Jean-Loup Chrétien's Yema Spationaute III - Mise à jour

[Seiko7A38]

Nearly ten years ago, in September 2012, I started one of a number of topics on the old forum about a favourite pet subject of mine, by asking a very specific question: What became of Jean-Loup Chretien's Yema Spationaute III ?

The thread was something of a ‘voyage of discovery’, occasionally straying off topic (at least from the primary line of investigation), but then I’m also interested in the history of space exploration. It ran until December 2017, receiving over 33,000 views while the old forum was still live. With hindsight, instead of conjecturing, based on available photos and a misleading statement made by Jean-Loup Chrétien, in a brief video clip of news footage, which temporarily led me to arrive at the wrong conclusion, I should more correctly have asked the question directly of the man himself. Indeed, less than two weeks later, I had my answer straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. In a brief, slightly brusque email dated 28th September 2012, JLC, who was then still resident in Houston, Texas, wrote:

Each crew member got his watch.
Mine is now at my son's.
Jean-Loup CHRETIEN (USA)

I spent many hours searching online for photos of Jean-Loup Chrétien wearing his Yema Spationaute III during the Mir Aragatz mission. Probably still the clearest shot of the watch, is this one, CNES image # P14705, where he's playing his keyboard. Sadly it's no longer available on their website in high resolution as it once was, but thankfully I saved a copy.

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Other than that, the watch also briefly appears in the opening seconds of this CNES video, produced in 2008.

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It's upside down in the display cabinet. Note the time shown - approximately 7:20.

[Seiko7A38]

Although Jean-Loup Chrétien seemed generally indifferent to the watch that had been specifically designed for his mission, preferring to wear the Omega Speedmaster, there were other French and Russian cosmonauts who evidently appreciated it. JLC's statement: 'Each crew member got his watch' sent me off on another tangent. It wasn't just the Soyuz TM-7 primary and back-up crews who received them, but certain 'long duration' Soviet cosmonauts aboard Mir who were photographed wearing them, so there must have been at least nine of these prototype versions produced.

Aleksandr Volkov.............Soyuz-TM-7 (Commander)
Sergei Krikalev...............Soyuz TM-7 (Flight Engineer)
Jean-Loup Chrétien---------Soyuz-TM-7 (Research Cosmonaut) - 25 days - returned aboard Soyuz TM-6.
Michel Tognini................Soyuz TM-7 back up-crew. Confirmed watch was worn on Soyuz TM-15 (1992).
Aleksandr Serebrov..........Soyuz TM-7 back up-crew. Confirmed watch was worn on Soyuz TM-8 (1989).
Aleksandr Viktorenko.......Soyuz TM-7 back up-crew and Soyuz TM-8 (1989).
Musa Manarov................Soyuz TM-4 (1987 - 366 days - returned aboard Soyuz TM-6) and Soyuz TM-11 (1991).
Vladimir Titov................Soyuz TM-4 (1987 - 366 days - returned aboard Soyuz TM-6).
Valeri Polyakov...............Soyuz TM-6 (1988 - 241 days - returned aboard Soyuz TM-7).

I remember having theorized about that number and writing something along those lines before on the old forum. Took me a while to find the thread where I'd done so: Comparative values: Yema Spationaute III vs Omega 'Speedy' ??

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Unfortunately, during the course of my enquiries, I failed to track down a single Russian cosmonaut who still possessed their watch. The only other person who still owned one besides JLC, was his compatriot, the third Frenchman in space - Michel Tognini, who still wears his Spationaute III to this day. As you'll already know if you've read all the way through that old thread (and this update), Michel kindly supplied me with photos of his watch, which enabled me to see the many detail differences between these space flown prototypes and the 'cadran drapeaux' production watches.

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Addendum: I seem to have omitted two other significant differences from that post. Namely the main dial colour of the prototype versions appears to be a darker shade of blue and there is no FRANCE printed at 6 o'clock. Sacre bleu !

