OMEGA’s Co-Axial movements
OMEGA has long had a reputation for developing some of the watchmaking industry's greatest innovations. Its industrialization of the Co-Axial escapement in 1999 and the launch of the proprietary Co-Axial calibres in 2007 could be the crowning achievement of a legendary brand.
Signalling a revolution in mechanical watchmaking
Horological history was made in 1999 when OMEGA equipped its calibre 2500 with a Co-Axial escapement. But an even more exciting story was the launch of the exclusive OMEGA Co-Axial calibre 8500/8501 in 2007. Each of its 202 pieces was conceived from scratch and built around the revolutionary escapement, marking a dramatic step in the evolution of the company’s Co-Axial philosophy.
The movement’s manufacturing processes were optimized for series-production readiness and the OMEGA calibre 8500/8501 delivered timekeeping performance that immediately put the mechanical watch industry on notice.
For OMEGA it was a return to its roots: the company had, in fact, been named for a serially-produced movement developed in-house in 1890 and the Co-Axial calibre 8500 demonstrated boldly that OMEGA was back among the ranks of Swiss watch manufactures, companies which have designed and produced their own movements in-house.
The Co-Axial story continues
The drama continued with the launch of the Co-Axial calibre 8520/8521 designed especially for smaller watches and the Co-Axial calibre 8601/8611, a movement with an added instantaneous jump annual calendar complication.
The OMEGA Co-Axial calibre 9300/9301 chronograph
In 2011, OMEGA introduced its first in-house Co-Axial chronograph movement, the Co-Axial calibre 9300/9301. In a compelling departure from the brand's other chronographs, the watches equipped with the calibre 9300 have only two sub-dials instead of the three associated with, for example, the Speedmaster Professional. This is made possible by placing the 12-hour and sixty minute counters on a single sub-dial at 3 o'clock. The clean dial layout and the Co-Axial performance have made the watches equipped with the new movement – the Speedmaster Co-Axial Chronograph and the Seamaster Planet Ocean Chronograph – among the most talked about in OMEGA's collection
The Si 14 silicon balance spring and a four-year warranty
These Co-Axial movements – including the latest generation of the Co-Axial calibre 8500/8501 – are equipped with OMEGA’s Si 14 silicon balance spring – a development which contributes to their outstanding resistance to shock and to environmental disturbances and thus, to the watch’s chronometric performance. The stability offered by the combination of the proprietary Co-Axial movements and the silicon balance spring is such that OMEGA delivers each watch equipped with them with a full four-year warranty.
