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History

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Early history

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The workbench of Louis Brandt with a photograph of the founder

The forerunner of Omega, La Generale Watch Co., was founded at La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, in 1848 by Louis Brandt, who assembled key-wound precision pocket watches from parts supplied by local craftsmen.[12] He sold his watches from Italy to Scandinavia by way of England, his chief market. In 1894, his two sons Louis-Paul and César developed their own in-house manufacturing and total production control system that allowed component parts to be interchangeable. Watches developed with these techniques were marketed under the Omega brand of La Generale Watch Co. By 1903, the success of the Omega brand led La Generale Watch Co to spin off Omega as its own company, and the Omega Watch Co was officially founded in 1903.

Re-organization

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Pocket watch, made in the 1970s

Louis-Paul and César Brandt both died in 1903, leaving one of Switzerland's largest watch companies — with 240,000 watches produced annually and employing 800 people — in the hands of four young people, the oldest of whom, Paul-Emile Brandt, was not yet 24.[13] The economic difficulties brought on by the First World War led Paul-Emile Brandt to work in 1925 towards the union of Omega and Tissot, then to their merger in 1930 into the group SSIH, Geneva.

Under Brandt's leadership and Joseph Reiser's from 1955, the SSIH Group continued to grow and multiply, absorbing or creating some fifty companies, including Lanco and Lemania, manufacturer of the most famous Omega chronograph movements. By the 1970s, SSIH had become Switzerland's top producer of finished watches and third in the world. Up to this time, Omega outsold Rolex, its main Swiss rival in the luxury watch segment, in the race for "King of Swiss Watch brands", although Rolex sold at a higher price point. Omega tended to be more revolutionary and more professionally focused, while Rolex watches were more ‘evolutionary’ and famous for their mechanical pieces and branding.[14][15][16]

While Omega and Rolex had dominated in the pre-quartz era, this changed in the 1970s during the quartz crisis, when Japanese watch manufacturers, such as Seiko and Citizen, rose to dominance due to their use of quartz movements. In response, Rolex continued concentrating on its expensive mechanical chronometers where its expertise lay (though it did have some experimentation in quartz), while Omega tried to compete in the quartz watch market with its own quartz movements.[14]

Recent development

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Omega Seamaster De Ville, an early "waterproof" watch, with automatic movement and date, in 14k gold

Weakened by the severe monetary crisis and recession of 1975 to 1980, SSIH was bailed out by banks in 1981.[17] During this period, Seiko expressed interest in acquiring Omega, but nothing came of the talks.

Switzerland's other watch making giant Allgemeine Schweizerische Uhrenindustrie AG (ASUAG), supplier of a large range of Swiss movements and watch assemblies, was in economic difficulty. It was the principal manufacturer of Ébauche (unfinished movements) and owner, through their sub-holding company General Watch Co (GWC), of various other Swiss watch brands including Longines, Rado, Certina, Hamilton Watch Company and Mido. After drastic financial restructuring, the R&D departments of ASUAG and SSIH merged production operations at the ETA complex in Granges. The two companies completely merged forming ASUAG-SSIH, a holding company, in 1983.

Two years later, the holding company was taken over by a group of private investors led by Nicolas Hayek. Renamed Société de Microélectronique et d'Horlogerie (SMH), the new group over the next decade proceeded to become one of the top watch producers in the world.[18] In 1998 it became The Swatch Group, which now manufactures Omega and other brands such as Blancpain, Swatch, and Breguet.

Omega experienced a resurgence with advertisements that focused on product placement strategies, such as in the James Bond 007 films; the character had previously worn a Rolex Submariner but switched to the Omega Seamaster Diver 300M with GoldenEye (1995), and later an Omega Planet Ocean and Aqua Terra. Omega adopted many elements of Rolex's business model (i.e. premium pricing, tighter controls of dealer pricing, increasing advertising, etc.), which succeeded in increasing Omega's market share and name recognition to become a direct competitor to Rolex.[14][19][20]

In 2019, Omega licensed its name and branding to Marcolin for a collection of men's and women's optical frames and sunglasses.[21] In March 2022, Omega collaborated with sibling company Swatch, both of which are owned by The Swatch Group, to release a budget version of its iconic Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch.[22] The so-called "MoonSwatch", available in 11 colors, is made of bioceramic (a mixture of ceramic and castor oil) and priced at $260 / £207,[23] well below the $5,250 price (as of March 2022) of the least expensive Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch.[24]

