Beijing 2008
As the final seconds ticked away on the OMEGA Countdown Clock in Tiananmen Square, the Square of Heavenly Peace, a proud nation celebrated the opening of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing. It was the 8th of August, 2008 at 8 p.m. and the end of the countdown represented the beginning of the 23rd Olympic Games at which OMEGA had been Official Timekeeper. OMEGA’s Olympic adventure began at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games and visitors to a museum in the Chinese metropolis can admire the very stopwatch that was used to measure times to the nearest 1/10th oh a second in that Olympic Games.
Some time before, after discovering a number of watch movement assembly kits from the time of that Olympic Games, OMEGA produced the limited edition "Pocket Watch 1932" with hand-finished 18 Ct yellow gold, white gold and red gold cases. The pocket watch presented to Kong Fanzhi, Director of the Beijing Cultural Relics Protection Bureau, carries the number 88. The number is considered fortuitous in China and is closely linked to the opening date of the Olympic Games in Beijing.
The end of the countdown resonated not only in Beijing, but also in Bienne and at Swiss Timing in Corgémont, as their years of technical preparations were finally put to the test. Every Olympic Games features the latest developments in sports timekeeping and OMEGA Timing has consistently risen to meet each new challenge with innovative technology.
One example in Beijing was the video control system used in an increasing number of sports. This system was tested as a means of counting the number of hits at the 2006 European Fencing Championships in Izmir, as well as in wrestling at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha. It has been used in gymnastics since 2005. If a fencer claims a hit that was not registered, for example, the bout is interrupted and the referee can check the three seconds prior to the incident in a slow motion video replay and, if necessary, reverse the decision.
The Olympic Games in Beijing were the largest ever in terms of equipment and staff. Timekeeping and data handling for the 302 competitions being held at 38 venues involved the use of 420 tons of equipment and more than 450 technicians and engineers supported by more than a thousand local volunteers. Seventy large electronic scoreboards and 330 sport-specific scoreboards were deployed. For Swiss Timing, the end of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games meant the beginning of intensified preparation for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games and the 2012 London Olympic Games where OMEGA will continue its legacy in support of the Olympic Movement and of the greatest sportsmen and sportswomen in the world.