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This 1947 tourbillon was entered
into the 1948 Geneva Observatory
trials. It is encased in sterling
silver.
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Nick Hayek Jr. was pleased for many reasons on January 24, only one of which was
the introduction of Omega's long-awaited "in-house" caliber. Hayek was proud to announce that
the Swatch Group had hit the five-billion Swiss franc turnover mark in 2006, and cited Omega
as the largest proponent of this turnover.
 Hayek
stated further, "We are now beginning an ambitious program to open boutiques in every big city
in the world," a new distribution strategy. At the same time, Omega and Antiquorum announced
the beginning of the world's most ambitious themed auction, Omegamania (see sidebar for more
information).
Movement History
Osvaldo Patrizzi, CEO of Antiquorum, explained that "Omega dominated the observatories during
the first half of the twentieth century." This statement was not pulled out of thin air. Omega,
founded 159 years ago, was actually more renowned for being a precision movement maker and for being
the first industrialized firm in the Swiss watch industry. The brand was in actuality named
for its first movement and not just a letter of the Greek alphabet.
After
the quartz crisis of the 1970s, the famous brand had trouble finding its footing again, at least
until it was purchased by the Swatch Group.
Since
then, Omega's illustrious movement history was revisited using other Swatch Group resources such
as Valgranges, Lémania, Frédéric Piguet, and ETA. But it wasn't until the
late 1990s, when Omega reached an agreement with Dr. George Daniels to purchase his new co-axial
escapement, that the company began to again visit its original path.
The
co-axial escapement has been instrumental for Omega since 1999, when the company introduced
the first limited-edition Omega DeVilles featuring the novel components.
By 2000, the new escapement system had been perfected for industrialization, and the company
has since outfitted several lines with it, including DeVille and Constellation.
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