Omega launched the brand’s extraordinary new work, the chronograph minute repeater, at the end of October, creating the first super-complex watch in the history of watchmaking that can sound the chronograph time. This news The release is like dropping a bombshell in the watch industry.
This watch combines the functions of timing and minute repeater, but it completely breaks through the traditional watchmaking process and adopts a new innovative mechanism to process the timing results of the watch in the form of minute repeater. Sound the alarm. In other words, Omega's minute repeater chimes not the conventional travel time, but the timing time, which is unique in the watchmaking industry. This means that Omega needs to start from the most basic movement structure and create a new system instead of adding bricks and tiles to the original system. In addition, Omega has also superimposed the advanced complex function of rattrapante. Therefore, the release of the chronograph minute repeater not only opened up unprecedented timing technology in the history of watchmaking, but also elevated Omega to the top position in the watchmaking industry.
The design inspiration or historical origin of the new work comes from the industry-first minute repeater watch launched by Omega in 1892, and the split-seconds chronograph pocket watch used for the first time as the official timekeeper of the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1932. ?The ingenious combination of two landmark works led to the birth of the 1932 Co-Axial Master Chronometer movement, the most complex coaxial master chronometer movement in Omega's history, and the most expensive chronograph minute repeater in history.
The new movement took 6 years to develop. It contains 575 parts and has obtained 17 patents. There is no doubt about its complexity and technical content. In terms of the realization of the timing function, Omega adopts a single-button timing structure. The start, stop and zero reset buttons of the timing are integrated on the top of the winding crown. There is also a rattrapante button and a minute repeater start button. In order to be consistent with the precision of the chronograph pocket watches used in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, Omega specially increased the vibration rate of the new movement to 5 Hz, which can accurately time to 1/10 second. Such a high vibration rate is extremely rare in complex function watches, and it is the first time it has been used in a Master Chronometer movement, which is of groundbreaking significance. What’s even more surprising is that the 1932 Coaxial Master Chronometer movement also has a 60-hour power reserve and an anti-magnetic performance of 15,000 Gauss. For this reason, Omega specifically uses up to 50 non-ferromagnetic materials in the movement. parts.
The most distinctive feature of this work is the minute repeater. The conventional minute repeater function uses two hammers to strike the gong in sequence to emit high and low sounds to announce the current time. The low sound represents the hour, the combination of low and high sounds represents the quarter hour, and the high sound represents the remaining minutes of the quarter hour. Omega's chronograph minute repeater beeps the result of the previous timing, with the bass representing the minutes of timing, the combination of low and high pitches representing the ten seconds of timing, and the high pitch representing the single seconds of timing. If the timing result is 9 minutes and 27 seconds, the bass will be struck 9 times, then 2 sets of low and treble will be struck, and finally the treble will be struck 7 times.
The Omega chronograph minute repeater only has two small dials, which display small seconds and 15-minute time respectively, so its minute repeater range is also within 15 minutes. This is also in line with the actual use situation. If the alarm is sounded too many times, it is easy to hear the alarm incorrectly. On this basis, Omega also innovatively set a precise interval of 1.5 seconds between the minute, ten-second and second chimes so that the chime sound will not be delayed for too long; it also added two protective functions to avoid misoperation. resulting in unnecessary startup.
As you can see, the quality of the 1932 movement is significantly better than the conventional copper plywood movement. This is because the former uses Omega’s unique Senda gold material. The gold content of the entire movement is as high as 46.44 grams, which is equivalent to an ordinary 18K gold watch case. The structure of the movement is layered and full of symmetrical beauty. The hand-polished grained surface and mirror polishing effect make the entire movement look particularly graceful and luxurious, making it a rare work of art.
Please note that the hammers and gongs of this movement are also made of Sedna 18K gold, which has a better sounding effect than traditional steel gongs. Omega's Sedna 18K gold gongs are manually adjusted by watchmakers and can produce a pleasant sound when struck by a hammer equipped with a hardened steel insert. If you look carefully, you can see only the hammers in the movement diagram and not the gongs, because the latter are unconventionally fixed on the case. Theoretically, the lower the mass ratio of the case to the gong, the more ideal the vibration intensity of the sound will be.
Omega directly fixed the gongs made of the same material to the case, making the case an extension of the gongs, further enhancing the vibration effect of the sound to produce the loudest chimes.
This time Omega released two chronograph minute repeaters equipped with the 1932 movement. Both are 45mm Sedna 18K gold cases with transparent bottom covers. An Olympic 1932 chronograph minute repeater made in the style of a classical pocket watch. The dial is fired using the Grand Feu enamel technique. The crown and chronograph button are located at 12 o'clock, the minute repeater start button is located at 5 o'clock, and the rattrapante button decorated with a red ceramic polished ring is located at 11 o'clock. The other is the Speedmaster series chronograph minute repeater, which follows the design style of the second-generation Speedmaster watch, which is equivalent to rotating the movement 90° to restore the crown and small dial to the classic position. The dial and bezel combine blue aventurine and Grand Feu enamel craftsmanship. Whether it is complex functions, movement structure, or appearance design, all the details from the inside to the outside of the two products can be regarded as rare art treasures.