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Omega - 007 reporting for duty
When Daniel Craig reprises his role as James Bond in Skyfall, he will be wearing an Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M 42mm with a black dial and a matt black ceramic unidirectional rotating divers' bezel. Bond fans and Omega enthusiasts will know that the world's favourite secret agent has been wearing Seamasters since 1995 and the Planet Ocean has been his choice since Casino Royale in 2006.
James Bond's choice
For Skyfall, Bond's choice is the steel on steel Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M Omega Co-Axial Chronometer, whose design features can be traced directly back to the classic Seamasters of the 1950s. Inside the case it's a different story: the watch is driven by the Omega Co-Axial calibre 8500 whose revolutionary Co-Axial escapement and free sprung balance deliver long-term stability and precision, dramatically reducing the need for servicing. Also equipped with an Si14 silicon balance spring, the watch is delivered with a four-year warranty.
The hands and indexes have been treated with Super-LumiNova and are legible in all lights and conditions and offer a stark contrast to the matt black surface of the dial. The Super-LumiNova on the indexes, the hour hand and the seconds hands emits a blue light; the luminescent material on the minute hand and the dot on the bezel appear green. This contrast means that divers can tell at a glance how much time has elapsed when they are underwater. Even the sweep of the luminous orange-tipped seconds hand can easily be read in the dark. There are Arabic numerals at 12, 6, and 9 o'clock with a date window at the 3 o'clock position on the dial.
A professional divers' watch
A professional divers' watch, the Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M Omega Co-Axial Chronometer is equipped with a helium escape valve. The stainless steel bracelet features a diver's clasp which allows its length to be extended to fit around a wetsuit. As its name suggests, the Planet Ocean 600m is water resistant to a depth of 600 metres (60 bar / 2000 feet).
Omega and the world's most stylish spy
James Bond has worn an Omega Seamaster in every film since Goldeneye in 1995. Oscar-winning costume designer Lindy Hemming first introduced Bond to Omega. She described Bond as a naval man and a discreet gentleman of the world, so the Seamaster was the obvious choice. Omega couldn't agree more!
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Omega - Let the Games begin!
Omega, the Official Timekeeper of the London 2012 Olympic Games, celebrated the beginning of its Games-related activities with a press conference at the brand's boutique at the Westfield Stratford Mall adjacent to Olympic Park.
The press conference began as Omega's "Start Me Up" commercial played on two large TV screens and the speakers entered to the soundtrack provided by the Rolling Stones. Dr. Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee, Nick Hayek, the CEO of the Swatch Group, Stephen Urquhart, the President of Omega and Peter Hurzeler, Omega Timing Board member addressed members of the international media and expressed their enthusiasm about the Games that will begin on Friday with a lavish Opening Ceremony.
Dr. Rogge praised the creativity and preparation of the London Organising Committee and said that he was looking forward to an outstanding edition in 2012. He said that the world was being exposed to the British way of constructing sport and that the country's unparalleled history of sporting competition. Asked about preparations for the Games, he said that it was a question that could only be comprehensively answered when the Games are over.
Nick Hayek said that Omega's long history of Olympic Games timekeeping was a source of pride and said that any company would envy the brand's opportunity to work with the IOC and local organisations. He said, "It's a long tradition that has touched billions of people all over the world. For eighty years, it's been part of our legacy. It really is a relationship of trust and long-term commitment."
Stephen Urquhart reminded the guests that when Omega first served as Official Timekeeper, all of the events at the Los Angeles 1932 Olympic Games were timed by thirty chronograph stopwatches, comparing it with some 400 tons of equipment used today by the company's 450 timekeepers.
Peter Hurzeler talked about the evolution of sport timekeeping technology and compared the first starting blocks introduced by Omega at the London 1948 Olympic Games with their successors that are being introduced this year. The old ones, he pointed out, were mechanical while the modern equivalents are completely electronic, offering even better starting conditions for the athletes who use them.
Earlier in the day, Dr. Rogge, Mr Hayek and Mr Urquhart had visited the Aquatics Centre in the company of Sebastian Coe, the Chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games with Peter Hurzeler.
