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The Omega 28.9 Chronograph was Omega's first small wrist chronograph. [1] Introduced in 1932 as the Lemania caliber CH13, production continued until 1943. Lemania was acquired by the same mother company as Omega, SSIH, in 1932. Watches based on this movement paved the way for Omega to become one of the most successful manufacturers of Swiss made wrist chronographs.
The calibre 28.9 was introduced as Omega SA watches' first production wrist chronograph in 1932 featuring 17 rubies, Breguet balance and continuous minute hand. [2] Lemania produced the movements for Omega and it was made in very small numbers for a little over ten years. Lemania produced three types of the calibre CH13/28.9 movement: T1, which utilized a single pusher, and T2 and T3, which utilized two pushers. The movement was manual wind.
Omega SA is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. Founded by Louis Brandt in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1848, the company formally operated as the La Generale Watch Co. until incorporating the name Omega in 1903, becoming Louis Brandt et Frère - Omega Watch & Co.. In 1982, the company officially changed its name to Omega SA, which is currently a subsidiary of the Swiss Swatch Group. Omega opened its museum to the public in Biel/Bienne in January 1984.
A chronograph is a specific type of watch that is used as a stopwatch combined with a display watch. A basic chronograph has an independent sweep second hand; it can be started, stopped, and returned to zero by successive pressure on the stem. More complex chronographs use additional complications and can have multiple independent hands to measure seconds, minutes, hours and even tenths of a second. In addition, many modern chronographs use moveable bezels as tachymeters for rapid calculations of speed or distance. Louis Moinet invented the chronograph in 1816 for use in tracking astronomical objects. Chronographs were also used heavily in artillery fire in the mid to late 1800s. More modern uses of chronographs involve piloting airplanes, car racing, diving and submarine maneuvering.
Breguet is a luxury watch, clock and jewelry manufacturer founded by Abraham-Louis Breguet in Paris, France in 1775. Since 1999, it has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Swatch Group. Headquartered in L'Abbaye, Switzerland, Breguet is one of the oldest surviving watchmaking brands and a pioneer of numerous watchmaking technologies such as the tourbillon, which was invented by Abraham Breguet in 1801. Abraham Breguet also invented and produced the world's first self-winding watch in 1780, as well as the world's first wristwatch in 1810.
The movement was developed following the success of the Omega calibre 18’’’ wrist watch, which was a development of the Calibre 19”’ pocket chronographs.
The most famous owner of an Omega calibre 18” wrist chronograph was T.E. Lawrence otherwise known as Laurence of Arabia. [3]
The calibre 28.9 was designed primarily as small wrist chronograph to be worn for sports or by professionals and was marketed primarily at sportsmen and pilots. The watch was introduced in production form in 1932 and was produced in very small numbers up until circa 1943. [4]
This watch marked the introduction of the Omega wrist chronograph in production form, which would later evolve through the calibre 33.3 (Lemania 15CH) to the calibre 321 (Lemania 2310), fitted to the famous Omega ‘moon watch’ used even today by NASA.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research.
Numerous manufacturers utilized the calibre 13CH movement, including Tissot. The movement was most successfully adopted by Omega who under calibre 28.9 manufactured three variants, T1, T2 and T3 in numerous configurations in both stainless steel and precious metals, most notably 18ct solid gold.
Stainless steel examples of this watch were used by the commanders and pilots of the Italo Balbo air force who used them on trans-Atlantic crossings. Other famous owners included Amelia Earhart who was wearing a calibre 28.9 T1 enamel dial when she disappeared during a transpacific crossing. [5]
Italo Balbo was an Italian Blackshirt leader who served as Italy's Marshal of the Air Force, Governor-General of Libya, Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa, and the "heir apparent" to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
Amelia Mary Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She received the United States Distinguished Flying Cross for this accomplishment. She set many other records, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots. In 1935, Earhart became a visiting faculty member at Purdue University as an advisor to aeronautical engineering and a career counselor to women students. She was also a member of the National Woman's Party and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.
The watch was produced with a number of variations of chronograph dial, some in enamel and some in painted brass, including some very rare prototypes such as the inserted drivers chronograph dating from circa 1937. [6]
The watches were small by modern standards and reliability issues resulted in Omega introducing watches based on the Lemania calibre 15CH (Omega 33.3) in 1933 at which point the 28.9 was slowly phased out of the range and had been discontinued by 1943.
The Omega 28.9 chronograph paved the way for the introduction of the calibre 33.3 a more accurate and larger wrist chronograph, this in turn evolved into the calibre 27 CHRO and later the calibre 321 and then 861. The calibre 321 and 861 are undoubtedly Omega's most famous chronograph watches and have been incorporated into a range of wrist chronographs including being the only watch certified for EVA use by NASA and still issued to this day to their astronauts. [7]
Despite the significance of the calibre 28.9 wrist chronograph it was produced in relatively small numbers over the eleven-year period. Technological developments and the introduction of the larger calibre 33.3 movement, which was larger and more reliable, resulted in the demise of the calibre 28.9. Nonetheless it marked the first production wrist chronograph manufactured by Omega and paved the way for the company to become one of the most successful manufacturers of chronographs watches in the world.
