In 1848, at the age of 23, Louis Brands opened a comptoir d'etabilissage, a sub-contracting sales office for watch manufacture. In 1880, the two brothers César and Louis-Paul Brandt rented a floor in a Bienne building to set up a modern watch production unit. In 1889, four years, later, Louis Brandt and Fils became the largest producers of watches in Switzerland, with a production rate of over 100,000 watches. But this fact did not stop the exclusivity of the watches they produced, e.g. the minute-repeating wristwatch, developed in 1892 in partnership with Audemars Piguet, and probably the first wristwatch of its kind. The company's banker, Henri Rieckel, suggested the name "Omega" for the new watch. The overwhelming success of the "Omega" name led to it being adopted as the sole name for all the watches of the company from 1903. In 1957, the "Omega Speedmaster" was created. After rigorous evaluation and testing, NASA decided to use the "Speedmaster Professional" chronograph wristwatch in 1965 as its official timekeeper. In 1967, the one millionth chronometer was certified. On 21st July 1969, astronaught Neil Armstrong became the first man to step on the moon. As he made the famous steps quoting "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind", he was wearing his Omega Speedmaster Professional chronograph. Omega's watchmakers have developed the "coaxial escapement", a creation of the English master-watchmaker, George Daniels. Omega is famous for its roles in various 007 James Bond films where it has almost become one of the characters along with the Aston Martin! Current collections are De Ville, Constellation, Speedmaster, Seamaster and the Planet Ocean. |
