopping for a watch.  Spoiler alert: it is not a Rolex. CIA Case Officer: The Ideal Timepiece by J.R. Seeger When I joined the CIA in the 1980s, my supervisors all served in Southeast Asia during the ‘60s and ’70s. Almost all men and they wore what might have been considered a “headquarters uniform:” short sleeved white or blue oxford shirts, ties always loose at the throat, and khaki pants.  On one wrist was a gold chain known as a baht chain because each link was of a certain value in the Thai currency.  On the other wrist was a Rolex watch.  Usually, the watches were Rolex GMT Masters or Rolex Datejust watches. No Rolex or other Mil-Spec watches for them. They did not need to pretend to be commandos. They were commandos.  Vintage Rolex sign, Tawila District in Aden, Yemen (Photo Credit: Unknown) I had just left the Army and had a Bulova watch given to me by my mother when I graduated from high school over a dozen years earlier.  By the early 1980s, a Rolex – any Rolex – was more than a two month’s salary and I wasn’t about to spend that sort of money on a tool when my Bulova still worked well and my backup watch, a Casio digital watch, was under $50. The Swiss tool watch train had left the station and I was still on the platform. I have previously written about my experience with watches as tools in the Afghan war-zone. Black acrylic watches, accurate quartz watches, were my choice. Twenty years later, when we talk about watches for the field, we are looking at a world where Case Officers (C/Os) are less likely to be in forward operating bases in warzones. They are more likely to work in traditional postings in major cities around the world. It is a different environment and it calls for a different sort of kit. When we are talking about “watches for the field,” we are not using the term in the same way that most watch companies might. After all, the CIA Case Officer in the field is going to face challenges that are not consistent with a mountain climber, a yacht racer, a member of the armed forces, or a first responder (i.e. police officer, fire fighter, or EMT). That doesn’t mean that a “field watch” used by one of these avocations and professions won’t work with Case Officer tradecraft.  It just means that there are other, different requirements.   Seeger and General Dostum on the night of insertion in Afghanistan, 16 October 2001, Casio F-91W on Seeger’s wrist. (Photo Credit: Seeger) So, what are the basic requirements for a CIA field watch?   The watch must be reliable.  That means it must work all the time, every time; The watch must be easy to read at a glance; The watch must be readable in the dark either through luminous hands or a LED backlight; The watch must be rugged enough to withstand dust, water, and shock. Arabic Seiko (Photo Credit: James Rupley) Here is where the requirements shift when shopping for a C/O: The watch must be low profile. A C/O walking on the streets with an expensive Swiss or Japanese watch is a target for criminals and, just as important, easy to spot by surveillance. Expensive and/or out of place items – sports cars, watches, shoes, clothes, a bag – make it easy for surveillance to spot their target and keep on their target.  On the street, a C/O must disappear into the crowd.  Just as a fine European sports car is not appropriate for a C/O in the field, a large, polished dive watch on a steel bracelet stands out and gives surveillance another point of reference when they are tracking a C/O; As a corollary to the above point, the watch must be consistent with the C/O’s cover. A C/O must be able to transition quickly from cover duty to clandestine work. While there may be time to go home and change, it isn’t as if the C/O on the street can assume an entirely different persona (an outfit more suited to a Special Operations night raid for example). Therefore, a large PVD or black acrylic watch that can withstand over 20 ATMs underwater and has tritium luminous markers is unlikely to be a good choice unless the C/O’s cover supports that sort of watch; The watch must not be a “connected” watch. If your watch helps you connect to the outside world through Bluetooth or directly through a wireless signal of any sort, it also means your watch can be used by an adversary to track you.  A few years ago, US military force protection studies demonstrated that fitness tracker smart watches could be used by an adversary to determine precisely where an individual serviceman was and, then by extension, where his unit was in the field. Smart watches are off limits to case officers because case officers never want to help adversaries track them. A map of activity in Djibouti.  “A map of fitness-tracker data may have compromised top-secret US military bases around the world” (Source: Business Insider) What are the options for a C/O who doesn’t have a large, personal budget but needs a watch that fits in all the parts of his/her life? Among my colleagues, I am a notorious cheapskate, so I’m offering the following choices for under $1000.  Please note:  We have experience with most if not all of these watches, but none of the companies involved have any commercial links to W.O.E.  At the lowest end of the spectrum are Casio, Timex and Seiko watches. These companies all make inexpensive, rugged watches. Some of the higher end Casio G-shocks and Timex Ironman watches are monsters on the wrist and probably not ideal for a C/O.  That said, a 5610 Solar G-shock, a Timex Expedition or even the smaller Ironman watches, or any selection from the Seiko 5 collection are all good choices for well under $200.  There may have been a time when a black acrylic watch was not acceptable for daily business wear.  That time is long passed; (Photo Credit: James Rupley) At the mid-range ($200-600), the choices expand exponentially. There are American Assembled watches, European and Japanese models that all work in this category.  Most are “dress tool” watches that have over 10ATM or more of water resistance, sapphire crystals and reliable movements.  At this price point, it is possible to find US firms such as Vaer, Shinola, Sangin or Cincinnati Watch company, Japanese firms Seiko, Orient, Citizen or Bulova, and Swiss firms like Davosa and Tissot.  Other European watch companies including the French firm Wolbrook and the German firm LACO also make watches that fit the requirements. All pass the C/O test of looking like a watch a “normal” person might wear but still provide reliability, ruggedness and good visibility during night work; Sangin Overlord and W.O.E. numbered coin (J.R. Seeger) When you approach $1000, the c/o crosses the threshold from tool to luxury tool watch. Formerly a US company and now part of the Swatch Group, Hamilton Khaki line– especially when paired with a leather strap or steel bracelet are hard to beat for the blend of day work wear and night street operations.  Seiko has their own options with the Seiko Alpinist and other sport watches in the Prospex line.  And, once again Tissot watches at this price range answer all of the requirements. Seiko Alpinist (Seiko) Conclusion:  There are dozens of other watches out there that a C/O can use in the field. Most Case Officers answer direct questions with two words: It depends. That is because every human is different and what is ideal for one person is useless for another. Some will want quartz watches for the “set it and forget it” nature of the watch.  Others will want a mechanical watch that requires slightly more care in setting the time but does not rely on a battery. C/O work is not about gunfights, explosions, or car chases (leave that image for our favorite thrillers), but that doesn’t mean a case officer’s watch isn’t an essential piece of kit. Time is everything for a Case Officer and a watch is what keeps a C/O on time. Read Next: Ask Watches Of Espionage Anything  J.R. Seeger's personal watch collection and memorabilia. J.R. Seeger served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne and as a CIA officer for a total of 27 years of federal service. He served 17 years in multiple field assignments focused on counterterrorism, counterintelligence and irregular warfare.  During his final, 3-year assignment in CIA Headquarters, he first served as a chief of operations for a geographic division in the Directorate of Operations and then served as a deputy director and deputy chief of the CIA Counterterrorism Center.  Seeger led multiple, small unit teams during his service, including leading one of the CIA teams that infiltrated into Afghanistan after 9/11. Since his retirement, J.R. has written articles and book reviews in the CIA professional journal “Studies in Intelligence” and the T.E. Lawrence Society newsletter. His seven-part MIKE4 series is about a family who have served in the special operations and intelligence community from World War II to the present. This newsletter has been reviewed by the CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board to prevent the disclosure of classified information.

