We couldn’t have the Olympics without some pretty accurate timing devices, and today it’s Omega who are the main brand associated with Olympic timing of all kinds. While they have been present at the majority of the Summer and Winter Olympic Games since 1932, they aren’t the only company to have provided timing devices and commemorative watches. This article will outline Omega’s involvement and some of the other great watches from the games where Omega missed out.
Timing the first modern Olympic Games
The first modern Olympic Games was held in Athens in 1896, and the judges for the various events brought along their own watches. This caused many obvious problems, given the likely variations in quality between the different stopwatches in use. These will all have been pocket watch sized Chronographs. There aren’t any records of any particular watches used.
The Olympic Association realised they needed to have a more standardised approach and Heuer was commissioned to provide watches for the games in the 1920s. The Heuer Mikrograph was provided, which was able to time down to 1/100ths of a second. This was a huge improvement, but interestingly the Association took a step backwards in 1932 when Omega first arrived on the scene.
Omega’s First Olympics
Omega won a contract for these games in Los Angeles, providing 30 identical Chronographs and a watchmaker to service them during the games. They got very high praise for their technical performance, despite only timing to 1/10ths of a second, a worse measure than those used from Heuer. They did however then continue to be the official timekeepers for the next games, and then again from 1948 to 1960.
The First Commemorative Watch
The first watch to feature the Olympic rings came at Melbourne in 1956, a Seamaster made for high-ranking officials with the rings on the dial, and one with XIV for the 16th games on the dial made for everyone else. It’s beautiful!
The Tokyo Games and Seiko
With the 1964 games being held in Tokyo, it is unsurprising to know that Seiko were the main sponsors and produced a great range of watches to go with the games, including a monopusher Chronograph known as the Chronostop and a Worldtimer. The company had to work hard to get the timing equipment ready for the games as they had none of the technology to begin with. It was the first games to use electronic photo finishes and trial the touchpads in the pool for the swimming competition. Visiting journalists commented that it was the High-Tech games!
Munich and Longines
The 1972 Games saw Longines become the main timekeepers for the games alongside German brand Junghans. They used their Conquest range to produce a great monopusher chronograph in celebration.
The Moscow Games
The 1980 games in Moscow saw a fantastic range of watches issued by Soviet Watch Companies, with the most famous being Raketa, who made some striking colourful watches with different Olympic motifs on the dial.
Swatch join the party
At the Sydney games in 2000 the official watch was a Swatch. While there is no doubting the quality and reliability of Swatch watches, they aren’t famed for their technical prowess or precision, so it’s interesting that this partnership came about. They have continued to produce a range of watchs for every summer games since then. Here is the Paris 2024 Collection.
The return of Omega
From 2006 onwards Omega have cemented their place as the watch partner for the Olympic games and we’ve seen a great range of their models made as Limited Editions.
Conclusion
Olympic watches are a much broader set of watches than you might imagine. There are a fun and varied niche of watches to collect, and with many more to come in future, it’s going to remain interesting as they find new ways to celebrate the Olympic Games.