Hands-On: the Xeric Artemis Chronograph

Picture this: You’re playing Thursday night trivia and the DJ asks which watch was first worn on the moon. The softball question generates bar-wide high fives as everyone celebrates their collective awareness of Buzz Aldrin’s Speedmaster that forever married watches and space travel into pop culture lore. Less than a year after we took our first small steps on the moon, the Apollo 13 mission sought a return to our celestial stomping grounds. Once again, a watch stole our collective attention, this time as part of the ill fated Apollo 13 mission. The world heard the phrase “Houston, we’ve had a problem here” and held its collective breadth as the safe return of three astronauts packed into a Lunar Module 200,000 miles from earth became dependant on their ability to precisely time a 14 second burn of the module’s thrusters – a task achieved with a NASA qualified Omega Speedmaster.

John F. Kennedy famously declared that we choose to go to the moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard. While nothing about the nearly tragic Apollo 13 story makes this land-loving watch nerd want to get a closer view of the stars, others feel inspired to embody Kennedy’s words and to keep pushing farther… 586 times farther, to be exact. Kicking off this exciting new phase of space travel is NASA’s Artemis Program, which will bring a new generation of astronauts to the moon with new technology to be used on the quest for Mars.

The Watch

Watch collectors looking to celebrate the connection between horology and space travel have more options than ever. NASA watches are having a bit of a moment, with everyone from G-SHOCK to awake getting in on the fun. Unlike other brands making one-off limited editions, Xeric has made space travel a core part of their DNA, dedicating an entire section of their catalog to all things NASA, from a $1500 Tumbler to $300 semi-sweeping quartz options speckled with glowing stars. Their new Artemis Chrono line stays true to this trend of offering affordable and fun space themed watches and ambitiously comes in seven colorways. Yes, seven.