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19 April 2007

OMEGA De Ville Ladies’ Co-Axial Chronoscope

OMEGA’s elite De Ville family welcomes the Ladies’ Chronoscope, a scintillating high-jewellery watch that shines with its own light emanating from the sparkling diamonds on the bezel and the radiant white mother-of-pearl dial. Set in a 41 mm precious metal 950 Palladium case, the De Ville Ladies’ Chronoscope adds a sporty edge to its De Ville pedigree with its high-performance chronograph functions. Moving beyond the adage that “beauty is skin deep”, women watch buyers are as concerned today with the mechanical integrity of their timepiece as they are with its beauty. For this reason, the Ladies’ Chronoscope has been fitted with OMEGA’s exclusive Calibre 3313 complete with Co-Axial escapement. With its icy cool juxtaposition of diamonds, gleaming 950 Palladium metal case and white mother-of-pearl dial, the 41 mm Ladies’ Chronoscope self-winding chronograph is a seductive combination of unabashed femininity, precious materials and cutting-edge mechanical performance.
No expense has been spared in the design and crafting of the lustrous mother-of pearl dial. The applied hour markers and OMEGA logo create a greater sensation of depth and dimension and the enlarged and overlapping sub dials for the chronograph functions – a clear allusion to the sporty appeal of the watch - have been rendered in luxurious detail. The 12-hour sub dial features an ingenious double hour track and for precision readings, all sub dials have applied Arabic numerals and rhodium plated hands. A “truncated sector” date window, strategically located between 11 and 12 o’clock, allows for at-a-glance reading and displays the preceding and following dates should the hands obscure the date numeral. The elegant “Feuille” shaped hands have been facetted and diamond polished in keeping with the glamorous nature of this timepiece and to ensure accurate reading in even the most compromising light conditions, the hour and minute hands are luminescent. A resilient domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment on both sides protects the dial and allows for the magnificent pearly sheen of the dial to shine through.
Because women today prize performance as much as they do aesthetics, the De Ville Ladies’ Co-Axial Chronoscope is powered with OMEGA’s potent Calibre 3313. At the heart of this self-winding movement is OMEGA’s revolutionary and proprietary Co-Axial escapement technology that considerably reduces friction in the escapement and offers improved long-term reliability and accuracy. The Co-Axial escapement represents one of the most important advances in watch making over the last 250 years and was first introduced in OMEGA’s De Ville range in 1999. A free-sprung balance further improves this COSC certified chronometer. Column-wheel chronographs are widely recognised as the finest movements available and the column-wheel system is designed to ensure a smooth start to the sweep of the seconds hand when the chronograph is activated. It also provides precision stop and reset functions that do not interfere with the main timekeeping function of the watch. As a prestige mechanism, OMEGA Calibre 3313 has an exclusive finish with circular graining, Geneva wave decoration, rhodium plated surfaces and gold plated engravings – all visible through the transparent case back.
The 41 mm case of the De Ville Ladies’ Co-Axial Chronoscope has been crafted in Palladium 950, a rare and very precious silver-white metal that does justice to the high-jewellery appeal of this watch. The bezel, opulently paved with 36 Trapezes Top Wesselton diamonds in staggered rows (5.04 carats) enlivens the watch with its sparkling glamour. Some traits of the De Ville Chronoscope lineage can be clearly appreciated here in the facetted and beautifully polished Palladium curved horns and the large, easy to manipulate push buttons for the chronograph functions as well as the transparent sapphire crystal case back revealing the meticulous finish of the movement. In a concession to the feminine allure of this watch, a diamond “briolette” (0.20 ct) has been set into the crown of the watch.
The white mother-of-pearl alligator leather strap is in perfect harmony with the luminous radiance of the dial and is secured with a foldover clasp in Palladium 950 to match the case. In addition, the De Ville Ladies’ Co-Axial Chronoscope has been officially certified as a chronometer by the COSC -Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres- offers an impressive 52-hour power reserve and is water-resistant to 100m/330ft: in short, a prodigy of aesthetics and mechanical brilliance.