In 1957 Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, the leader of aircraft manufacturer Lockheed’s Advanced Development program dubbed Skunk Works, knew satellites would make reconnaissance aircraft obsolete in the near future. It was determined that the U-2 spy plane, which Johnson had worked on, had a radar cross section that was simply too large to operate completely undetected. Three years later one flown by pilot Gary Powers would be shot down in Soviet Airspace and he would be captured and charged with espionage. The price of human life was simply too high to pay, and with the Cold War in full swing, US intelligence-gathering operations were necessary to keep an edge over the nuclear-capable Soviets. This meant that significant investments were being made in satellite technology to solve these problems, but the technology wasn’t quite where it needed to be just yet. That day would come, but the impending obsolescence of aircraft built for reconnaissance didn’t stop Johnson from spearheading one last effort: Project Oxcart.  Richard Bissell was the CIA officer responsible for facilitating the successor to the U-2. He oversaw Project Gusto, which was a committee set up to explore all possible solutions to the dynamic need for a next-generation aerial reconnaissance platform. Lockheed’s submission won out over Convair’s designs derived from the B-58 Hustler, and the A-12 project was funded and kicked off.  The A-12 had its maiden flight on April 25th, 1962, and subsequently carried out 2,850 test flights before its first official mission on May 31st, 1967. Ironically, the A-12 never carried out any overflights of the Soviet Union or Cuba, which is exactly what it was intended for. The CIA found another use for the plane: to spy on North Vietnam. Departing from Kadena Air Base in Japan, the A-12 performed 22 sorties gathering intelligence on the movements of North Vietnamese forces. The project wasn’t all for naught, however. The development of the A-12 led to the creation of the SR-71, the often-celebrated and easily recognizable icon that’s wrongly dubbed “the fastest airplane ever to have graced our skies” even though that honor officially belongs to the A-12 at just over Mach 3.3. While the A-12 was born and died in secrecy being owned and operated by the CIA, the SR-71 was the product of the USAF. Both carried out surveillance overflights, but the SR-71 was fit for a wider range of missions, not to mention a two-seat configuration for a reconnaissance officer. The plane featured a modular system in the nose-mounted equipment bay that allowed for ELINT and SLR data to be collected. ELINT is electronic intelligence, while SLR is side-looking radar, and the added benefit of gathering additional intelligence meant that the SR-71 had a much longer service life and participated in just about every single conflict up until 1989, until they were retired.  The A-12 on display at CIA Headquarters — number eight in production of the 15 A-12s built — was the first of the operational fleet to be certified for Mach 3. No piloted operational jet aircraft has ever flown faster or higher. (Photo Credit: CIA) And that’s why it has become perhaps the most prominent military aircraft ever produced. It’s become a symbol for superlative, next-generation technology and a very specific can-do attitude of the mid-century era that simply doesn’t exist anymore. Budgets be damned, the Blackbird was going to be the most capable airplane ever. And it was. It’s a flying superlative.  However, the watch that’s most typically associated with the A-12 is anything but iconic, instead it’s been relegated to enjoyment by a very niche community of die-hards. Although what it lacks in popularity it more than makes up for in technical prowess. The Bulova Astronaut was a perfect horological fit for the A-12; both platforms were so far ahead of their time that neither of the core technologies they introduced stuck around long after they were gone. The Astronaut used the Accutron tuning fork movement, which predated quartz and proved to be accurate to one second a month. It didn’t have a balance assembly (or mainspring), instead it used a tuning fork oscillator that vibrated at 360hz. If we think in terms of a “propulsion system,” the tuning fork movement was congruent to the SR-71’s J58 engine that pioneered a system that essentially turned it from a standard jet engine at lower speed to a ramjet engine above Mach 2.  Bulova Accutron Astronaut, late 1960s (W.O.E.s Personal Collection) Both the tuning fork mechanism and the J58 were engineering marvels that excelled at capturing and controlling energy and bending it to humankind’s will. The Bulova Accutron Astronaut even emits a high-pitch whine that’s straight out of a sci-fi movie.  The advantage of the tuning fork movement for an A-12 pilot is that there isn’t a balance spring that G forces would be able to affect, and in an airplane that can go over Mach 3, G forces are a crucial concern for a mechanical watch. Accutron movements proved effective and reliable for most of NASA’s cockpit instrumentation in the Gemini rockets, and later, the Apollo program. The CIA supplied the A-12 pilots with the Bulova and when the program ended, the watches stayed with the pilots. Vintage Watch Advertisement, 1969 (W.O.E.s Personal Collection) In typical CIA fashion, the Agency cared nothing about the absolute technical and engineering achievement of both the A-12 and the Bulova Astronaut. They were tools to get the mission done. If there was a cheaper or more effective tool available to execute the mission, those would be chosen, and eventually, they were. Quartz watches replaced the tuning fork movement, and more conventional propulsion systems were favored over the complex retracting inlet cone system that allowed Mach 3+ flight on the Blackbird.  The existence and disappearance of both these technical marvels serves as a reminder that no matter how much we romanticize or idolize incredible technology, it’s all in service of a larger mission: Giving America a competitive advantage when it comes to national security. The rest is just an added bonus. Read Next: Man O'War And The Horological Symbols That Inspire Us