Omega or the success story!
Nowadays no one would ask if Omega is a renowned brand. Rather, it is worth asking whether there is any place in the world where it does not evoke anything! Indeed, the Bienne brand has become a formidable winning machine. Its president, Stephen Urquhart, relates.
By Eric Othenin-Girard
Specialised journalist
“Omega is in very good shape as last year we have manufactured nearly half a million coaxial mechanical movements”. He further adds that all mechanical movements manufactured by Omega are equipped with the famous escapement, except of course, the moon watches. Indeed, the original Speedmaster was, and still is, equipped of a manual winding mechanical movement. In space, there is no more gravity to allow an oscillating mass to turn and to thus supply the energy destined to the running of the movement. Today still, several purists want the very same watch that joined the moon to astronauts’ arm. Of course, for those who do not estimate this factor to be so important, the Speedmaster is equally available with the coaxial escapement, the same escapement, which equally equips the mechanical series of the Ladymatic. The latter is a new ladies’ watch of which the Omega president said: “It perfectly corresponds to the desire of various women who, against all prejudice, wish to be able to own a beautiful mechanical movement with one or two intelligent complications, especially when the watch has specifically been developed for them”. That said, success is achieved on the long run.
“You have to learn to set targets, to hold them without deviating from your course in order to reap the benefits of the efforts made” (note traducteur: c’est probablement une citation ?). To corroborate his statement, he details the steps taken. Constellation, which exists since 1952, and its current design created in 1982, so typical with its four signatures. The Speedmaster, created in 1957, the 1948 Seamaster. It is a mythical watch, a mixture of sport and elegance, worn by James Bond since 1995. As for the De Ville, created in 1967 and centered on technicality, it has been, some ten years ago, the first to welcome the new coaxial escapement. “Our watch families have thus nearly all reached a half-century.”
Obviously, a perfect knowledge of the environment is required to pilot a boat such as the famous Omega so successfully. It is precisely from where Stephen Urquhart is. British and Swiss citizen, born in Trinidad, he was attending a boarding school in England when, in the early 60’s, he obtained the right to enrol in a prestigious British university. However, since he was only seventeen, he had to wait a full year before being able to start his studies there. His principal suggested that he passed through Switzerland in order to perfect a French he had already learned at school. What was supposed to be a travel of only 12 months turned out to be an entire life. Stephen Urquhart is still a British citizen but he lives in Canton de Vaud and henceforth owns a Swiss passport. At his place, as for all the Omega collection families, everything is seen on a long term perspective.
Let’s start with the relationship he shares with the brand which he presides since 1999, and which was, thirty years earlier, his first employer at the end of his economics studies at the University of Neuchâtel. He started in the communications department, participated to the first integration of the brand in the holding of what would become the Swatch Group. In 1969, Omega went to the moon with the Speedmaster. At the time, he was one of the rare English-speakers of the company and found himself in an office in Bienne, earphones on, following live the conversations between Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, watching out for any allusion to the Speedmaster. “It was an extraordinary moment”. A few years later, he joined Audemars Piguet where he would spend 23 years. “I traced my career between Bienne and Le Brassus”. However, in 1997, Swatch Group calls him to join Blancpain, before entrusting him Omega. The history of the brand is exceptional, and under the impetus of Nicolas Hayek, great projects have been set up. “It was all about restoring the four families of the brand, and to also put on track the new Co-Axial escapement which could have remained a niche product”. We are familiar with the rest.
Today, Omega spreads its creations throughout the five continents. When he is asked of the status of the brand in China, Stephen Urquhart smiles and answers: “On our side, the success story is continuing. Indeed, we observed a certain stabilisation over the last months, but we have also remarked that the Chinese clients are very interested in the gold pieces. Besides, the Chinese first lady wears a white gold Constellation, the Orbis model.
Thus, we are not at all worried aboutour future in the Middle Kingdom. If China is quieter, the same cannot be said of our second important market, namely the United States, where our sales are increasing for both the men’s and ladies’ models. We have opened a fair amount of shops and we feel that our sales will clearly increase. As for Europe, contrary to what we are observing here and there, the market remains good for us, including France where our sales have increased. It must however be specified that tourists’ purchases are included in this progress.
As we do not wish to rest on our laurels, we are exploring other markets. Brazil, which was practically stricken due to extremely high taxes, which tripled the price of the watches compared to the United States, has seen an opening of the market. Finally, from the Eastern Europe, with the next Olympic Games, we see the clients’ interest increasing”.
On a technical level, Omega is not undone by novelty and discoveries. In the field of precious timekeepers, the gold Omega Sedna is the name given by the brand to a new alloy which unites three elements: gold, copper and palladium. It consists in a 18K pink gold, which means that it contains a minimum of 75% gold. The unique pink colour is a result of its ideal copper proportion. The durability of its reddish tint is ensured by its palladium content.
Its name is derived from a trans-Neptunian object named Sedna by the astronomers, referring to a goddess of the Inuit people who lived in the depths of the Arctic Ocean. The surface of the subject in orbit has been described as one of the reddest of our solar system.
Swatch Group has hired the best metallurgists and scientists in its various companies, giving them the task of creating a 18K pink gold alloy which would be both marvellous and unmoved by the affronts of the time. Thus, this gold Sedna is entirely developed in-house.
The Seamaster Aqua Terra> 15000 gauss, that is, the 8508 coaxial calibre, is one of the most spectacular technological innovations of these past years. This movement, which resists magnetic fields of more than 1,5 tesla (15 000 gauss), far above the level of magnetic resistance of any watch existing to date, brings the solution to the problem with which watchmakers have been struggling since numerous decades.
The first watch which it will equip will be the Seamaster Aqua > 15 000 gauss, a Co-Axial stainless steel chronometer of 41,5 mm in diameter.
This technology has been developed by a team consisting of engineers from ETA, Asulab, Nivarox, FAR and OMEGA; this allowed to create the first prototype of this movement, integrated in a Seamaster Aqua Terra.
As opposed to other attempts which had as objective to thwart the effects of magnetism, the protection principle of the movement does not rely on the presence of a protection enclosure inside the watch case, but on the utilisation of carefully selected non-ferrous materials in the movement itself. Multiple patents have been applied for in the context of the development of this new movement. Even when it had been exposed to a magnetic field of more than 15 000 gauss, this movement continued to meet the criteria of certification defined by the COSC.
Till now the recommended method to combat the effects of the magnetic fields was to confine the movements in small protection cases. This approach presented several drawbacks: it did not allow to answer the constant increase in medium power of the permanent magnets which have been multiplied in our daily environment; therewith, from an aesthetic point of view, it blocked the movement from view and prevented displaying the date.
The magnetism has always been a major problem for the watchmakers, even more important today that the magnets are henceforth omnipresent in our daily environment. The watchmakers are regularly called to demagnetise watches which are not being able to perform well due to their exposition to magnetic fields, a problem that this new movement will entirely solve. OMEGA thus inaugurates a technological innovation which will forever change the way in which the watchmaking sector approaches the increasing problems caused by magnetic fields.
Pictures credits:
https://www.omegamuseum.com and https://www.omegawatches.com
