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Omega History Question

548 views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  Overwound 
#1 ·
Long Story short, I was talking to my English Friend at work and they are a watch collector as well. Talking about Rolex, he told me Britts love em. Especially, Londoners. Reason being is because that's where they founded back in the day and used to make them there before they moved shop to Switzerland. I never knew that. I always thought they were Swiss from the get go.

That being said, has Omega always been Home Grown Swiss? Or where they too founded somewhere else before they moved???
 
#2 ·
This was from a Google search and I could not find the author but it isn't me.
"Omega watches began in a small workshop established by Louis Brandt in La Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland in 1848. During first thirty years after it was founded, Brandt maintained a modest business, selling his watches to customers around the world". Jun 20, 2018
 
#3 ·
FWIW Rolex was founded in England but never made watches there to my knowledge (and in fact never actually manufactured watches until recently but that’s a story for another thread) They were just a reseller of commissioned watches back then. Omega yes was founded in Switzerland.
 
#5 ·
Long Story short, I was talking to my English Friend at work and they are a watch collector as well. Talking about Rolex, he told me Britts love em. Especially, Londoners. Reason being is because that's where they founded back in the day and used to make them there before they moved shop to Switzerland. I never knew that. I always thought they were Swiss from the get go.

That being said, has Omega always been Home Grown Swiss? Or where they too founded somewhere else before they moved???
Founded in England by a German-born guy and ultimately made in Switzerland, Rolex has about as much claim to being an "international watch company" as IWC does (founded by an American, located in a German-speaking part of Switzerland).

Anyway, Omega starts out life as the relatively humble La Generale Watch Company in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1848. By all accounts, this was not an enormous business, mostly focused on assembling quality watches (as many were in the day) and selling them to other countries. Following his demise, his sons took over, and that's where the Omega we know really begins. At some point during this time, they move to Biel, and they decide that they are going to focus on the design and manufacturing of in-house movements. The most important of these was the Omega in 1894. The movement was an enormous hit, and consequently, in 1903, the company was named after the movement, so that's where we see the first Omega company we recognize today.

In 1930, they merged with Tissot to form SSIH, and SSIH ultimately ended up being about half of Swatch Group when SSIH and ASUAG were integrated into SMH (and renamed Swatch Group years later).

So yes, as far as I'm aware anyway, Omega was founded and has been continuously operated out of Switzerland.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Thanks for the history TimelessLuxury! :)

As far as Rolex, Hans Wilsdorf brought movements from Switzerland to England and cased them. This is where his watch company started, Wilsdorf & Davis. There's a website and video about this on the fairly new "Rolex.org" website.

If someone can't watch a video at this time you can read about it if you go here Rolex.org then scroll down past the video section.

Direct vido link:

[video]https://images.rolex.org/data/media/hans-wilsdorf/cover/hans_wilsdorf_the_man_behind_the_crown.mp4[/video]
 
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