Luxury £1,500 watch blasted into space predicted to land in Doncaster on Thursday - and finder can claim it for free

A £1,500 luxury watch which will be blasted into space and is predicted to land in Doncaster is up for grabs for whoever finds it.

The watch, which will be sent into the stratosphere on Thursday, is expected to land north east of Doncaster based on current weather predictions - and will be free for the finder to keep.

The timepiece is being propelled into the skies by Jura Watches - part of Derbyshire-based C W Sellors Fine Jewellery - who will send the jewellery into the air using a helium filled balloon.

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A series of cameras will be attached to the payload filming the entire ascent, capturing the curvature of the Earth, before immense atmospheric pressure expands the balloon to over 10 metres wide, causing it to burst and fall back to Earth aided by a parachute.

Once the payload has landed, members of the public are being invited to hunt the package down, with the finder being able to claim the Seiko watch as a prize.

The exciting project, which takes flight on Space Exploration Day, has been sponsored by world renowned watch manufacturer, Seiko, to celebrate the launch of the Seiko Astron collection.

The watch will launch from the grounds of Carsington Water, Derbyshire, where C W Sellors has plans to build a new ‘jewellery design centre of excellence’ visitor attraction next year.

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Steve Ashby, one of the project organisers at Jura Watches, said: “This is without a doubt one of the most exciting projects I have ever worked on, but one that’s not without meticulous planning.

“Based on our current data, it looks like wind conditions on the day will land the watch somewhere around the South Yorkshire area, so people should be on the lookout!

“We are working closely with professionals who will be overseeing the project to make sure everything from the launch to the landing goes to plan.”

Jura Watches plans to broadcast live still images of the flight and landing throughout the day on its Facebook page, and will share a full HD video of the launch once complete.

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The balloon should float until it passes the edge of Earth’s atmosphere, before it eventually bursts and drifts back to earth by parachute.

Over the course of the launch and descent, the balloon has the capacity to travel an incredible distance, but organisers will be able to give anybody hunting the watch a predicted landing area of around three miles wide based on the weather conditions on the day.

The project is being overseen by Sent Into Space, a company which specialises in space launches.

Chris Rose, Director of Sent Into Space, said: “The commonly accepted gateway to near space is the Armstrong Line at 19km, this is the point at which you would need a pressurised Space Suit to survive or your blood would quite literally boil in your body - and we are aiming to reach altitudes exceeding 35km.

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“Temperatures will plunge to lower than minus 60 degrees celsius, pressure will drop to almost zero and the watch will experience significant accelerations and speeds over 200 miles per hour on its re-entry through the atmosphere as it returns to Earth!"

David Harnby, director of sales and marketing at Seiko, said: “Orbiting 20,000 km above the surface of the earth are the GPS satellites that help us run our lives and to which every Seiko Astron GPS Solar watch connects.

“To celebrate this incredible technology we thought it would be exciting to see how close we could take an Astron watch to these satellites and beyond.

Members of the public are also encouraged to get involved with the launch by entering one or more of the competitions linked to the event, where you can guess the distance travelled, the time between launch and landing, and the maximum altitude reached to win a range of prizes, including a £100 voucher and a selection of Seiko merchandise.

Follow the launch and competitions at www.watchintospace.com, on social media at www.facebook.com/jurawatches or follow #TimeInSpace on Twitter.