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In this video of CSA Astronaut Chris Hadfield aboard the ISS, he wears his watch very loosely--so that it continually bumps against different sides of his arm. I imagine this might be mildly irritating or get in the way of precise work, although it is possible he simply does not mind. From looking at pictures, it seems like Hadfield often wears his watch this way, and I have not yet found any evidence of another astronaut wearing a watch loosely.

This makes me curious--why might an astronaut wear a wristwatch so loose? Are there aspects of an astronaut's work, zero-g, or the ISS that might explain this--perhaps something to do with concerns of constricting blood flow in microgravity? Is there evidence of other astronauts wearing their watches loosely?

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  • $\begingroup$ That's probably how he wears his watches (mostly for comfort). I don't thing NASA dictates how/if/when astronauts wears a watch either. $\endgroup$ – user3528438 Jun 27 '20 at 3:35
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    $\begingroup$ I very fortunately own one of the 25th anniversary "moon landing" Omegas - I'm going to start wearing it loose like that :) Great question! $\endgroup$ – Fattie Jun 27 '20 at 12:13
  • $\begingroup$ Pure speculation, but one might at least wonder if the band size was selected for comfort in another circumstance. On the ground perhaps, or during early stages of space adaptation when there might be more fluid in the upper body? Surely somewhere in troves of data there is a chart of wrist circumference vs flight day... or not. $\endgroup$ – Chris Stratton Jun 27 '20 at 23:09
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Nice observation, he is just doing it to show off! Check these out:

https://twitter.com/cmdr_hadfield/status/326727757109268481?lang=en

his tweet on the question

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