Watch manufacturing

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Notable inventions and patents

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18k rose gold Omega Constellation, 1958

In 1892, Louis Brandt, the founder of Omega, manufactured the world's first minute repeating wristwatch in collaboration with Audemars Piguet, which provided the minute-repeating movement.[25][26][27] The 18K-gold watch is now kept in the Omega Museum in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland.[27]

In 1947, Omega created the first tourbillon wristwatch calibre in the world with the 30I. Twelve of these movements were made, intended for inclusion in the observatory trials in Geneva, Neuchâtel and Kew-Teddington, and they were known as the Omega Observatory Tourbillons. Unlike conventional Tourbillion movement's whose cages rotate once per minute, the 30I's cage rotated one time each seven and a half minutes. In 1949, one of these delivered the best results ever recorded by a wristwatch up to that time. A year later, Omega broke its own record in the Geneva Observatory Trials of 1950.[28]

In 1999, after the successful development of Calibre 2500, Omega made history by introducing the first mass-produced watch incorporating the coaxial escapement — invented by English watchmaker George Daniels.[29] Considered by many to be one of the more significant horological advances since the invention of the lever escapement, the coaxial escapement functions with virtually no lubrication, thereby eliminating one of the shortcomings of the traditional lever escapement.[30] Through using radial friction instead of sliding friction at the impulse surfaces the coaxial escapement significantly reduces friction, theoretically resulting in longer service intervals and greater accuracy over time.[31]

On January 24, 2007, Omega unveiled its new Calibres 8500 and 8501, two coaxial (25,200 bph) movements created exclusively from inception by Omega.[32][33]

On January 17, 2013, Omega announced the creation of the world's first movement that is resistant to magnetic fields greater than 1.5 Tesla (15,000 Gauss), far exceeding the levels of magnetic resistance achieved by any previous movement - a similar movement was used by Daniel Craig as James Bond, though the official collectors watch was labelled as resistant to 15,007 Gauss in honor of the fictional secret agent's codename. Most anti-magnetic watches utilize a soft iron - Faraday cage which distributes electromagnetism in such a way that it cancels the effect on the movement contained within. This type of anti-magnetic case required de-magnetizing procedures of the case. Omega has instead built a movement of non-ferrous materials eliminating the need for such a cage and providing a far greater resistance to magnetic fields eliminating necessity of additional maintenance.[34]

In 2015, they introduced the Master Chronometer Certification, which denotes that along with a COSC (Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute) certification, a movement has also passed a series of eight tests set out by METAS (The Federal Institute of Metrology). Master Chronometer watches have a minimum water-resistance rating of 100 metres (330 ft) (the 2022 Speedmaster '57 is a Master Chronometer with 50 metres (160 ft) water-resistance),[35] a minimum power reserve rating of 60 hours, an accuracy rating of 0/+5 seconds per day, and are resistant to magnetic fields of 15,000 gauss. The Master Chronometer Certification debuted on the Globemaster but they now offer it across many more of its watch collections.[36]

Observatory trials

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Omega Genève Cal. 613

Observatory trials focused on the science of Chronometry and the ability to make chronometers measure time precisely. Only Patek Philippe and Omega participated every year in the trials. Omega's performances at these competitions garnered the company a reputation of precision and innovation.[37]

For more than a decade (1958–1969), Omega was the largest manufacturer of COSC chronometers. Omega developed the slogan "Omega – Exact time for life" in 1931 based on its historical performance at the Observatory trials.[38] Omega's early prowess in designing and regulating timing movements was made possible by the company's incorporation of new chronometric innovations.[37]

Notable dates for the Omega precision records:[37]

1894: Creation of the 19 caliber named Omega. The company is renamed Omega from Louis Brandt et Frères in 1903[39] Omega participates for the first time at observatory trials in Neuenburg, Albert Willemin, Omega's first "regleur de précision", regulated the movement

1919: 1st Prize at observatory trials in Neuenburg with a 21 caliber, this caliber was slightly modified to become the Cal. 47.7

1922: Omega participates for the first time at observatory trials in Kew-Teddington, achieves 3rd place

1925: 1st place at observatory trials in Kew-Teddington with a Cal. 47.7 (95.9 of 100 points ex aequo with Ulysse Nardin), movement regulated by Gottlob Ith

1930: 1st place at observatory trials in Kew-Teddington (96.3 of 100 points ex aequo with Movado), movement regulated by Alfred Jaccard

