He’s dressed in an astronaut suit and is towering at more than three times the elevation of a commercial airliner in preparation of an epic leap. This Red Bull sponsored assignment is everything a Red Bull mission should be; a high-octane, high intensity mission that arouses the mind, gets your heart pumping and the blood surging through your veins.
As if fighting with claustrophobia wasn’t enough of a challenge for this young daredevil, then he’s crammed into a tight space suit and stuck in a tiny space aboard a stratospheric balloon 39 kilometers above the ground. Felix Baumgartner is preparing to depart a small boat at the very fringe of the world, a vessel that has the Zenith watch emblem printed on the spacecraft’s escape hatch. Millions of people throughout the globe had their eyes peeled on what was about to occur at the very place where the edge of our ground and the edge of distance kiss each other.
This brave man is going to leap from a stratospheric balloon from twenty five miles above the planet’s surface in anticipation to be the first human being to break the speed of sound during a 126,720-foot free autumn.
There wasn’t any method of knowing how this would end. It’s moments like these, where individuals take a leap of faith and go where no man had gone before. They go to that place where science and fear collide in an effort to create a quantum jump in realizing our very limitations as mortal beings.
Felix began to activate the suit and chest pack cameras to document this epic affair. He is then instructed to detach the oxygen hose from his suit so as to untether himself out of the vessel. He opens the door of this stratospheric balloon and also gazes out at a sight he’d never forget. He’s then instructed to remove his seatbelt and step out on the outer measure of the craft.
The whole world gasped and then held their breath for what seemed like an eternity as they watched him speeding through our stratosphere and troposphere at record-breaking rates for any human, a rate that may tear at the very fibers of our presence when breaking the sound barrier of 761mph.
The dials are showing a high speed of about 845 miles per hour and Baumgartner setting his own limitations is starting to sound harder and harder to comprehend. Maybe a side effect of this Mach 1.2 speed he passed or the crushing pressure of this G-force on his torso as he rips through the air.
Together with his heartbeat now hastened along with his anxiety level rising, there was only one thing about this unprecedented mission which was calm and collected from start to finish, his Zenith El Primero Stratos.
In tribute to Felix Baumgartner because of his bravery with this heroic assignment, and in celebration of being the first watch to break the sound barrier in a near-space environment. Zenith wacthes made an El Primero Stratos which featured a case back with an embossed Stratos assignment logo not to mention the world famous El-Primero chronograph watch together with all the flyback function.
The watches feature a 31 stone, Caliber 4057 B motion beating at 36,000 vph with a minimal 50-hour power book comprised of 326 components. The watch can be found on a rubber strap (Model Number: 03.2062.4057/ / 69. R515) in addition to a variant with a leather strap .