{ established 1848
In 2017, WatchTime reported that Omega SA [1] was owned by Swatch Group of Switzerland — “the largest watch company in the world” [2]. Among its eighteen brands owned, “Omega generates the most revenue and is the third-largest Swiss brand.” Omega itself has traced its founding to 1848, by Louis Brandt, who opened a modest workshop in the Swiss village of La Chaux-de-Fonds to develop “the most accurate watches he could” [3].
Omega has credited Lindy Hemming, “the Oscar-winning costume designer” as having been “responsible for casting 007’s watch in GoldenEye” [4]. She discussed this in greater detail during a 2012 interview for Christie’s [5].
Prior to wearing an Omega, Bond had been a Rolex and Seiko man, but once Hemming came into the picture she decided an Omega was the best fit and the producers agreed ….
Hemming knew about Omega watches because friends of the family were naval personnel who fought in the Second World War and they all swore by Omega. ‘In my head, I got an image that Omega would be correct for Commander Bond,’ says. She then researched the watch and came to the conclusion that it would perfectly suit Bond …. The Seamaster Professional Quartz had a blue bezel and ‘to me blues were the colors of James Bond,’ Hemming says.
A November 2023 sit-down with Jean-Claude Biver, at the time head of Omega, shined additional light on that history [6].
HISTORY
In the century-and-a-half leading up to Omega having been placed on the wrist of Pierce Brosnan for the EON Productions motion picture GoldenEye, Louis Brant begat “Louis Brandt & Fils” according to the corporate chronology. By the final decades of the 1880s, it had become “the largest watch-making enterprise in Switzerland, producing 100,000 watches a year [7]; sons of the founder developed a caliber that they regarded as the “ultimate achievement” in terms of accuracy and serviceability — which they named “Omega.”
In 1903 the firm was re-branded as “Louis Brandt & Frère-Omega Watch Co,” and in 1925 entered into “an intensive and commercial co-operation” with Tissot to “found SSIH, the ‘Société Suisse pour l’Industrie Horlogère SA.”
Significant progress in improved timekeeper accuracy [8] led in 1931 to Omega having “set precision records in all six trials at the Geneva Observatory” [9,10]. In 1937, Omega set a record in accuracy “that remains unbeaten to this day.” At the outset of World War II, “Omega was commissioned as the single largest supplier of watches for the British armed forces and its allies. To meet the volume and precision requirements of the order, Omega had to fast-track its advances in water-resistant, shockproof and antimagnetic watches through industrialization ….”
Prior to earning its pedigree as a “Bond watch,” however, Omega was likely best defined by “The Space Race” [11]. This puts it in good company among fellow James Bond watchmakers including Breitling [12] and Heuer [13]. But Omega went on to become known as “the moon watch” [14]. Or, as the late Chuck Maddox opined in the early months into Y2K: Just ask Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin [15].
The milestone of July 20, 1969 [16] was challenged by a disruptor in horology 159 days later, with the introduction of the Seiko Astron SQ35, “the world’s first commercial quartz wristwatch” [17].
Although Seiko would go on to become a James Bond watchmaker in 1977, it was actually the Hamilton Watch Company [18] that would first leverage quartz-tech for the wrist of Roger Moore as Agent 007 in 1973 [19]. On the other hand— author Pieter Doensen might argue, legitimately, that “Omega” effectively became a concurrent James Bond watchmaker via Live and Let Die as well, thanks to its SSIH takeover of Hamilton in 1971 [20].
Five years after the outset of “The Quartz Revolution,” Omega was very much there for the fight.
A significant example of this was launch of its “Megaquartz” movement, built upon “a decade of development ….” This was “a wristwatch-sized calibre that was certified as a ‘Marine Chronometer’ [21]. Due to its routine variation of less than 0.002 seconds per day, it remains the world’s first and only wristwatch to receive this distinction.”
But it wasn’t enough. In 1982, SSIH incurred “a loss of 17 million Swiss francs,” fired employees in fleeting attempts to “re-inforce their position,” and took infusions of financing from Swiss banks [22]. Mergers and reorganizations followed, ultimately leading to Omega and Hamilton being taken under the holding company, “Société de Micro-électronique et d’Horlogerie,” or “SMH” — “the most important group of Swiss manufacturers.”
