This one should be marked “provisional” because although it’s widely been repeated that the famous ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl wore an Eterna watch on his 1947 journey across the Pacific, on a balsa-wood raft, it’s never been proven conclusively that that was in fact the case. The journey was undertaken as an attempt to demonstrate the plausibility of Heyerdahl’s theory that Polynesia had been colonized by travelers from South America. He would later go on to attempt to prove a similar theory about the colonization of South America by Africans, by sailing a papyrus reed boat – the Ra – across the Atlantic. While both voyages were successful, his theories remain controversial (modern DNA studies, however, suggest that he may have been onto something). The Eterna Kontiki watch came out in 1958, and again, it seems unlikely that Eterna would have given the watch that name, and used Heyerdahl’s expeditions in its marketing, were the connection not legitimate. However, we’ve been unable to find any direct evidence that Heyerdahl’s watch was an Eterna – or any record of its fate.
Any readers with any info on any of these, don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments!