An Olympic legacy
In 1932, OMEGA became the first brand in history to be given the sole responsibility of providing and controlling all the watches needed to time all the events at an Olympic Games. OMEGA’s relationship with the world’s most prestigious sporting spectacle has continued and is celebrated by the watches in the Olympic Timeless Collection.
The OMEGA Split-seconds Chronograph – an Olympic legend
The watch selected for OMEGA’s first Olympic challenge was the Olympic split-seconds chronograph. Split-seconds chronographs are equipped with an extra chronograph seconds hand which normally moves in tandem with the centre chronograph seconds, but can, thanks to a pusher, be stopped independently in order to taken an extra timing, such as a lap time. Pressing this pusher again instantaneously brings the split-seconds hand back to the centre seconds chronograph hand, whether it is still running or has been stopped.
Four of the split-seconds chronographs used to time the Los Angeles 1932 Olympic Games were in the collection of the OMEGA Museum. In September of 2009, one of these was presented to IOC President Jacques Rogge for display at the Olympic Museum when OMEGA and the IOC announced the extension of their agreement through the 2020 Olympic Games.
Following the Olympic Games in 1932, William M. Henry, the Olympic Games’ Technical Director wrote to OMEGA, saying “. . . it is impossible to consider the remarkable success of the Games of the 10th Olympiad and the unequalled athletic performances realised there without recognizing the role played by Omega watches in this large international event. . . The thirty split-seconds chronographs you provided have been the only ones that the Organisation Committee put at the disposal of the official Olympic judges for all the sports of the programme of 1932. They gave full satisfaction in all circumstances and their incontestable precision was the object of much praise from their users.”
It was the beginning of long, rewarding partnership.
These days, the timing of Olympic events is done by electronic timing equipment which is accurate to within a hundredth, or in some cases a thousandth, of a second but OMEGA still creates some special wristwatches to commemorate the Olympic Games.
The Speedmaster 5-Counters Co-Axial Chronograph – carrying on the tradition
One of these is the Speedmaster 5-Counters Co-Axial Chronograph. It perfectly blends OMEGA’s Olympic tradition with state-of-the-industry watchmaking. Like the Split-seconds Chronograph, it has Paris-style Arabic numerals and a red OMEGA logo which recalls those on the watches created in the 1930s.
The watch is particularly remarkable for its five counters, or sub-dials, in the form of the famous Olympic rings logo. Powered by its OMEGA Co-Axial calibre 3888, the Speedmaster 5-Counters Co-Axial Chronograph is a COSC-certified chronometer, a testimony to its outstanding timekeeping performance.
A professional relationship which started more than three quarters of a century ago is honoured by the OMEGA Speedmaster 5-Counters Co-Axial Chronograph and the other watches in the Olympic Timeless Collection.