The London 2012 Olympic Games are the 25th at which Omega has served as Official Timekeeper since 1932. Stephen Urquhart of Omega pointed out that his company was also in London in the same role in 1948, when the city last hosted the Olympic Games.
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Atelier Loiseau - Historical timepieces
Renaissance
Pocket Watch
1981
It is the fisrt pocket watch intergrating a Tourbillon and complications in the history. The Renaissance features the Hours, Minutes and Seconds (from the Tourbillon). It also is a Perpetual Calendar with all of its traditionnal information. Plus it proposes an automatic striking mechanism, the 12 zodiacal signs, the sunrise and sunset stars, the equation of time and a thermometer. The Renaissance is still today privately owned by the same familly who originally bought it.
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Capriccio - Piece No 2
Pocket Watch
1983
The functions are the Hours, Minutes and Seconds (from the Tourbillon). Its hand winding movment perfectly fits the special shape of the case, inspired by a paintor's color palette. The power reserve is of 8 days. It is regulated by a tourbillon and a detent escapment. The Capriccio is the property of the Omega museum.
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Montres des Sables - A Faces
Pocket Watches
1985
The deserts' nomads inspired Dominique Loiseau for the creation of these 6 unique Montres des Sables (Watches of the sand). Every movement's flying Tourbillon is placed in the center of each watch. These pocket watches have pendant integrated in their case so that they look like stones on the desert.
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Rose des Temps
Table Clock and automaton
1983-84
Unique Complication rebus table clock celebrating the arrival of the 3rd millenary. The timepiece is made of 16 modules all interchangeable between them and totalizing 32 functions. To name a few these functions are : Automatic Striking Mecanism, Minute Repeater, a 6 bells (gongs) Westminster Carillon, Perpetual Calendar, the sky in New-York, Sydney, Buenos Aires and Bern, the 4 seasons indicator, Year 2K automaton, a Chronometer, a Thermometer and of course Hours and Minutes.
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Cobra
Pocket Watch
1986-87
Unique pocket watch. Besides the Hours, minutes and seconds (from the Tourbillon) it features a flying Tourbillon and a power reserve indicator. The Cobra is privately owned.
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Omega - «First Omega in Space» limited edition
So much has been written about the rigorous testing that led to the Omega Speedmaster's being the only watch qualified for every manned NASA mission that it is easy to forget that the very first Omega worn in Space was the Speedmaster that astronaut Wally Schirra wore during his Mercury Atlas 8 mission in October of 1962. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Speedmaster to orbit the earth, OMEGA has created the Speedmaster "First Omega in Space" in honour of Wally Schirra and his historic wristwatch.
The Omega Speedmaster "First Omega in Space" edition recalls the watch that Schirra bought at a jeweller in Houston more than half a century ago. Inside its 39.70 mm polished, brushed stainless steel case is the legendary self-winding calibre 1861, which earned its reputation as the movement in the legendary Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch. There is a black aluminium bezel ring with a tachymetric scale.
Visible through its box-form, scratch-resistant sapphire crystal is the classic varnished black dial that for 55 years has made the Speedmaster the world's definitive chronograph: the 30-minute and 12-hour counters are located at 3 o'clock and 6 o'clock respectively and the small seconds sub-dial is at 9 o'clock. It has white transferred indexes; the hour markers and hour and minute hands are coated with Super-LumiNova.
The watch has a screw-in stainless steel caseback which is embossed with Omega's original seahorse emblem, the words "THE FIRST OMEGA IN SPACE" and "OCTOBER 3, 1962", the date of the Mercury Atlas 8 mission. The Speedmaster "First Omega in Space" is a numbered edition and its number is engraved on the caseback.
The Omega Speedmaster "First Omega in Space" chronograph is presented on a brown leather strap with beige stitching. The watch is water resistant to 5 bar / 50 metres/ 167 feet. This classic Speedmaster is a fitting way to celebrate the beginning of an adventure that would ultimately lead to six lunar landings and half a century of space exploration.