I think that's enough of a preamble, so let's cut to the chase. The French expression mise à jour (literally sent to day) means update. As I can’t add anything to the old forum thread, it’s time for me to write another belated footnote.

[Seiko7A38]

During my original research into Jean-Loup Chrétien's Yema Spationaute III, I registered on two French space forums in the hope of finding some better photos: Le Club de Passionés d'Astronautique and Forum Conquete Spatiale.
I must admit I hadn't logged into either of them in a couple of years, so I was quite surprised when I received an email notification of some recently created topics, including notice of a forthcoming auction. That was two weeks ago today.

https://spatial.forumdediscussions.com/ ... t-encheres

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The auction, run by Le Calvez & Associates was being held at Hôtel Drouot, a major auction house in the heart of Paris, used by many smaller auctioneers, on Saturday 25th June, starting @ 14:00 (CEST). The sale was entitled (in English):
THE ODYSSEY OF THE FIRST FRENCH COSMONAUT: JEAN-LOUP CHRÉTIEN - 40th Anniversary of his first spaceflight.

The auction didn't appear to have been particularly well publicised outside France. There was a brief announcement made by Robert Pearlman, owner of collectspace.com, probably the most frequented website for space memorabilia collectors. (At the time he made his post the auction catalogue included 97 lots.) Both Drouot and Le Calvez & Assoc. plugged it on Instagram, the latter's post only receiving a mere 10 likes. They also posted a short interview with JLC. Later I found a couple of online articles, including this one by Ouest France:

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I believe this is the full (French) text of that article:

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The auction comprised a total of 143 lots, though only lots 1-96 could be directly attributed to Jean-Loup Chrétien's three spaceflights. Lots 97 -143 were added later and may possibly have been from someone else’s private collection. None of their descriptions included any reference to JLC and the majority were annotated: (Provenance : collection particulière). A rough breakdown of the first 96 lots as follows:

Clothing and Patches:----------9
Space Food Rations: -----------6
Documents (Various):---------13
Other Random Artefacts:------6
Philately (First Day, etc.):---29
Photos (autographed):-------31
Watches (Omega, Yema):-----2

Unfortunately, Drouot don't make it particularly easy to find links once an auction is ended, especially not to the sales results, which are not publicised and only available by subscribing to their monthly gazette !!

This was the original link to the auction: https://uk.drouot.com/v/128247 (annoyingly it doesn't work any more).
There was also a link to a virtual tour of the auction room: https://visitesdesalles.drouot.com/visi ... ite/128247
That still works at the moment and includes a gallery of 170 photos, though not the same as used for the auction lots.

Edit: I later found this Drouot news article: https://drouot.com/hotel-drouot/actuali ... p-chretien, which is more of a biography of Jean-Loup Chrétien, but includes details of four auction lots.

[Seiko7A38]

Of course it was Lot 28, Jean-Loup Chrétien's Yema Spationaute III Aragatz, which I was particularly interested in. Fortunately I had the foresight to take screen prints and save the photos before the auction went live, although much to my annoyance I can't find a link showing the details as they were previously displayed. This is the closest I can get.

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The third image was a cropped version of the CNES photo showing JLC playing on his keyboard aboard Mir (see post #1).

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The description was revised a couple of times in the week prior to the auction. Someone must have been googling.

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I had a hearty chuckle to myself about their insertion of: 'The case of the watch is made of very light titanium ...' Not only was that myth dispelled many years ago (by no less than JLC himself), but the words ALL STAINLESS STEEL engraved on the lower half of the case-back can be clearly seen in their second photo.

One important aspect omitted from the description was any mention of the watch's working condition and functionality.
Note the time shown - 7:19, the same as this other photo from the Drouot virtual tour gallery and the 2008 CNES video:

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So it's safe to assume it was a non-runner and likely the old flat battery hasn't been replaced since at least 2008.

