Thomas K. Mattingly Born in 1936 in Chicago, Illinois, Thomas K. Mattingly is a veteran of three space flights and a member of NASA support crews for the Apollo VIII and XI missions. He joined NASA in 1966, following an initial spell in the US Navy. Mattingly was made Command Module Pilot (CMP) of Apollo XIII in 1970, but had to relinquish his seat to CMP Jack Swagert, due to having been exposed to German measles shortly before the launch. The mission, which almost turned tragic due to an in-flight explosion, was dramatized in the 1995 movie ?Apollo XIII?, in which Mattingly was played by actor Gary Sinise. He flew as CMP in April 1972 on Apollo XVI, the fifth lunar landing mission, accompanied by John W. Young and Charles M. Duke, Jr. Mattingly was commander on two further space flights: the final test flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia in June 1982 and the 15th shuttle flight in January 1985. Upon leaving NASA a year later, he returned to the Navy, where he managed satellite programs and achieved the rank of Rear Admiral before moving into the private sector. This model, in 18K gold, was created in 1969 to commemorate the Apollo XI mission ? the first manned lunar landing on July 21. The first initial series of 28 numbered watches ? including the present lot ? were given to each of the astronauts on active service at the time. The watches were presented at a gala dinner held on November 25, 1969 at Hotel Warwick in Houston, Texas. Of the standard retail version, a total of 1014 examples were made until 1972. The retail examples carried a different inscription: ?Omega Speedmaster ? Apollo XI 1969?. Of the three presentation watches, numbers 1, 2, and 1006 (the present watch), were retained by Omega?s U.S. agent. Watches 1 and 2 were intended to be given to President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew, however Nixon and Agnew refused the gift for political reasons. The reason watch 1006 was never presented to Mattingly remains unclear; it was, however, given by Omega?s U.S. agent to his own wife, who in 1997 sold the watch to the Omega museum.