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Omega - Seamaster Aqua Terra GMT
With the Seamaster Aqua Terra GMT, OMEGA introduces a new member of its exclusive Co-Axial family of movements. The OMEGA Co-Axial calibre 8605/8615 is the first of OMEGA's proprietary movements to be equipped with a GMT complication, meaning that along with the central hour, minute and seconds hands, there is a GMT hand which completes one rotation every 24 hours, making it possible to keep track of the time in two time zones.
The 43 mm case is available in a choice of metals: 18 Ct red gold or stainless steel or, in a bicolor version in 18 Ct red gold and stainless steel. The sapphire crystal on the screw-in caseback allows a clear view of the extraordinary Co-Axial movement inside. The watch is available with either a bracelet in the same metal as the watch case or with a black, brown or blue leather strap.
The dial is distinguished by the teak pattern associated with the Aqua Terra collection. The vertical lines are reminiscent of the wooden decks on luxury boats. The applied 18 Ct gold brushed and polished indexes are coated with white Super-LumiNova and the facetted hands are crafted from 18 Ct white or red gold. Like the indexes, they are coated with white Super-LumiNova which allows ease of reading in all light conditions. The GMT hand's red arrow makes it easy to distinguish the two time zones.
At the heart of the Seamaster Aqua Terra GMT is the Co-Axial calibre 8605/8615. It is part of the family of movements OMEGA introduced in 2007 built around the first practical new watch escapement to be developed in some 250 years. The Co -Axial escapement in the OMEGA calibres is used in conjunction with a free sprung-balance and its function differs considerably from that of a conventional lever escapement with index. The watch's rate can be adjusted by modifying the moment of inertia of the balance by means of two gold regulating micro screws embedded in the circular balance. This design avoids the disturbing effects of contact between the balance-spring and the index pins and therefore ensures that the stability of rate offered by the Co-Axial escapement is maintained over long periods of use. The result is reduced friction which means that there is almost no need for lubrication; the Co-Axial calibres have long service intervals and the Seamaster Aqua Terra GMT, which is also equipped with a silicon balance spring, is delivered with a four-year warranty.
The OMEGA Co-Axial calibre 8605/8615 is the first in the family to be equipped with a GMT complication. Its GMT hand has a diamond-polished red arrow, making it easy to track time in a second time zone or GMT display. Intriguingly, the GMT hand can also be used for compass orientation: when the watch is held parallel to the ground with its hour hand pointed in the direction of the sun, the GMT hand, when it is adjusted to the same time on the 24-hour GMT display, will indicate north in the northern hemisphere.
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Omega - Ladymatic in stainless steel with diamonds
In recent decades, women have been an increasingly important force for social, political and economic change. They are opinion shapers and leaders in business, in politics, in lifestyle and in the media.
In designing the Ladymatic, OMEGA set an audacious challenge for itself: the aim was to create a watch which would integrate the brand's most innovative technology with dramatic, eye-catching design. The Ladymatic dramatically meets the challenge.
Subtle elegance
This elegant member of the Ladymatic collection features a polished 34 mm stainless steel case with a distinctive white ceramic ring between an outer decorative wave and the inner case body. The polished screw-in crown is set with a brilliant Omega cut diamond. Its bezel is dramatically paved with snow set diamonds.
The face of the Ladymatic is highlighted by the supernova pattern emanating from the centre of the extra-white mother-of-pearl dial. There is a diamond-polished date window at the 3 o'clock position and the other hours are marked by diamonds. The polished alpha-shaped hands have been made from 18 Ct white gold and are treated with white Super-LumiNova, making them readable in any lighting conditions.
The polished caseback has a sapphire crystal that reveals the Co-Axial calibre 8520, the best women's mechanical watch movement in the world. At the heart of the movement is the Co-Axial escapement, the component that in 1999 signalled a revolution in how mechanical wristwatches are made. Each movement is equipped with OMEGA's exclusive Si 14 silicon balance spring, an innovation that makes it more resistant to external shocks and environmental disturbances.
The OMEGA Ladymatic is water-resistant to 10 bar/ 100 metres / 330 feet.