Calibre 28.9 chronographs are now extremely rare and as such highly sought after by collectors and enthusiasts.
A watch is a timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep working despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached by a watch strap or other type of bracelet. A pocket watch is designed for a person to carry in a pocket. The study of timekeeping is known as horology.
Seiko Holdings Corporation, commonly known as Seiko, is a Japanese holding company that has subsidiaries which manufactures and sells watches, clocks, electronic devices, semiconductors, jewelries, and optical products.
TAG Heuer S.A. is a Swiss luxury manufacturing company that designs, manufactures and markets watches and fashion accessories, as well as eyewear and mobile phones manufactured under license by other companies and carrying the Tag Heuer brand name.
Swatch is a Swiss watchmaker founded in 1983 by Nicolas Hayek and a subsidiary of The Swatch Group. The Swatch product line was developed as a response to the "quartz crisis" of the 1970s and 1980s, in which Asian-made digital watches were competing against traditional European-made mechanical watches.
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Omega Speedmaster is a line of chronograph wristwatches produced by Omega SA. While chronographs have been around since the late 1800s, Omega first introduced this line of chronographs in 1957. Since then, many different chronograph movements have been marketed under the Speedmaster name. The manual winding Speedmaster Professional or "Moonwatch" is the best-known and longest-produced; it was worn during the first American spacewalk as part of NASA's Gemini 4 mission and was the first watch worn by an astronaut walking on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission. The Speedmaster Professional remains one of several watches qualified by NASA for spaceflight and is still the only one so qualified for EVA. The Speedmaster line also includes other models, including analog-digital and automatic mechanical watches.
Double chronograph is a watch that includes two separate stopwatch mechanisms in order to estimate two separate events of different durations. It is often confused with the flyback chronograph.
Gallet (ˈgæl.eɪ) is a historic Swiss manufacturer of high-end timepieces for professional, military, sports, racing, and aviation use. Gallet is the world's oldest watch and clock making house with history dating back to Humbertus Gallet, a clock maker who became a citizen of Genève in 1466. The Gallet & Cie name was officially registered by Julien Gallet (1806–1849) in 1826, who moved the family business from Geneva to La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Prior to this date, operations commenced under the name of each of the Gallet family patriarchs.
Jean Lassale was a Swiss watch company that designed the Calibre 1200, featuring the thinnest mechanical watch movement : 1.2 mm. In the 1970s, Pierre Mathys, master watchmaker in La Chaux-de-Fonds, designed and built the prototype of a revolutionary watch caliber, with the goal of making the thinnest watch in the world. To achieve this feat, Mathys based his design on the work of Robert Annen, who previously had the idea of using ball bearings in small scale horology. Mathys decided to remove the bridges and counter-pivot, and instead use ball bearings for the axis.
The TAG Heuer Monaco is a series of automatic chronograph wristwatch originally introduced by Heuer in 1969 in honour of the Monaco Grand Prix. The Monaco was revolutionary for being the first automatic as well as the first square cased chronograph. The Hollywood film star Steve McQueen used the watch to accessorize his character in the 1971 film Le Mans. In the decades after his death the use of film stills has made the watch synonymous with McQueen. Although it was discontinued in the mid-1970s, the Monaco was reissued with a new design in 1998 and was reintroduced again with an entirely new mechanisms in 2003 in response to McQueen's increasing popularity.
Langendorf Watch Company was a Swiss watchmaker known for its fine craftsmanship and great attention to detail. Around 1890, it was probably the largest producer of watches in the world. The company produced watches in Langendorf, Switzerland for exactly a century, from 1873 to 1973.
The Omega Marine Chronometer was the first quartz wristwatch ever to be awarded certified status as a marine chronometer. The watch was made by Omega SA and developed by John Othenin-Girard and is one of the most accurate non thermo-compensated production watches ever made, keeping time to within 1 second per month
The Omega Electroquartz was introduced in 1969 as the first production Swiss quartz watch. It was the collaboration of 20 Swiss watch companies and the movement was utilised by Rolex, Patek Phillipe and Omega SA amongst others. The Beta 21 movement used in the Electroquartz was accurate to 5 seconds per month, far better than any automatic or manual wind movement of the day.
The Omega Chrono-Quartz was the world’s first digital/ analogue chronograph. It was invented by Omega SA. The watch launched at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games and was Omega's flagship chronograph at that time. The watch is noteworthy as it was the first chronograph wristwatch in the world to combine analogue display for the time functions and a digital display for the chronograph function, each working independently of one another but running on the same quartz resonator. (32 kHz)
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Lemania was a Swiss watch manufacturer and manufacturer of watch movements.
The Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean is an automatic professional Swiss made luxury diving watch designed and manufactured by Omega SA since 2005. It belongs to the Seamaster line and has been characterized, since the beginning of its production, by a 600m/2000ft water resistance, a helium release valve, and the chronometer certification. Throughout its history, many authoritative international sources have often mentioned it as one of the greatest dive watches of all time.
Patria Watch Co or simply Patria, was a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Bienne, Switzerland, founded in 1892 by Louis Brandt et Frère. Patria manufactured military trench watches which were used extensively in The First World War between 1914 and 1918. Patria shares a common founder, Louis Brandt et Frère with Omega SA.