Editorial

The Revolutionary List: 30 Pioneering Watches – the Omega Speedmaster Chrono Chime

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Editorial

The Revolutionary List: 30 Pioneering Watches – the Omega Speedmaster Chrono Chime

This year, Revolution turns 20. Two decades of chronicling watches, people and ideas have given us a front-row seat to a remarkable story: how an age-old craft has both preserved its soul and reinvented itself for the 21st century. To celebrate, we’ve chosen over 100 names and milestones that, for us, define the era so far. From leaders to watches, you can see the whole list here.

 

Swiss watchmaker Omega’s best-associated complication is no doubt the chronograph, having produced the Speedmaster that brought mankind to the Moon for the very first time. But little is known about the fact that Omega, in its very early days — even before the Brandt brothers, its founders, began using the Omega name — had already dabbled in high complications.

 

Those early experiments culminated in a minute repeater wristwatch, not a pocket watch, that debuted in 1892. It was based on a pocket watch movement — and the case still looked very much like a pocket watch, with the crown at 12 o’clock — but it was no doubt an unusual debut for the wrist in the 19th century.

 

More than a century later, as the official timekeeper for the Olympic Games, Omega has brought together two complications that mean a lot to the brand, in a surprisingly wonderful package: the Speedmaster Chrono Chime. (The chronograph is actually a split seconds chronograph, but would you believe, the highlight here is not the split seconds at all.)

 

Omega Speedmaster Chrono Chime

Omega Speedmaster Chrono Chime

 

What’s so cool about the Chrono Chime is the fact that it’s not just a watch with two complications of timing and chiming, but two complications integrated into one. The minute repeater here can chime the chronograph’s elapsed time, down to the seconds! This means you don’t even have to look at the dial to know how much time has passed since you started and stopped the chronograph. It is, today, the only chronograph in the world with a chiming mechanism capable of sounding the elapsed time down to the seconds.

 

The Omega Co-Axial Master Chronometer Caliber 1932

The Omega Co-Axial Master Chronometer Caliber 1932

 

And if that’s not impressive enough, note that this is also a split seconds chronograph with an instantaneous jumping minute counter (not dragging). The chiming mechanism features a system to eliminate silent internal or dead time and includes a host of safety devices to prevent misuse. Finally, at its heart, it remains an excellent timekeeper, being a Master Chronometer equipped with Omega’s signature Co-Axial Escapement.

 

Omega Speedmaster Chrono Chime

Omega Speedmaster Chrono Chime

 

Tech Specs: Omega Speedmaster Chrono Chime

Movement: Manual winding Co-Axial Master Chronometer Caliber 1932; 60-hour power reserve
Functions: Hours, minutes and small seconds; split seconds chronograph; minute repeater for chrono elapsed time
Case: 45mm × 17.27mm; 18K Sedna gold; water resistant to 30m
Dial: Blue aventurine glass
Strap: Sedna gold with fold-over butterfly clasp

Brands:
Omega

Tags:
Omega