Omega

Exhibition Timepieces

 

This section is some snapshots of the exhibited pieces for the Co-axial Exhibition Singapore ...
Each showcase is accompanied with a well detailed description stand-card.

Hope you will enjoy them.

Beginning from Exhibit #1 ...

The genesis of the company began in 1848 by a watchmaker, Louis Brandt.  Understand that initial business was by buying components from various people and then assembled them to timepieces.

Later upon his death,  the business was taken over by his sons, Louis-Paul and Cesar.

The brothers changed the business model by turning their assembling business to a manufacturing facility with capabilities of producing their own components and assembling the timepieces.

A little bit about this  19''' 1894 movement ...

At that moment in time, when a movement is 'dead' , it could not be resurrected as all the pieces were crafted, or fabricated by many parties, thus finding spare-parts for replacements were near impossible.

In 1894, OMEGA changed the course of event when the brothers adopted internal manufacturing of components for their timepieces.  The above pocket-watch movement were produced with every components could be replaced without modification, thus from then on, broken or 'dead' pieces could be serviced and revived.

Also note, though with their success, the brothers did not name the brand after their family name. Instead in 1903, they officially named it OMEGA, the 24th letter of the Greek alphabet, which also represents ' Perfection'.

Cushion shaped watch circa 1907 ... note the OMEGA symbol was already printed on the dial ...

This Marine Chronometer is supposedly to be of tighter specifications than current COSC with a window  of  +/- 1 second per month versus current -4 to +6 second per day. 

Before this

Understand before this Rattrapante or split-second chronograph, the timing of the Olympic Games before 1932, were the average of various time-keeping chronographs from various brands.

So in 1932, the Olympic Games used six pieces of the above OMEGA split-second chronograph for timing various events.

The star piece - the first watch, a Speedmaster, which George Daniels bought to plant in his co-axial escapement in 1974, and traveled to the Swiss Industry to pitch concept.  However, no brands were keen to adopt the new escapement concept.
Understand he tried again to pitch to the brands about ten years later and no success.  He seemed to have approached Seiko too

The third round, in the 90s, Mr Nicolas G. Hayek, accepted the Mr George Daniels' concept and work.
Nearly 30 years later of Mr George Daniels' work, OMEGA launched the first OMEGA Co-Axial escapement movement - Calibre 2500.

More detailed pictures in Section 3 of the post ...

The first chronograph which could operate under-water in 1970!

The above was paired to communicate the evolution to current time titanium Planet Ocean with co-axial escapement.

A comparison Pie-pan Constellation circa 1957, with current Constellation model with the dial design ...

Some of the current models with Co-Axial escapements ...

This message has been edited by Kong on 2013-08-25 01:37:36