[Seiko7A38]

As I wrote previously, Drouot don't make it particularly easy to check sales results after the auction has ended. Luckily I had the foresight to take screen prints of summaries of the lots I was particularly interested in (if not actually bidding on) and recorded their hammer prices (subject to 28.8% Buyers Premium) during the live auction. Note the majority of the auctioneer's estimates were woefully short of the mark. Some items actually realized 5 or 6 times their estimates.

https://uk.drouot.com/l/18488997-aragat ... light-from

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Sold for €3200 Euros.

https://uk.drouot.com/l/18488998-suit-i ... ic-2nd-fli

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Sold for €1100 Euros.

https://uk.drouot.com/l/18489000-glove- ... it-of-jean

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Sold for €4500 Euros.

https://uk.drouot.com/l/18489002-histor ... speedmaste

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Sold for €47,500 Euros.

https://uk.drouot.com/l/18489006-rare- ... ionaut-iii

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Sold for €13,000 Euros - of more anon.

https://uk.drouot.com/l/18489020-unique ... organ-port

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Sold for a whopping €40,100 Euros !! Presumably attributable to the nearly 9 years it spent 'flown' aboard Mir. Incidentally, the same Yamaha Portasound PSS-140 keyboard can easily be found secondhand on eBay for £20 or less !

https://uk.drouot.com/l/18489042-missio ... mber-26-to

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Sold for €160 Euros.

https://uk.drouot.com/l/18489047-1st-mi ... 02.07.1982

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Sold for €150 Euros. (Item erroneously catalogued as being from JLC's first mission. It's actually the Soyuz TM-7 launch).

https://uk.drouot.com/l/18489059-missio ... nd-mission

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Sold for €50 Euros. (One of the few items to actually sell within estimate).

https://uk.drouot.com/l/18489063-photos ... uration-of

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Sold for €120 Euros.

Edit: I subsequently found a 'back door' into the Drouot Gazette / auction catalogue, although no sold prices are shown.
See: https://www.gazette-drouot.com/ventes-a ... p-chretien

[Seiko7A38]

In case you hadn't guessed, it was myself who won the auction for Jean-Loup Chrétien's Yema Spationaute III Aragatz.
This watch (or one like it) has been one of my long term grails, though I never really expected the opportunity to arise.

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Nor quite honestly did I expect to end up paying quite as much as I did, for the privilege of owning one, but Hey Ho.

[Seiko7A38]

Here's a little insight into the auction. Like any other online platform, Drouot requires you to register, giving your full personal details, including a credit card, to enable you to bid on their live auctions. Then you have to additionally register and get approved for any auctions you may be interested in bidding on. Needless to say I did so, on the same day I discovered it ! I was a little surprised they imposed no maximum bidding limit, particularly as I was a 'newbie'.

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However, strange it may seem, their system actually allows you to place an automatic bid, before you've been approved and the auction goes live. I was already dubious about the auctioneer's estimate of €2000 - €3000, but initially entered one for the higher figure. My registration was validated some time afterwards, but in plenty of good time.

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In fact, I subsequently increased my automatic bid to €5500 Euros on the morning of the auction:

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Whilst not a complete waste of effort, once Lot # 28 went live, around 13:55 last Saturday, my auto bid's maximum was rapidly eclipsed, by increments, in just a matter of seconds. There seemed to be a lot of interest, both in the room and from other internet bidders. At one stage, I almost resigned myself to losing it. I'd mentally set myself a maximum manual bid of €10,000 Euros, but when that figure was surpassed, I carried on mashing the 'Raise the bid' button.

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I've no idea how many bids were placed, but I'd reckon on 20 or more. Unfortunately, even when the auction lot is live, Drouot only displays the last three bids (per the above screenshot). I was relieved rather than elated when it was over.
Later that afternoon, confirmation of my winning bid arrived in my inbox and this summary appeared on my dashboard.

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Le Calvez sent their invoice on Monday morning. I planned to pay them by bank transfer using Wise (was TransferWise), to get the best possible exchange rate, but even though there were more than sufficient funds in my bank account, it wouldn't allow me to to transfer more than £10K. Which necessitated a quick trip to my local branch. Once I'd overcome that minor obstacle and completed the online transaction, Wise notified me the payment had been deposited in Le Calvez's account a mere 10 seconds later by 11:30 am. It took until Friday morning for them to confirm receipt ! Hence the delay in writing this update. My plan now is to arrange collection of the watch, next week, by my nominated representative - a trusted member of another watch forum.

