By utilizing non-ferrous materials, Omega eliminated the need for the soft-iron Faraday cage used by then, removing the necessity of de-magnetizing procedures of the case. Something similar was used in Daniel Craig’s James Bond, but that one was labeled to the resistance of 15,007 Gauss in honor of the fictional agent’s codename. In 2013, Omega broke another world record by creating the movement resistant to magnetic fields greater than 1.5 Tesla / 15,000 Gauss, which was significantly better than any previous caliber. Omega Co-axial caliber 8500, photo credit Starting with 2007, Omega revealed another two Co-Axial calibers, 85 (25,200 bph), created exclusively by Omega. The results were greater accuracy over time and longer service intervals. The caliber 2500 was the first mass-produced wristwatch with the Co-Axial escapement that had virtually no lubrication and used radial instead of sliding friction, which eliminated the issues with the traditional lever escapement. The year 1999 brought another remarkable moment for Omega, the Co-Axial movement - caliber 2500 - that included specialized escapement invented by the Englishman, George Daniels in the 1970s. Since 1998, Omega SA is based in Biel, Switzerland and is a subsidiary of the Swatch Group, a luxury watch and jewelry company that owns the Swatch line and other brands such as Blancpain, Breguet, ETA, Glashütte Original, Harry Winston, Longines, Tissot, Hamilton and Rado. The quartz crisis years somewhat slowed down the rise of the Omega due to the recession, but another merger of SSIH with ASUAG that happened in 1983 saved the day. Just a year later, Omega broke its own record in Geneva Observatory trials.īy the 1970s, SSIH became Swiss number one when it comes to the production of watches and Omega outsold its main Swiss rival on the luxury watch market, even if it was below the latter’s price point. While other tourbillion calibers’ cages rotated once per minute, the Omega’s rotated once per seven and half minutes and in 1949, one of them made a world’s record. Twelve of these movements were made for observatory trials and were also known as Omega Observatory Tourbillons. The year 1947 brought the first tourbillon movement made by Omega, the 30l. Omega watches secured a large fan base during the Second World War because of the excellent properties of its watches, such are accuracy, durability and water-resistance, which made them a favorite military brand around the globe. From then on, the SSIH group only continued to grow, creating many brands in the process. The merger of Omega and Tissot into the SSIH group in 1925, followed the difficulties brought by the First World War and saved both companies financially. The oldest of them, Paul-Emile Brandt, was only 24 at the time, but he is considered to be the great architect of the Omega we know today. Unfortunately, the same year, both César and Louis-Paul died, leaving the company that employs 800 people and produces 240,000 watches annually in the hands of the Brandt youth. By 1903, Omega watches had such success that the Omega Watch Co became a brand of its own. In 1894, his sons, César and Louis-Paul, made a revolution, by making an in-house manufacturing system that simplified the watch production. Omega museum in Biel, Switzerland, photo credit
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