1900 Omega first pocket chronograph ref. CH 533.19, 54mm. silver case, enamel dial with 30-minute counter.

The company has has a long established history in chronographs. At the time called chronoscopes, the first pocket chronographs launched by the Brandt brothers appeared in 1885 and were market from 1885 to 1890 under the brands Gurzelen and Decimal.

The first Omega to bear the Omega name were launched in 1898 equipped with the cal. 19”’ CHRO.

Omega was founded in 1848 by Louis Brandt at the age of 23. The brands reputation grew fast and in 1895 the watches achieved a precision of 30 seconds a day.
By the turn of the 19th century Omega was one of Switzerland’s largest watch companies with 240,000 watches produced annually and employing 800 people.

Omega made its debut in sports during the Gordon Bennett international ballooning Cup in 1917; since then Omega has gone on to be the official timekeeper at 21 Olympic Games.

In 1936 Omega set the remarkable World precision record of 97.8 points at the Kew-Teddington observatory in England.

In 1957, with motorsport in mind, Omega launched the Speedmaster, which in 1965 was chosen by NASA as its official chronometer in Space. Four years later the Moonwatch was the first watch to be worn on the Moon, when on 21st July 1969 Neil Armstrong made his giant leap for mankind. Currently Omega belongs to the Swatch Group.