[Seiko7A38]

My French representative met with a partner of Le Calvez & Associates in Paris yesterday afternoon and collected the watch on my behalf. Here's a couple of 'taster' photos he sent me.

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The first shows what I was hoping to see on the back of the Kevlar / Velcro strap: E M A picked out in white. I'd seen this (more correctly, by squinting hard, seen what I thought it probably was) in a couple of photos of the Soyuz TM-7 launch and later aboard Mir. Indeed, in captioning a photo I'd written on the old forum thread:

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The reason I never saw the Y of YEMA previously, is because it's embroidered in red and blue:

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In most respects, the watch appears to be pretty much as I'd expected: not running and the time still showing as 07:19. Since the auction lot photos were taken someone has rotated the bezel through 180° so at least that still works !

The slightly rusty looking buckle is a means of adjusting the overall length of the strap. My contact described it thus:

The slightly rusty buckle is a sort of adjuster to change the strap length - rather like on the new MN straps that seem quite fashionable these days. There are a couple of indentations in the velcro where this buckle has been in different positions, but both places leave the strap longer than even the biggest wrist, so I guess worn over a spacesuit.

[Seiko7A38]

I must admit, I was slightly disappointed by one aspect. The second of Le Calvez' auction lot photos, of the case-back, is harshly overlit. It doesn't show any trace of a serial number. But I knew there had to be one, likely stamped in the same place as Michel Tognini's watch, which is # 04. Indeed it does. Except rather than being # 01 as I'd hoped, it's # 08.

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If nothing else, it lends credence to what I posited earlier:

It wasn't just the Soyuz TM-7 primary and back-up crews who received them, but certain 'long duration' Soviet cosmonauts aboard Mir who were photographed wearing them, so there must have been at least nine of these prototype versions produced.

Besides Michel Tognini's # 04, I'd known of the existence of one other (non space flown) Yema Spationaute III factory prototype. Between 2012 and 2014, I exchanged a number of emails with Gérald Roden, who was Export Manager for Compagnie Générale Horlogère from 1987 to 1992. In July 2013 he kindly emailed me some photos, including this slightly out of focus shot of his two Yema Spationaute III's. Both watches have the limited edition production version of the mission flags dial, rather than the 'prototype'. But the bezel engraving of the right hand example clearly belongs to what once was a prototype version. Naturally curious, I asked Gérald for its serial number. He replied 02.

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[Seiko7A38]

I must express my surprise at the number of views this thread has received: well over a thousand since I made my last post - despite my having left it locked. To those who are waiting patiently, apologies for the lack of updates regarding the watch. Carriage has been arranged and it should finally be in my possession by the end of next week. I suspect a number of bemused readers may be thinking to themselves: He paid HOW MUCH for a non-working quartz watch ?

I've had plenty of time to reflect on it over the last fortnight and I'll admit to having had nagging doubts as to whether I'd bid and paid too much, in my efforts to secure it. Yes, I've gone well over the top in a few online auctions before, but this was in another league altogether. What you need to realize (and I'm still trying to convince myself), is that JLC's Yema Spationaute III isn't just a very collectable watch, it also comes under the 'space flown memorabilia' umbrella.

In an attempt to illustrate some kind of comparison and also arrive at a reasoned judgement, I've spent a fair amount of time googling past auction results for space flown watches. As a convenient way of presenting the data, I plugged it into an Excel spreadsheet. The column headers should be self-explanatory. Apologies if the printing comes out a bit small.

