OMEGA and swimming – a natural partnership

The Swiss watchmaker OMEGA is, not surprisingly, obsessed with time. The brand’s 161-year legacy includes countless precision records, conquests of space and the oceans’ depths and, of course, sports timekeeping.

OMEGA’s legacy in the pools
OMEGA’s chronographs were first used to time sporting events a century ago. The company’s association with competitive swimming dates back to 1932 when it was first entrusted with the official timekeeping for all disciplines at the Olympic Games, including swimming.

OMEGA and the development of swimming timekeeping technology
OMEGA shares a long history with international competitive swimming, having timed the most important swimming events in the last several decades. OMEGA has also been behind the development of the key technologies in the timing and scoring of swimming competitions. Among these are

• the world’s first semi-automatic swimming timer, the Swim Eight-O-Matic Timer. It was introduced at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. It allowed timekeepers to distinguish between swimmers who finished at virtually the same time. It was succeeded in 1972 by the Swim’O’Matic which was accurate to the nearest thousandth of a second. FINA, however, decided to measure to the hundredth of a second, as swimming pool architecture and the guarantee of the accuracy of each lane’s dimensions could not match the precision of OMEGA’s Swim’O’Matic. In 1980, the Swim’O’Matic, which had weighed 150 kg only four year’s previously, had been reduced to a 1.2 kg chronometer briefcase.
• the famous touch pads which allow each swimmer to “stop” his or her own time by touching the pad immersed at the end of each lane in the pool. While they respond to contact with the swimmer’s body, they are not affected by contact with the water. One of the most profound innovations in the history of sport timekeeping, their development was motivated by a contested human-eye decision at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games. They were introduced at the 1967 Pan-American Games in Winnipeg.
• the start blocks used in swimming competitions. Like those developed for track events, they have false start detection systems and acoustic start devices which assure that each competitor hears the start signal at the exact same moment.
• OMEGA’s high-speed video cameras which the judges can consult if any dispute should arise. The technology was put to the test in the men’s 100-metre butterfly event at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The electronic timing system determined that Michael Phelps had beat silver medalist Milorad Cavic by a hundredth of a second. The high-speed video cameras were able to confirm exactly the same result. An OMEGA backup system was able to verify, indisputably, the perfection of the primary system.
• live timing and the virtual record line, which were introduced in 2000. OMEGA’s Live Timing (www.omegatiming.com) made a complete set of splits, a ranking, and information on records availabe to a global audience to read and download on the internet within fifteen seconds of the end of a race. The virtual record line gives television broadcasters the option of electronically superimposing a red line across the pool. The line advances at the world record pace for each discipline – if the lead swimmer finishes ahead of the “virtual record line”, a new world record has been set.

OMEGA: ready for Rome!
Talking about the preparations for the upcoming World Championships in Rome, Christoph Berthaud, the General Manager of OMEGA Timing put his team’s task in perspective: “Our goal is modest: perfection. We have the opportunity to time many of the world’s major sporting events and at each one we are committed to making sure that each athlete’s performance is flawlessly timed and that their results are recorded for posterity.”

Asked what he is looking forward to at the Championships, Mr. Berthaud said, “For every athlete, every competition is a new challenge. Therefore, we prepare for every event as if it were the first – this means that we take nothing for granted.”

When international viewers tune into the 13th FINA World Championships this summer, they can be confident that the events will be accurately timed and recorded and communicated to fans everywhere in real time. OMEGA guarantees it.