Olympic achievements from Omega

When most of us think of Omega, the first watches that spring to mind are those from their Speedmaster and Seamaster collections. Since the 1950s, these precise tools have been the dependable companions of astronauts, adrenaline junkies, professional divers and of course, secret agents. But it is Omega’s lesser-known achievements in haute horlogerie, which long before that established the brand as a highly respected manufacture of precision timekeeping instruments. This includes watches like the Omega tourbillon Calibre “30 I” from 1947, which was also the first Swiss-made tourbillon wristwatch.

In 1994, Omega acknowledged this piece of watchmaking history with a tourbillon taking centre stage in the self-winding De Ville Central Tourbillon, another world first. Highly prized watches like these are produced in their Atelier Tourbillon where attention to detail is taken to the next level, merging traditional high watchmaking craft with the latest technology. Highlighting the diverse technical innovation in the Atelier, this handcrafted watch was updated in 2020 with the impactful 18kt Sedna gold novelty featuring a PVD-treated black dial and this time powered by their first manual-winding central tourbillon to be Master-Chronometer certified.

For 2022, the atelier of excellence has revealed Omega’s most complicated movement to date: the new Omega Co-Axial Master Chronometer Calibre 1932. This is a fully integrated chronograph and minute repeater that powers two celebratory editions that reference important events in the brand’s history. The first is the 18kt Sedna gold Olympic 1932 Chrono Chime edition with its Grand Feu enamel dial, reminding us of the manufacture’s impressive history with high complications and its long association as entrusted official timekeeper of the Olympic Games. This numbered edition also references the world’s first minute repeater wristwatch by Omega from 1892 as well as their pocket chronographs used during the 1932 Games in Los Angeles.

The minute repeater of the extraordinary Calibre 1932 chimes the elapsed time on golden gongs, which can also to be heard inside the second novelty, the Speedmaster Chrono Chime with its night sky blue aventurine dial created for “everyday wear”. This Speedmaster features a 45mm 18kt Sedna gold case inspired by the 2nd generation “Speedy” CK 2998. According to Omega, the gongs are a reference to the bells that signal the final lap during Olympic events.

These celebratory editions also remind us of Omega’s technological innovations and contributions to precision timekeeping for Olympic sports. Some of these include the Scan’O’Vision photo finish camera introduced in 1992, which records up to 10000 digital images per second. Their motion sensors and positioning systems used at Pyeongchang in 2018 along with various other innovations across different sports are also able to provide more accurate accounts of timing as well as athletes’ overall performances. Let’s not forget the touchpads used to record lap times in the swimming pool, which have no doubt been slapped a few times by one of the greatest Olympians of our time, Omega ambassador Michael Phelps.

But let us not forget the true star of the show. Through the open casebacks of these eye-catching new editions one can appreciate the incredible detail and finishing of the Calibre 1932, which took six years of development in collaboration with sister company Blancpain. The team had to push the limits of the well-known Co-Axial escapement, a key component of all Omega movements, to achieve a higher frequency of 5Hz and 1/10th of a second display. Adding further complication, the three chime cams have a security feature to avoid “mal-manipulation” and an integrated split-second function. The calibre also had to be fully anti-magnetic to be achieve Master Chronometer certification.

POA, omegawatches.com