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Not surprisingly, I found plenty of results for flown Omega Speedmasters, although very few (if any) belonged to well-known US astronauts. NASA stipulated that their issued watches should be returned and few (other than Buzz Aldrin's missing watch) escaped their clutches. You'll see I've included four which I've marked 'None specified'. In July 1993, in what was obviously another covert marketing exercise, Omega cleverly arranged for twenty-eight stainless and seven 18K Gold Speedmasters to be taken to the Mir space station 'for testing purposes'. They were kept onboard Mir for a year, before being returned to Omega and engraved: 365 DAYS ON BOARD SPACE STATION MIR - JULY 1993 - JULY 1994. They were sold to the public in 1995. So although not worn by any particular person, they are technically 'space flown'.

Of course, anything Apollo-related automatically falls into 'Silly Money' territory. The most expensive space-flown watch ever sold at auction is still Dave Scott's Apollo 15 / Lunar EVA back-up Bulova chronograph, which sold for a whopping $1.625M (including buyer's premium) in October 2015. The surprise 'bargain buy' was William Pogue's Seiko 6139 'Pogue', which sold in October 2008 for a mere $5975 (including buyer's premium). However, one needs to take into account that prices have increased at least 5-fold since then. For example, Ron Evans' Apollo 17 'CSM Heat Flow Test' Speedmaster had previously sold at an auction in Dallas in 2009, to Omega collector Riccardo Bernard for $23,900.

To get a fairer comparison with the price I'd paid for JLC's Yema Spationaute III, I needed to find space-flown quartz watches that had been owned by less-well-known astronauts (no disrespect intended) which had sold more recently. Fortunately I managed to find a couple: Nikolai Budarin's Omega Speedmaster X-33 sold for $22,000 (including buyers premium) in October 2019. Kathy Sullivan's Seiko A829-6019 sold for $21,420 (including buyers premium) in July 2021.

Checking the auction lot photos, both watches appeared to be suffering from dead batteries: the X-33's hands haven't moved, nor is there any LCD display. Same applies to the A829-6019. Both watches sold for prices considerably higher than the $17,680 dollar equivalent that I paid for the much rarer Yema Spationaute III, so I'm feeling vindicated.

[Seiko7A38]

Seiko 7A38 base here. The Yema has landed.

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First glitch for the recovery mission is that it's not quite as easy to remove the strap as I'd anticipated.

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The theoretically removable 'free' end section of the strap with the YEMA patch, which already makes it slightly thicker, also has the velcro hooks on its underside, so it's too thick to squeeze between the end of the watch case and the pin and tube fixing. I could press that out, but at this stage I'd rather not - there's always the risk of bending the pin, or marking the lug. Apart from that, the tubes appear to have been crimped three times, rather than just in the middle.

[Seiko7A38]

Naturally, I wanted to remove the velcro strap to make it easier to unscrew the case-back. Instead, for expediency's sake, I twisted it to one side. The case-back was on pretty tight, but I suspect it had been unscrewed at least once before (presumably some time prior to 2008), because someone had fitted a Maxell SR936SW replacement battery.

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Thankfully, there was absolutely zero trace of any previous battery leakage.

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I fitted a Seizaiken #394, greased the case-back seal and threads and screwed it back on. Everything works fine !

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[Seiko7A38]

The watch kept good time overnight, not missing a second and the day / date changed over correctly. So now all I really need to do is give it a very light (sympathetic) clean. Here's a couple of different wrist shots to the pair I just posted in the WRUW thread:

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The second one is intended to show the much simpler, condensed sans serif font used on the prototype bezels. It also reveals some of the light scuffs and scratches on the crystal, which I deliberately won't be doing anything about, so as to keep the watch as 'original' as possible.

[Seiko7A38]

With apologies for the slightly off topic post, but as I said before, I'm interested in the history of space exploration.

NASA stipulated that their issued watches should be returned and few (other than Buzz Aldrin's missing watch) escaped their clutches.

Speaking of Buzz Aldrin, who's also well known for his U-Haul trailer of Apollo 11 souvenirs, I just received a reminder. Sotheby's New York are holding an auction sale tomorrow 26th July, starting @ 12:00 EDT: Buzz Aldrin - American Icon.