1931: Omega achieves 1st place in all 6 categories at observatory trials in Geneva, movements, regulated by Alfred Jaccard

1933: A Cal. 47.7 regulated by Alfred Jaccard achieved the precision record at observatory trials at Kew-Teddington, achieved 97.4/100 points

1936: Another Cal. 47.7 regulated by Alfred Jaccard achieved the precision record of 97.8/100 points at Kew-Teddington, record not broken until 1965

1937: 1st place at Kew-Teddington with 97.3 points

1938: 1st place at Kew-Teddington with 97.7 points

1940: 1st place with Cal. 30mm at Kew Teddington, movement regulated by Alfred Jaccard

1945: 1st place with 30mm caliber at the observatory in Geneva, movement regulated by Alfred Jaccard

The distinctive Omega Constellation day-date model of 1980's generation that was known as "Manhattan", equipped with quartz movement, Cal. 1444

1948: 1st place at observatory trial in Neuenburg for 30mm caliber

1950: 1st place for tourbillon Cal. 30I at Geneva Trials, regulated by Alfred Jaccard

1951: 1st place at the observatory trials in Geneva

1952: 1st place at the observatory trials in Geneva

1954: New record in Geneva by Gottlob Ith

1955: Two new records at Neuenburg by Gottlob Ith

1956: Two 1st places at observatory trials in Neuenburg

1958: New record in Geneva movements regulated by Joseph Ory

1959: Two records in Neuenburg and one new record in Geneva, movement regulated by Joseph Ory

1960: One new record in Geneva, one new record in Neuenburg, and 1st place in Neuenburg, movement regulated by Joseph Ory

1961: Two new records in Geneva by Joseph Ory, the first four places for the 'single pieces' category in Geneva are occupied by Omega

1962: 2nd, 3rd and 4th places for Omega

1963: Two 1st places in Geneva and Neuenburg, movement regulated by Joseph Ory and André Brielmann

1964: New record in Neuchatel by Joseph Ory

1965: Omega occupies 2nd to 9th places

1966: Three new records for Omega (two in Neuenburg, one in Geneva)

1968: Omega enters with a tuning fork, movement regulated by André Brielmann for a new record

1969: Two new records for the tuning fork, movement regulated by André Brielmann

1970: One new record for the tuning fork, movement regulated by André Brielmann

1971: Two new records for the tuning fork, movement regulated by André Brielmann

1974: Omega Marine Chronometer certified as the world's first Marine Chronometer wristwatch, accurate to 12 seconds per year

Reference Numbers

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Before 1962 it was a simple alphanumeric code of two letters followed by four digits. Between 1962 and 2007 Omega used the Mapics system, consisting of two letters followed by either six or seven numbers. The PIC system started in 1988, running concurrently with Mapics, and featured an arrangement of eight numbers in three groups (XXXX.XX.XX).[40]

Finally, today we have the PIC14 structure, with 14 digits in six groups.

Notable models

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Main article: List of most expensive watches sold at auction

Buzz Aldrin wearing the Omega Speedmaster (on his right wrist) during the first manned Moon landing of Apollo 11 in 1969

The Omega wristwatch Ref. H6582/D96043 (1960) once owned by Elvis Presley was sold in auction by Phillips for US$1.812 million in Geneva on May 12, 2018, making it the most expensive Omega timepiece ever sold at auction.[41][42] The watch was manufactured in 1960 and was sold by Tiffany & Co. in 1961.[42] The watch was presented to Elvis Presley as a gift from RCA Records on February 25, 1961, to commemorate his remarkable achievement of having sold 75 million records.[41] Petros Protopapas, the director of Omega Museum, later confirmed that the museum was the winning bidder.[43]

The Omega Stainless Steel Tourbillon 301 was sold in auction by Phillips for around US$1.43 million (1,428,500 CHF) in Geneva on November 12, 2017.[44] It was then the most expensive Omega timepiece ever sold at auction.[45][46]

In March 1965, the Omega Speedmaster was declared “Flight Qualified for all Manned Spaced Missions."[47] On July 20, 1969, Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the Moon wearing his Omega Speedmaster watch.[48] The model of the first watch on the Moon is the Omega Speedmaster 105.012.[49]

Seamaster 120M Analog-Digital "Multifunction" was introduced in 1998 and discontinued after few years, fitted with Omega, Cal. 1665.