Omega Watches

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Type Member of the Swatch Group
Founded 1848 by Louis Brandt
Headquarters Bienne, Switzerland
Key people Nicolas G. Hayek, Chairman
Stephen Urquhart, President
Industry Watch manufacturing
Slogan Official Timekeeper
Website http://www.omegawatches.com

Omega SA is a watch company based in Biel/Bienne Switzerland and is one of the more prestigious brands in timepieces. It is one of the most prestigious brands of the Swatch Group.

History

The Omega Speedmaster, the legendary Moonwatch, selected by NASA for all the Apollo missions
The Omega Seamaster, a deep diving watch. The fourth button-like item (at 10 o'clock) is a helium release valve to allow helium out of the watch after diving at great depth. The watch is similar to that featured in recent James Bond films, in which this valve is transformed into improbable hidden gadgets.

The Omega Seamaster, a deep diving watch. The fourth button-like item (at 10 o'clock) is a helium release valve to allow helium out of the watch after diving at great depth. The watch is similar to that featured in recent James Bond films, in which this valve is transformed into improbable hidden gadgets.

Founded at La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland in 1848 by 23-year-old Louis Brandt who assembled key-wound precision pocket watches from parts supplied by local craftsmen. He travelled throughout Europe selling his watches from Italy to Scandinavia by way of England, his chief market. After Louis Brandt's death in 1879, his two sons Louis-Paul and Cesar, troubled by irregular deliveries of questionable quality, abandoned the unsatisfactory assembly workshop system in favour of in-house manufacturing and total production control. Due to the greater supply of manpower, communications and energy in Bienne, the enterprise moved into a small factory in January 1880, then bought the entire building in December. Two years later the company moved into a converted spinning-factory in the Gurzelen district of Bienne, where headquarters are still situated today. Their first series-produced calibres, Labrador and Gurzelen, as well as, the famous Omega calibre of 1894, would ensure the brand's marketing success.