Omega Watch Information & Omega Watch History

In 1848, at the age of 23, Louis Brands opened a comptoir d'etabilissage, a sub-contracting sales office for watch manufacture. In 1880, the two brothers César and Louis-Paul Brandt rented a floor in a Bienne building to set up a modern watch production unit. Among the names they chose for their watches were "Helvetia", "Jura", "Celtic", "Gurzelen", and "Patria". With the introduction of the "Labrador" lever movement in 1885, the watches achieved a precision of within 30 seconds a day.

In 1889, four years, later, Louis Brandt and Fils became the largest producers of watches in Switzerland, with a production rate of of over 100,000 watches. But this fact did not stop the exclusivity of the watches they produced, e.g. the minute-repeating wristwatch, developed in 1892 in partnership with Audemars Piguet, and probably the first wristwatch of its kind.

A completely new procket-watch caliber movement became a brilliant market performer when it went into production in 1894. It's major points for salability were in it's easily interchangable parts, and it's simplicity of construction. The company's banker, Henri Rieckel, suggested the name "Omega" for the new watch. The overwhelming success of the "Omega" name led to it being adopted as the sole name for all the watches of the company from 1903.

The Omega name made it's sports debut at the international ballooning contest for the Gordon Bennet cup in 1909. Britain's Royal Flying Corps decided to choose Omega watches in 1917 as their official timekeepers for it's combat units, as did the American army in 1918. Omega had their first victory at the observatory timing competitions in Neuchâtel in 1919 with their chronometers winning the competition. This was continued with a score of first places right up until 1971. The 1933, 1936 and 1946 competitions were some of Omega's most noteworthy.

In 1957, the "Omega Speedmaster" was created. After rigorous evaluation and testing, NASA decided to use the "Speedmaster Professional" chronograph wristwatch in 1965 as it's official timekeeper. In 1967, the one millionth chronometer was certified.

In 1965, the omega speedmaster professional - the first and only watch worn on the moon - was flight qualified by NASA for all manned space missions after being the only chronograph to withstand severe test under conditions of zero gravity, magnetic fields, extreme shocks, vibrations and temperatures from -18 to +93 degrees celsius. Since that time, the speedmaster has accompanied each astronaut with total reliability on all space missions (including 6 moon landings), from Gemini through Apollo and Skylab to the current shuttle program.

What better symbol of the speedmaster professional's space legacy then the magical moment on July 21 1969 at 2.56 GMT when Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind".

In 1970 the same chronograph was instrumental in rescuing the crew and craft of the Apollo 13 mission from disaster after an on-board explosion. The speedmaster worn by the crew provided them with the only timing equipment for the burn that sent them back to Earth. This critical contribution earned Omega the Snoopy astronauts award from NASA.

On 21st July 1969, astronaught Neil Armstrong became the first man to step on the moon. As he made the famous steps quoting "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind", he was wearing his Omega Speedmaster Professional chronograph. In 1972, Omega recieved their two-millionth chronometer certificate.

In 1974 the legendary "Megaquartz" marine-chronometer had a daily timing variation of just two thousands of a second, in a trial lasting for 63 days.

On the 18th of May, 1983, Omega recieved it's 100,000th official rating certificate for quartz chronometers. A museum for the company was opened on 16th December 1983. In 1995, presentations were made of the first automatic wristwatch with a centrally mounted tourbillion. Omega is continuing to demonstrate it's innovation, with it's newest addition to the company's collection in 1999, with the new 2500 caliber movement looking to replace the traditional Swiss-lever escapement.

Omega's watchmakers have developed the "coaxial escapement", a creation of the English master-watchmaker, George Dianels, for series production in wristwatches. The combination of the new escapement and a newly developed free sprung balance aims to eliminate the basic impediments to accurate regular timekeeping. The effect of the thickness and viscosity of lubricant on the balance's amplitude has been virtually eliminated. The new coaxial escapement consists of three components: a coaxial wheel, an escape wheel, and a lever with three pallet stones, unlike the conventional pallet-lever and escape wheel of the lever escapement. This has extended service intervals to around 10 years.

Special mention for the early Omega Constellation & Omega Seamaster models

A 1950 “Bumper” Omega Seamaster is the perfect example of a classic watch that would be extremely difficult to find today. The Seamaster model, intended as a rugged, high precision sports watch, was introduced only two years earlier in 1948, and rarely are early examples, offered for sale. The Seamaster name is still used by Omega today and these early watches are correctly perceived by enthusiasts as being historically significant as they very much represent the “first of a bloodline”. For the uninitiated, it rather behoves me to explain that the “bumper” nickname given to these particular watches is a reference to their automatic winding rotors.

Unlike later Omega watches, these early automatics do not allow for full circular motion of their rotors. Omega engineers at the time calculated that maximum winding efficiency could be achieved by limiting the available rotor travel to roughly 300 degrees. These superb movements were entirely hand assembled and built to remarkably high standards. Only experienced Omega watchmakers were involved in the assembly of these movements, due to their high complexity. As the rotor moves backwards and forwards, it is cushioned by a pair of delicate buffer springs. When in use, the wearer can actually feel the rotor impacting against the springs and bouncing back again, hence the “bumper” title ascribed to this particular calibre. Sadly, due to sheer complexity of the movement, and its associated high production cost, despite its superb levels of accuracy and performance, the “bumpers” were only produced for a short time, hence their high desirability factor today.

For those concerned with Omega reference numbers, the actual movement calibre is calibre 351 and other calibres, possibly the most highly regarded and technically advanced of all the Omega Bumpers. It is fully signed “Omega Watch Co, Swiss”, has 17 jewels, a 36 hour power reserve ( the length of time that the watch will run from fully wound to stopped if untouched) and operates at 19800 beats per hour. These movements had a well deserved reputation for accuracy and extreme reliability. All my Omega Bumpers watches has been regularly serviced throughout its life and is in perfect running order. Another important aspect of this watch is its superb condition and total originality. This model was the highest stainless steel model in the range and featured the extremely attractive art deco arrowhead markers and equally deco luminous dauphin hands. I would certainly state that, most Omega dial from 1948 are wonderfully elegant deco dials, some are very attractive vintage Omegas dials that I have ever seen.

Their dials are, of course, fully signed “Omega Automatic, Seamaster”. the earlier ones are signed Omega automatic, There are different shaped watch hands and winding crowns, complete with Omega logo. For the total perfectionist, Interestingly, the case has delightfully elegant slightly deco Omega from this period, most simply having rather simpler, squared off items. Most Omega backs are fully signed “Omega Watch Co, Fab Suisse, Swiss Made, complicated, and very collectible classic gentleman's Omega. “Bumpers” are becoming very difficult to find now and when they do surface, they are unquestionably the rarest, and most valuable, of all the early Omega bumper models.

Special mention for the Omega Speedmaster Professional - Omega Moonwatch

We have a full section devoted to the development of the Omega Speedmaster Pro - please take a look, it is well worth a read!

For more details please use our custom search facility - specifically optimised for delivering quality results for premium watch information in the UK, developed in partnership with Google, or take a look at the official Omega website. You can check the date of manufacture of your omega watch on our serial number reference table here.


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