by Brent Robillard

It began over watches

Most friendships begin in predictable places. School. Work. The neighbourhood pub. Mine with Daniel Wang began over watches.

For the last few years we’ve traded messages over Instagram, shared images of new releases, bumped into one another at RedBar events, spent time talking watches at the Toronto Timepiece Show, and generally done what watch enthusiasts tend to do: enable one another’s hobbies and addictions.

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Drivana

Last year Daniel and his business partner, Ian Su, decided to indulge another passion. They opened Drivana in Carp, just outside Ottawa. Their slogan is “The One Day Collection,” and it suits them perfectly. The inventory isn’t built around transportation. It’s built around enthusiasm.

On any given day you might find a right-hand-drive JDM BMW 335i Wagon parked beside a Porsche 911, or a modern Corvette sharing showroom space with something wonderfully obscure–like a 1991 Bentley Turbo. It’s the sort of place where every car has a story before you even turn the key.

Watches and cars, cars and watches

For months Daniel had been telling me to stop by. But it wasn’t until he acquired a beautiful 2013 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 60th Anniversary Edition—after driving all the way to Moncton to collect it—that I finally ran out of excuses. Of course, the fact that he was also sitting on a 2025 8-speed double-clutch Z06 with 670 horse power didn’t hurt, either.

As watch collectors, we’d joked more than once about pairing watches with cars. Some combinations just make sense. A vintage Land Rover deserves something British. An Alfa Romeo practically demands a chronograph. And a Corvette?

Well, everyone knows the answer is an Omega Speedmaster Professional. Daniel certainly owns one among his curated collection.

Unfortunately, my only Speedmaster is the Speedmaster 125th Anniversary, an interesting watch in its own right and one that later found its way into space aboard Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Djanibekov’s missions. Wonderful history—but not quite the watch I wanted for this drive.

Instead I reached for something far less obvious: a 1967 Ollech & Wajs Astrochron. Most people—even watch collectors—have never heard of it. And that’s a shame.

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Ollech & Wajs Astrochron

The Astrochron never enjoyed the celebrity of the Speedmaster, yet it earned its own place behind the scenes in the American space program. During the 1960s, a number of NASA engineers purchased them privately because they needed a practical watch upon which they could calculate production and averages while coordinating projects that stretched across multiple time zones. Houston rarely slept. Neither did the contractors scattered across the United States and Europe.

Lead rocket scientist, Wernher von Braun, wore one. It was purchased for him by his team of scientists and engineers.

Unlike astronauts, however, NASA engineers weren’t rewarded with one of General Motors’ famous Corvette leases. That distinction belonged to the men riding rockets.

The history of Corvette and NASA

After lunch at the Cheshire Cat—where the chicken pot pie remains every bit as good as its reputation—we pointed the Corvette down Carp Road and headed into the Ottawa Valley.

There are faster cars than a C6 Z06. There are certainly newer ones. But few machines feel quite as honest. The naturally aspirated LS7 announces itself with a throaty cough. Every gear change feels mechanical. Every corner reminds you that this car was built long before digital filters softened everything.

As the kilometres slipped by, I found myself thinking about another generation of Corvette owners.

Beginning with the Mercury astronauts, and especially throughout the Gemini and Apollo years, Corvettes became almost inseparable from America’s early space program. The relationship started when Chevrolet dealer Ed Cole and racing legend Jim Rathmann arranged an extraordinarily inexpensive lease program for astronauts—often just one dollar per year.

Suddenly the parking lots around Cape Canaveral were filled with Corvettes. Alan Shepard owned several. Gus Grissom drove one. Gordon Cooper was another enthusiast. And Pete Conrad seemed to collect them almost as quickly as mission patches.

Jim Lovell, Deke Slayton, Wally Schirra, and many of their colleagues all became part of what amounted to America’s fastest company car program. Famously, Niel Armstrong drove a 1967 Stingray in Marine Blue.

The cars weren’t official NASA vehicles, of course. They were symbols of a particular moment in American history. Test pilots became astronauts, astronauts became celebrities, and the Corvette represented American engineering at its most optimistic.

Not everyone followed the trend. Wernher von Braun, the German-born engineer whose Saturn V rocket carried Apollo astronauts toward the Moon, reportedly preferred considerably more restrained German luxury cars. While the astronauts thundered around Florida in small-blocks and big-blocks, von Braun cut a rather different figure behind the wheel of a 1960 Mercedes Type 220S Ponton coupé–Astrochron on his wrist.

Different personalities. Different machinery.

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Speedmaster vs Astrochron

The watches followed a similar pattern. The Speedmaster became the astronauts’ watch because NASA proved it could survive where others failed. The Astrochron found its audience a little further from the launch pad, on the wrists of the engineers solving problems in offices, laboratories, and control rooms. They weren’t walking across the lunar surface, but they were helping make it possible. That has always appealed to me.

History often remembers the people standing in front of the cameras. It forgets the thousands standing just outside the frame.

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The long drive home

By the time Daniel and I turned back toward Carp, we’d spent as much time talking watches as cars. Somehow that’s always the way these afternoons go. One topic naturally gives way to another until you realise several hours have disappeared.

Driving home, I kept thinking about how unlikely the whole day really was. A friendship that began because of mechanical watches. A road trip inspired by a Corvette. Lunch in a country pub. An obscure chronograph from the 1960s that once found favour with NASA engineers. And, did mention the passing thundershowers we battled through to make it all come together?

Sometimes the best stories aren’t planned at all. They’re simply waiting for someone to connect the dots.

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About the author

Brent Robillard is a writer, educator, craftsman, and watch enthusiast. He is the author of four novels. You can follow him on Instagram.

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