SMH changed its name to Swatch Group in 1998, between the releases of Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough [23].
EN ROUTE TO JAMES BOND WATCHES
As noted at the outset of this page, selection of Omega to first appear as a James Bond watch in 1995 has firmly centered on EON Productions costume designer Lindy Hemming [24].
Talking about her choice of the Omega Seamaster, she said, ‘I was convinced that Commander bond, a naval man, a diver, and a discreet gentleman of the world, would wear this watch as opposed to the one everyone expected me to use.’
It is a story that has remained consistent in the time since the 2012 Christie’s interview cited above, across media [25].
‘My father had been in the Royal Air Force,’ she explained, ‘but was friendly with navy men. I remember as a child one often visiting us and he always wore this Omega, which fascinated me, with its unusually sporty design, looking as though it was built for purpose. It’s the small details that really matter.’
Consequently, Hemming said, ‘I went to a props and hand props meeting and argued for the use of Omega ….’ The particular timepiece Hemming chose was a Seamaster 300M Professional, a contemporary take on the Omega watches that were issued to Royal Navy divers in the late 1960s.
Watchmaker-side, Jean-Claude Biver had just stepped up to head Omega [26] as GoldenEye went into production — charged with reviving “the once venerable, but ailing watch company Omega.
Between 1995 and 1999, Biver led [a] turnaround effort that increased Omega’s revenues from $350 million to $900 million.
In a fouth-quarter 2023 interview for Hodinkee, he recalled how he had become aware that “we can have James Bond, … [27].
I started with two, even three, fantastic ideas. The first one, it didn’t come from me: It was a young student. And she said, ‘… I heard that they are ready to sell, … we might have James Bond … as an ambassador. And we will be in the film, and nine seconds,’ et cetera, et cetera ….
I’m not sure ….
Finally, I went to Hollywood. I saw Universal Studios. And we discussed. And I came back with a contract where we did not have just James Bond wearing a watch, but we had a full campaign — all around the world, with Pierce Brosnan; he was … the newest James Bond ….
INSIGHTS
This “full campaign” for an ongoing James Bond watch partner was not just unprecedented, but would later prove a case study in myriad challenges that would come part-and-parcel with marketing via uncharted waters of a nascent World Wide Web [28]. Simply put: It did not exist for any other James Bond actor prior to Pierce Brosnan and no other James Bond watchmaker prior to Omega.
As far as I was concerned, this didn’t make much difference in terms of wristwatch choices through Die Another Day in 2002: They had all effectively appeared to be the same since GoldenEye; and they had all been exactly the same since Tomorrow Never Dies.
But the change of lead actor and mystique of rumored franchise “reboot” were played for any potential advantage in lead-up to Casino Royale. One exciting question was whether or not that movie would come as a period piece, set in the time of the Casino Royale book, which would have meant 1951. An otherwise matter-of-fact new product release by Omega put the kibosh on that, as I reported through my James Bond Watches Blog more than ten months before that movie premiered: The Omega watch(es) worn on-screen by Daniel Craig would “definitely feature its so-called ‘co-axial’ escapement [29].
For those speculating on the time period for Casino Royale, use of this technology surely rules out a 007 story line set in the era of the original Ian Fleming novel upon which the movie is based.
Co-axial movements didn’t exist during the Cold War.
So that was the experience of new James Bond watch identification and reporting that ended with Skyfall, as explained under the “Personal” section of the Commemorative Omega “Casino Royale” page. Time to move on — just like we did after The Quartz Revolution effects viz Seiko inquires had run their course, and, further, further back, the “startup” effects on selection of the James Bond watches for Dr No were accepted as never to be seen again.
Fear not if you missed taking in any of the above: If there was any message to be had from No Time to Die, it’s that the James Bond franchise can and will still surprise you. And James Bond’s watch will inevitably be a part of that.
