Omega Watches

Omega was founded by Louis Brandt (23), who assembled watches from a small workshop in La Chaux-de-Fonds. In these early days he assembled the watches with very little daylight at hand. Upon the death of Louis Brandt in 1879 control of the company was granted to his two sons, Louis-Paul and Cesar. In 1880 the business moved in to a small factory which was down to a greater level of manpower. Mass production of a watch came in to effect in the late 1800s with the creation of the Labrador in 1885. Another achievement in high level of production brought the first minute repeater watch to the market in 1892. At the touch of a button it could sound the hours, quarter hours and minutes.

The 19 line calibre Omega was created in 1894 created by Francois Chevillat. This watch was a breakthrough in terms of manufacturing. In 1901 a watch was manufactured specifically for motorcycles which was designed to be attached directly to the gas tank.

After the deaths of Louis Paul and Cesar Brandt in 1903 the company was left in the hands of Paul-Emile Brandt who was a great influence on the fortunes of Omega. In 1930 Omega merged with SSIH

Omega brought out a range of automatic watches in 1943.

In 1981 SSIH was bailed out by the banks and for a short period of time Seiko expressed an interest in buying out Omega but nothing came of this. Since 1995 Omega have had an association with James Bond movies.

In 1997 Michael Schumacher and Alexander Popov became official ambassadors of Omega.