No watches, but 69 lots of flown Gemini XII and Apollo 11 related ephemera, documents and medals. The two lots likely to attract most interest will be #6 and #15:

Buzz Aldrin's FLOWN Inflight Coverall Jacket, worn by him on his mission to the Moon and back during Apollo 11.
the broken circuit breaker switch that nearly ended the lives of the Apollo 11 Crew, & the pen that saved them.

Of course, anything Apollo-related automatically falls into 'Silly Money' territory.

Both lots have pre-sale estimates of $1M - $2M apiece.

[Seiko7A38]

With apologies for another off-topic post, but following on from the above ....
Sotheby's claimed two new auction records for yesterday's Buzz Aldrin sale:

Highest total value result for a Space Exploration auction : $6.54M (hammer) + $1.64M Buyer's Premium making a total of $8.185M. Lot 6, Buzz Aldrin's Apollo 11 flight jacket sold for $2.25M + $522500 Buyer's Premium = $2772,500 - a new record for a space-flown artefact. Lot 15, the broken LM toggle switch and felt tip pen was bid to 'only' $650,000, well short of the $1M - $2M estimate, failed to meet the reserve and hence went unsold.

Full results (prices inclusive of buyer's premium) are here: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction ... rican-icon
Lots of comments about Sotheby's Buzz Aldrin auction (including obligatory U-Haul jokes) here on collectspace.com.
Plus there's also this separate collectspace topic about the sale of Aldrin's Apollo 11 flight jacket.

[Seiko7A38]

Addendum: I seem to have omitted two other significant differences from that post. Namely the main dial colour of the prototype versions appears to be a darker shade of blue and there is no FRANCE printed at 6 o'clock. Sacre bleu !

I'm still discovering more differences between the space-flown prototypes and the production watches that I somehow managed to overlook before. Here's an extract from that post I made on the old archived forum back in February 2013.

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Note 'pretty much identical'. I genuinely thought they were. I really should have noticed this last week, when I replaced the battery in the ex-Jean-Loup Chretien Spationaute III. I unscrewed the case-back using my 6-pin removal tool. (See this thread on the old archived forum). I didn't think too much about it at the time, other than my sense of relief at having undone it without scratching the case-back. The 6 case-back removal holes seemed much closer to the engraving than I'd remembered before.

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Indeed they were !! Compare that to this:

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I'd checked a couple of other Yema Spationaute III's earlier in the week (both 43mm Ø and 38mm reduced). As a sanity check, I decided to get out my earliest production example, case-back serial number 1 004. Both sets of removal holes are on the same PCD (24.5mm). Seems like Yema sensibly decided to reduce the diameter / font size of the case-back engravings on the production watches by a couple of millimeters - presumably to make them less susceptible to getting scratched by accidental slippage of removal tools.

Note also the screw-down crown on the space-flown prototype is slightly taller - à la Breitling Chronomat 'pumpkin', compared to the shallower 'half onion' crown used on the production watches.

[Seiko7A38]

Apart from the anomaly of it being serial number 08, versus 01 that I'd expected, I'm pretty much convinced that my Yema Spationaute III prototype was worn aboard Mir by Jean-Loup Chrétien for the duration of the 25-day Aragatz mission. He may even have worn it for the 5h 57m EVA on 9th December 1988, but (from studying grainy video footage) underneath his thermal under-suit rather than outside his Orlan DMA space suit. When I received the watch, there were some off-white cotton fibres trapped amongst the velcro hooks, which possibly originated from the thermal under-suit. Further provenance is that the watch I purchased as Lot 28 in William Le Calvez auction on 25th June, arrived stopped at the same time (approx. 7:20) as the watch shown in the opening frames of the CNES video from 2008. That said, with any space-flown artefact it's always reassuring to have a letter of authentication, straight from the horse's mouth. William Le Calvez revised decription of Lot 28 stated one would be provided (twice):

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William Le Calvez originally promised the letter of authentication would follow in July .... then August. See emails:

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10 weeks since the auction ended and I'm still waiting for the letter. What galls me even more is that Le Calvez charged 28.8% buyer's premium (€3744 Euros) on the sale for basically doing bugger all !!