— Dell Deaton
Latest update: March 22, 2024
Published: December 9, 2005
OFF-SITE REFERENCES
- Omega
(accessed February 5, 2024). - “Who Owns What: A Guide to the Watch Groups”
October 12, 2017 / Jay Deshpande / WatchTime (accessed January 13, 2024). - “The First Workshop: 1848”
Chronicle: The Story of Omega / Omega (accessed February 4, 2024). - “The Perfect Watch for the World’s Most Beloved Spy”
Planet Omega: James Bond / Ibid. - “Lindy Hemming: The Woman Behind James Bond’s Omega Watch”
Meehna Goldsmith / Longitude: Christie’s blog for collecting watches (via Internet Archive, accessed February 4, 2024). - “Video: Jean-Claude Biver On Selling Blancpain, The James Bond Partnership, Sublet And Hip-Hop, And Starting The Biver Brand”
November 13, 2023 / Danny Milton / Hodinkee (accessed November 14, 2023). - “Omega and SSIH”
1994 / Pieter Doensen / Watch: History of the Modern Wrist Watch, page 233 (Snoeck-Ducaju & Zoon: The Netherlands). - “A Detailed Look Into Omega’s History Of Olympics Timekeeping”
February 20, 2018 / David Bredan / A Blog to Watch (accessed February 4, 2024). - “Chronicle: The Story of Omega, 1901-1950,” Ibid.
- “The Chronometry Service at the Geneva Observatory,” Université de Genève, Department of Astronomy (accessed January 13, 2024).
- “What Was the Space Race?”
August 23, 2023 / Smithsonian: National Air and Space Museum (accessed February 4, 2024). - “1950s-60s: Chapter 3 – Breitling Icons”
Breitling (accessed January 14, 2024). - “Stopwatch, Friendship 7”
Smithsonian: National Air and Space Museum (accessed January 14, 2024). - “How the Speedmaster became the Moonwatch”
July 16, 2019 / Robert-Jan Broer / Fratello (accessed February 4, 2024). - “What watches were worn on/near the moon …”
June 18, 2000 / Chuck Maddox / chronomaddox.com (accessed February 4, 2024). - “July 20, 1969: One Giant Leap For Mankind”
July 20, 2019 / NASA (accessed February 4, 2024). - “Chronology of the First Quartz Wristwatch”
2009 / Armin H Frei / The World’s First Quartz Wristwatch (accessed February 4, 2024). - “Hamilton”
Watch, page 226 / Ibid. - “James Bond’s most groundbreaking watch was hidden in plain sight”
March 2, 2020 / Charlie Burton / GQ (accessed February 4, 2024). - “S.8 Omega and SSIH”
2007 / Pieter Doensen / Watch. History of the modern wrist watch (accessed February 4, 2024). - “Marine Chronometer,” Smithsonian: Time and Navigation (accessed January 13, 2024)
- “Omega and SSIH”
Ibid, page 235. - “Reorganization of Major Watch Groups”
The Quartz Crisis and Recovery of Swiss Watches / The Seiko Museum Ginza (accessed February 5, 2024). - “James Bond Through the Years — The Crucial Role Omega Has Played In the Films”
November 11, 2021 / Gowri Chitra / Says (accessed February 4, 2024). - “The Story Behind James Bond’s Long-Standing Relationship With Omega”
November 18, 2020 / Tatler Hong Kong / Tatler (accessed February 4, 2024). - “Jean-Claude Biver (A): The Reemergence of the Swiss Watch Industry”
October 2014 (rev December 2018) / Ryan Raffaelli / Harvard Business School (accessed February 5, 2024). - “Jean-Claude River On The James Bond Partnership, Hublot And Hip-Hop, And Starting The Biver Brand”
November 13, 2023 / Hodinkee (via YouTube, accessed February 4, 2024). - “A brief history of the World Wide Web”
March 8, 2019 / CERN (via YouTube, accessed February 5, 2024). - “Confirmation of new James Bond ‘Co-Axial Omega wristwatch”
January 9, 2006 / Dell Deaton / James Bond Watches Blog (via Internet Archive, accessed January 6, 2024). - “How to Determine Root Causes of Startup Failures: 3 Frameworks”
January 29, 2024 / The EntreProfessor (via YouTube, accessed February 5, 2024).