A four-year warranty
The OMEGA Ladymatic is an officially certified chronometer, a testimony to its outstanding timekeeping performance. The remarkable stability and performance of the Co-Axial calibres equipped with silicon balance springs makes it possible for OMEGA to deliver each Ladymatic wristwatch with a four-year warranty.
The face of the Ladymatic is highlighted by the supernova pattern emanating from the centre of the dial. The extra-white mother-of-pearl features a diamond-polished date window at the 3 o'clock position.
The OMEGA Ladymatic is presented with a stainless steel bracelet 3-row featuring OMEGA's patented crew-and-pin design with a butterfly clasp.
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Omega - Speedmaster Professional Apollo-Soyuz "35th Anniversary"
July 15th, 1975 marked the beginning of an important chapter in space exploration. On that day the United States launched an Apollo rocket, referred to as the Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) Command Module and the Soviet Union sent Soyuz 19 into space.
Two days later a remarkable thing happened: the two spacecraft representing these former adversaries in the space race docked and the three astronauts and two cosmonauts met in the middle where they shook hands, exchanged gifts and spoke with each other as they orbited the Earth.
The ships remained docked for 44 hours after which they separated, and manoeuvred to use the Apollo to create an artificial solar eclipse which allowed the crew of the Soyuz to take photographs of the solar corona. Another brief docking was made before the ships concluded their own journeys separately. The Soviets remained in space for five days altogether, the Americans for nine.
It was the first time that spacecraft built by different nations had docked and signalled an era of cooperation in space which would lead to the efforts to build a permanently occupied space station. The mission also marked the end of an era - it was the final flight of the Apollo spacecraft.
While the Apollo-Soyuz mission is best remembered for its political significance, it also resulted in some major technological achievements as neither of the spacecraft, which were completely different from each other, had been built for the purpose of docking.
The American crew was commanded by Thomas Stafford and included Vance Brand and the last of the original seven Mercury astronauts to make it into orbit, Donald K. "Deke" Slayton who had long been grounded due to a heart problem. The two-man Soviet crew included Valeri Kubasov and the first space walker, Alexei Leonov.
The ASTP Command Module splashed down on July 24th, 1975 after 217 hours, 30 minutes in space.
The Apollo era had ended. It would be six years before another American astronaut would fly in space aboard the reusable Space Shuttle. All of the Shuttle astronauts were equipped, of course, with OMEGA Speedmasters.
THE OMEGA SPEEDMASTER PROFESSIONAL APOLLO-SOYUZ "35TH ANNIVERSARY"
When astronaut Lieutenant General Thomas P. Stafford (USA) and cosmonaut Lieutenant General Alexei A. Leonov (USSR) shook hands in the docking hatch which linked their respective spacecraft, the space pioneers, along with their crews, were wearing Omega Speedmaster Professional chronographs on their wrists.
Commemorating a handshake
The 35th anniversary of their historic handshake is commemorated with the release of the Omega Speedmaster Professional Apollo-Soyuz "35th Anniversary" chronograph in a limited edition of 1975 watches.
A meteorite dial
The dial has been created from a meteorite which survived its entry into our planet's atmosphere and the high-speed impact with the terrestrial surface. The meteorite's unusual structure is the result its very high temperature when it enters the Earth's atmosphere, followed by a period of cooling. The dial is a single piece cut from the meteorite; accordingly, because no two pieces of the meteorite are exactly alike, each watch in this limited edition is absolutely unique.
The black colour of the meteorite dial is the result of a surface oxidation process. The silvery seconds hand and chronograph counters appear in the meteorite's natural colour.
The Omega Speedmaster Professional Apollo-Soyuz "35th Anniversary" chronograph is a fitting tribute to a pivotal moment in space exploration. A handshake in orbit between these two former space race adversaries demonstrated to everyone back on earth that it was possible to move forward in a new spirit of cooperation.