[Seiko7A38]

I'd followed up with two more emails to William Le Calvez, to which I initially received no response. So I decided some well-deserved negative publicity was in order. I added my comments to a couple of existing threads on Forumamontres and Forum Conquête Spatiale. A few sympathetic replies were forthcoming, but the general consensus was that French auction houses were a law unto themselves. This morning I was considering sending an email to host auctioneers Drouot, lodging a formal complaint, when I finally received a reply from William Le Calvez. Evidently he already has my letter of authentication to hand and wanted my postal address.

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Initial reaction is how dog-eared it looks.

[Seiko7A38]

It wasn't just the Soyuz TM-7 primary and back-up crews who received them, but certain 'long duration' Soviet cosmonauts aboard Mir who were photographed wearing them ....

Valeri Polyakov...............Soyuz TM-6 (1988 - 241 days - returned aboard Soyuz TM-7).

R.I.P. Valeri Polyakov

By virtue of his second spaceflight to Mir in January 1994, lasting 437 days, he later became holder of the record for a single human space flight. Valeri Polykov passed away yesterday aged 80.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62964177

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(Polyakov pictured left post Soyuz TM-7 landing in April 1989)

[Seiko7A38]

Although Jean-Loup Chrétien seemed generally indifferent to the watch that had been specifically designed for his mission, preferring to wear the Omega Speedmaster, there were other French and Russian cosmonauts who evidently appreciated it.

I can't remember exactly what first left me with the impression that Jean-Loup Chrétien seemed indifferent to Yema watches (in general), but I recently found written evidence of his preference for Omega. The following extracts are from a transcript of an interview he gave in May 2002. See the full transcript (part 1 of 2) here. It's quite a long read.

This paragraph and two following sentences are from the section where was describing his first space flight in Soyuz T-6 in June 1982, when he was wearing a Yema Spationaute (1) ana-digi - of which there is no mention:

Chrétien: Then I understood that it was wrong with my watch, but I could not put it—it was not at all the watch we had now. We did not have an Omega. I think I had a personal watch which was not that adapted for spaceflight, and I could not recycle the ascent, so everything happened in disorder. But we arrived in orbit, and, again, I could see that the two others are feeling comfortable.
And the same thing with that damn watch, it was not at all adapted for spaceflight. I gave it to my daughter after.
So they started working. I said, okay, again, my watch was not the right time.

The second extract is when he's describing the Soyuz TM-7 launch in December 1988 and was also wearing the 'official' Aragatz mission Yema Spationaute III - no mention of Yema whatsoever, but 'Omega' four times !

Then the rest, the same thing. We went to the launcher and launched. But that time I got the right watch. I had a nice Omega at the time that I got from Tom Stafford with the Omega people. So I had a good Omega watch. I had even two, in case one fails, but they don’t fail. Omega doesn’t fail.

Hence the well-known photo:

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His Yema Spationaute III is barely visible on his right wrist.

That transcript also included an interesting recollection about the space-flown Yamaha keyboard.

But a good thing that we could carry even personal belongings, as many as we wanted. There was no limit. We were still not with the maximum weight available for that launch. I even had a keyboard, that is now, I have to check that it’s still at Building One on the ninth floor. I took it back in the Shuttle, and a French museum is asking for it desperately. It’s a keyboard that spent nine years in space. So I had it in the Soyuz. We took it to Mir, left it there. I took it back four years ago in my flight, Shuttle flight.

As we know, from the Le Calvez auction sale, it didn't get donated to the French museum.

https://uk.drouot.com/l/18489020-unique ... organ-port

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Sold for a whopping €40,100 Euros !! Presumably attributable to the nearly 9 years it spent 'flown' aboard Mir. Incidentally, the same Yamaha Portasound PSS-140 keyboard can easily be found secondhand on eBay for £20 or less !