Artemis II Astronaut Watches: The X-33 and the Breitling Cosmonaute

Artemis II launched on April 1, 2026, and Orion splashed down in the Pacific off San Diego on April 10. The crew, Reid Wiseman , Victor Glover , Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen , flew around the Moon without landing. All four wore the Omega Speedmaster Professional X-33 Second Generation , a titanium quartz chronograph, not the hand-wound Moonwatch many people expected. A second brand then confirmed its own watch had flown. This guide separates what is documented from what is rumour, and explains why the X-33 and the Moonwatch do different jobs.

Who wears what: quick reference

Reid Wiseman (Commander, NASA)

Wiseman is the best-documented wearer. He wore the X-33 on the outside of his suit for launch and, per collectSPACE, set it to GMT because launch teams plan their window cadence in GMT. He is also the person Gear Patrol says asked for a Cosmonaute on the mission.

Loupe lists extra pre-launch watches for Wiseman, including a Breitling Endurance Pro, but marks them unsourced, so we leave them out. We could not confirm whether the crew-worn Cosmonaute is the same watch as the commemorative edition (see below).

Victor Glover (Pilot, NASA)

Glover is documented on the X-33 like the rest of the crew. Two further items are single-source.

Loupe also lists a Cosmonaute for Glover from livestream appearances; we treat that as reported, not confirmed.

Christina Koch (Mission Specialist, NASA)

For Koch the on-record fact is the X-33. Fratello lists personal watches from an unnamed NASA contact, and we do not repeat them as fact.

Breitling's confirmation said “the crew” wore the Cosmonaute and did not name individuals, so we do not assign it to Koch.

Jeremy Hansen (Mission Specialist, CSA)

Hansen, of the Canadian Space Agency, is the fourth X-33 wearer. Any Breitling link beyond the crew-wide confirmation rests on photo analysis.

Treat the individual Breitling attributions for Glover, Koch and Hansen as unconfirmed.

From Gemini to Orion (NASA qualification history)

Two Omega watches have two different jobs. Gear Patrol says the classic Speedmaster Professional is the only watch NASA has ever qualified for spacewalks, and that the X-33 is not EVA-qualified. Gear Patrol describes the X-33 Second Generation as flight-qualified and standard issue to NASA astronauts.

One lead we were given said the 1965 qualification involved the ST 105.012. The sources we read show the Gemini-era watch was the 105.003, and the 105.012 belongs to the Apollo years, so we do not repeat that pairing.

Context: the reference number, the Breitling edition and the old rumour

The reference number conflict. Sources give two numbers for the crew's X-33. Omega's own product page lists 3291.50.00 , “Speedmaster 42.25 mm, titanium on titanium”, with the Calibre 1666 quartz movement. That page is marked discontinued and does not mention NASA or Artemis II. Loupe and Fratello also use 3291.50. A figure of 318.92.42.79.01.001 appears in a Luxury Bazaar article, which hedges with “presumably”; we could not match it to any Omega page. Omega lists a different 318.92 reference for a 45 mm limited edition. We therefore name 3291.50.00 as the Omega-listed match for the described watch, and say plainly that the crew's exact reference is not stated by Omega or NASA in anything we read.

The Breitling edition is a separate product. Breitling's Navitimer B02 Chronograph 41 Cosmonaute “Artemis II” is limited to 450 pieces. It has a 41 mm steel case, a hand-wound B02 movement and a dial cut from an iron-nickel meteorite, and it cost $11,900 at the time of Gear Patrol's report (April 14, 2026). The crew-worn watch was described by collectSPACE as a previously unseen Cosmonaute. Whether it is identical to the edition is not stated in what we read, so treat the edition as a brand release, not as a crew watch. Breitling points to Scott Carpenter's 24-hour Navitimer on Mercury-Atlas 7 in May 1962 as the link.

The press-conference rumour. Before launch, forum posts said some crew wore Breitling Cosmonautes at a March press conference. We could not verify that sighting. Breitling's April 13 confirmation does show a Cosmonaute flew, but it concerns the mission, not the press event.

What we could not find. We found no Omega press release or NASA statement naming the crew's watches. The X-33 is not a consumer product: Gear Patrol says Omega ended public sales in 2006 and keeps making the Second Generation for NASA. For the wider story see Omega Speedmaster history, Omega, our Apollo astronaut watches guide and the Speedmaster Professional vs Rolex Daytona comparison.

Related guides. For other famous wearers see the famous people watches hub.

Myths and mix-ups, corrected

• “The crew wore the Moonwatch to the Moon.” Gear Patrol says all four wore the X-33 Second Generation. The classic Speedmaster Professional is the watch NASA qualified for spacewalks, and Orion did not land.
• “The Breitling story is just a forum rumour.” The pre-launch press-conference sighting was unverified, but Breitling confirmed on April 13, 2026 that the crew wore a Cosmonaute, and Wiseman has commented on it.
• “You can buy the watch the crew wore.” Omega ended public sales of the X-33 Second Generation in 2006, per Gear Patrol. Breitling's edition is a commemorative product, not the crew-issued watch.
• “The 1965 NASA test was won by the 105.012.” The sources we read tie Gemini to the 105.003. The 105.012 is the Apollo-era reference worn by Buzz Aldrin.

Sources

Gear Patrol (April 2 and April 14, 2026); collectSPACE (April 13, 2026); NASA mission page for launch, crew and splashdown; Omega product page for ref. 3291.50.00 and Omega's Speedmaster history page; Wikipedia for the NASA qualification timeline; Loupe, Fratello, Jewellery Business and Something About Rocks for supporting detail. We could not open the NY Post, Men's Journal or Watchbase pages, and found no Omega press release, so none are relied on. Prices are in US dollars with their report dates.