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Chronicle - Watchmakers' disappearing circle
Les Ambassadeurs - Magazine No 5
In spring 2009 at Baselworld, attentive observers noted that the face of fine watchmaking was no longer uniformly circular. The vast majority of round dials was joined by a few amazing UFOs offering masterful variations on the theme of linear time read-off. From the incredible CC1 by Urwerk to Opus IX by Harry Winston and Eric Giroud, along with the splendid Meccanico dG by de Grisogono, Swiss watchmaking suddenly seemed eager to break free of its hands and circular dials in order to prove that sophisticated mechanical horology was not inextricably entwined with a cyclical perception of time.
All of which raises the fundamental question our own relationship with time.
Let's start by ignoring the issue of the nature of time. Neither scientists nor philosophers have ever been able to define it other than in reference to themselves or to a beginning and an end - the limits of which vary with each new discovery. The perception of time is a personal, cultural and historical matter. There are two major schools of thought in this area: that of time as a cyclical phenomenon, and that of linear time.
Any observation of nature spontaneously suggests a cyclical vision of time. The earth spins on its axis and around the sun with absolute regularity. Once this time has been subdivided into precise units, our entire short-term temporal world can be measured. The immutably regular cycle of seasons dictates the periods of activity and rest, of seedtime and harvest. The visible world can be summed up within this endlessly accurate and reassuring process of constant renewal.
Horology was born from this vision of the world and thus naturally adopted the circle as its fundamental element. The figure 12 that dominates all dials is at once and in turn the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. This mechanical rhythm of the hours can be extrapolated to define all the various subdivisions, providing the cadence of the movements enables such measurements.
However, when it comes to defining a perpetual calendar, things are not quite so simple. Despite watchmakers' impressive ingenuity, no existing mechanism appears capable of offering a guarantee of precision extending beyond a few hundred years without any maintenance or adjustment. Is that a question of human incompetence? Definitely not! So let's get back to cyclical time. As soon as we need to move beyond measuring the time the Earth takes to move around the Sun, we are forced to resort to an arbitrary measurement.
While the latter varies according to our culture and our religion, there is nothing at all cyclical about it. We thereby enter the world of linear time. By way of example, this article is written in the year 2009 AD, which means the year 1430 of the Hegira, or Muslim calendar, and the year 5769 of the Jewish calendar. Given the high degree of probability that the events on which these calendars were founded are not reproduced at regular intervals, this means that measurement of our long-term time is in fact linear.
Perhaps you have also noticed that combining a cyclical hour with a linear date results in a necessarily linear combination. Does that mean we must definitively conclude that the flow of time is linear and not cyclical? This is a fundamental question that has fascinated the world's greatest thinkers, from the Greek stoics through to Nietzsche, as well as Pythagoras, Kant and Schopenhauer. And none of them have come up with any conclusive answer!
Religions have enabled humankind to look beyond the units of measurements provided by the sky above them, but have also fixed a beginning and in some cases an end that restricted their horizons. Galileo and Newton pointed out the limits of these theoretical constructions, yet without finding a more global cycle that would encompass previous ones. In 1927, Monsignor Georges Edouard Lemaître provided the world with a whole new paradigm thanks to the Big Bang, which pushed the Alpha of the universe back in time by a massive 14 billion years. Other researchers subsequently came up with an Omega in the form of the Big Crunch, forecast to occur in around 50 billion years' time. All of which provides material on which to build a new linear calendar, but still no means of defining a new cycle summing up the others and anchoring our vision of the world in a lasting and reassuring reality.
Just as an ant is incapable of grasping the round nature of the earth, we will probably never know whether the cycles of our solar system are part of the cycles of our universe as a whole, and whether the cycles of our universe are themselves incorporated within other realities that elude us and always will.
Whatever our level of knowledge, our time will always be subject to a superior linear factor that we must build - a daunting enterprise on the scale of our capacities for thought, but one that is of little importance in our daily lives.
So the regular cycle of the hands on the dials of our mechanical watches will continue to reassure us for many years to come, enabling us to enjoy the illusion that life is an endless circle in which absolutely anything can happen at any moment. And we will therefore be relieved to note that the linear displays provided by contemporary horology are all founded, without exception, on a mechanical base that is quite naturally… cyclical.
[Rating: 5 / 5 stars]
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