A Trip Through Time Fifteen years ago I wandered through Omega's factory looking for undiscovered treasure. A green cupboard, full of drawers, aroused my curiosity and I was told that it only contained watches from other companies. These were bought and still are, to study their works. The green cupboard now began to interest me even more. I opened drawer after drawer: hundreds of Japanese self-winding watches were here, early watches from competitors, all wound by hand, different types of chronograph movements ...Suddenly l noticed a completely insignificant wristwatch in a golden case without a strap with a bent frame. The dial was signed "Omega Chronometer". Small second hand. On turning the watch over, the back of the case was glass, I caught my breath - a Tourbillon! Had Omega ever made one of these? My first inquiries of Marco Richon, curator of the Omega museum, resulted in the information that nobody knew the answer. So we started to research. Slowly but surely we discovered that in 1948 twelve of these watches were in fact made by Jean-Pierre Matthey-Claudet from Evilard near Biel, using construction plans from Marcel Vuilleumier, the director of the watchmakers' school in Vallee de Joux. Omega's management at that time had completely lost sight of this extremely interesting detail. This story is fifteen years old. Since then we have had the collectors' boom of the 1980s flow over us, during which watchmakers were haunted by countless connoisseurs of old watches. In spite of this, not every secret was exposed to the light of day. Relics of past decades can still be found in drawers: small watchmaker's tools, brochures, photos, loose movements and movement drawings. Today this rescued material is no longer carried off by eager collectors to the four corners of the world. Nowadays it goes straight into the Omega museum, which is lovingly cared for by its two curators, Marco Richon and Fritz Muff. The first floor of the canteen building at Stamplistrasse 96 in Biel has nearly everything the lover of watches seeks, whether he is interested in the first wristwatches, or the design of the various Constellation models, in documents on precision time keeping at beginning of the century or the history of the development of chronographs. The first exhibits can be seen in the rotunda of the broad staircase leading upwards: photos of the early factory buildings, plans, portraits of the Brandt family, the founders, and of meritorious employees. The collection itself fills two large, bright rooms. It is arranged according to time, but is still grouped into specific areas. After all, Omega is aware that collectors are enthusiastic about the complete history, but are interested primarily in their own special field, which might be early pocket watches from Gurzelen, Helvetia, Patria and Jura, for ample, or riflemen's watches. The team of Richon and Muff go to a great deal of trouble to design the environment in accordance with the exhibits. So, naturally, a NASA spacesuit from the moon flights is placed next to the various Speednaster models. Posters from Olympic Games at which Omega was the timekeeper hang above the chronograph collection. And, of course, the famous large Plexiglas model of a self-winding movement is there as well. But this is just one part. A depot room with many undiscovered treasures, a small library and a room for audio-visual lectures make the museum, with nearly 2500 exhibits, worth seeing again and again, especially for experts. A catalogue can be purchased with nearly 60 pages showing the museum's inventory. An inventory list (without illustrations) is also available on request. The above was stolen from the TimeZone which can be found at http://www.timezone.com/news/history/history.htm which is a Web site. The following was complied by myself and downloaded from the mailing list Clocks. Manual wind Omega watches are not that unusual. There have been (hammer) auto winders from the thirties and also manual winds were produced in the seventies. A good beginning source for the ID and approximate value of the Omega watch is Cooksey Shurgatr/ R. Gilbert Complete Guide to Watches. The following list contains approximated dates: (The serial number can be found on the movement.) Date - Serial Number 1970 - 26,000,000 1964 - 20,000,000 1955 - 15,000,000 1945 - 13,000,000 1933 - 11,000,000 1925 - 9,000,000 I want to thank the mailing list Clocks for providing me with the above information. In order to apply to the E-mailing list Clockers please see the file signup.mcc. You can find this file at the following locations. For Web viewers its http://www.webcom.com/z4murray/ For FTP d/ling its ftp.webcom.com/pub/z4murray/www/signup.mcc ----------------------------or------------------------------- ftp.netcom.com/pub/mi/mikem/signup.mcc A service from, E-mail address: z4murray@webcom.com Mike Murray Listowner for Clockers A specialist in Atmos and 400-day clock repair. In continuous service since 04/01/1982. Mike's Clock Clinic Memberships: AWI # 17851; NAWCC # 074021 1326 Stanford Street Santa Monica, California 90404-2502 Fax: 310-828-7381 My Web site is located at http://www.webcom.com/z4murray/ Main FTP site is located at ftp.netcom.com/pub/mi/mikem Clockers sign-up/off is now as automated as its going to be at http://www.webcom.com/z4murray/mailing.html Copyright 1996 Michael P. Murray