Omega Americana: The Most American Watch Brand Isn't Even American
When you think of an American watch brand, you probably picture something built by a guy named Chuck in a factory that smells like motor oil and freedom. Instead, we’re making the case that Omega—a Swiss brand through and through—might actually be the most American watch company of them all.
Sounds ridiculous? Maybe. But consider this: Omega timed the Moon landing, is the official timekeeper of the Olympics, and even landed on the wrists of George Clooney, Elvis Presley, and Buzz Aldrin. Oh, and let’s not forget strong American presidents such as JFK and uh Joe Biden both wore an Omega while running the free world. So while Omega’s headquarters might be in Switzerland, its legacy is stamped all over America’s biggest flexes. Let’s break it down.
NASA
The first argument in favour of the question is hardly even an argument in the first place. ‘Humanities greatest achievement’ and America's favorite story, the moon landing. Omega and NASA have worked together since 1964/65. Omega beat out rival watch companies in the development of a NASA flight-certified watch. The highlight of the moon watch has to be the Apollo 13 mission which Omega hasn’t since shut up about. Not even going to bother telling the story here because at some point omega will write a 300-word essay with citations on the case back of whatever special edition they release next (seriously Omega please stop writing stories all over your casebacks).
They continued to work together with Project Alaska between the late 60’s until 2008. the most American of the lot has to be the 1978 Alaska 3. A batch of 56 of these were delivered to NASA without 'Swiss made' on the dial. The reason for this was due to the 'Buy American Act' which meant a certain value of the watch had to be made in America. In this case, it was, well, the case. The case was all brushed to reduce reflections that could distract the astronaut in crucial moments. To further improve legibility the dial had radial numbers. This dial was replicated for the cringe-worthy #speedytuesday edition that released to gobblers in 2017.
Since 98 they have produced the X-33 worn by real astronauts and people happy to spend 6 and a half grand for what’s basically a posh G-SHOCK. Since 03 childish grown men have been lucky enough to have the ability to spend thousands of pounds for a watch with a cartoon on it with the Snoopy Award watches.
At the time of writing it has just been announced that Neil Armstrong's gold commemorative Speedmaster is heading to auction. Armstrong didn’t wear a Speedy on the Moon (his was strapped to the lunar module because NASA’s tech was already breaking), but he was still the first man to set foot on another celestial body. Omega presented 26 of these to the astronauts involved in the Apollo 11 landing so yeah, this gold Omega is about as American as it gets.
Omega and America, written in the stars (and stripes)
Omegas constellation was one of the brand's most popular models back in the day. ‘Inspired by Architecture’ a 1982 redesign suitably named Manhattan, drastically changed the constellation. Early marketing material positions this watch as an item to mark achievements, It screams Wall Street and douchebag 80’s stock brokers, the corporate weapon watch was born, how American.
Globemaster and Double Eagle.
Building on the design of the Manhattan, a larger ‘sportier’ version debuted in 03, dubbed the ‘Double Eagle’. There is nothing extremely American about this watch other than its name and the fact that it's a bit too fat. What's more American than an eagle? Double eagle.
In 2015 Omega finally brought back the pie pan constellation in the form of the Globemaster. This was the first watch to be awarded METAS certification. This was a huge deal at the time, and is still just as impressive today, as the constellation collection really is a celebration of accuracy and the famous observatory trials it competed in. The naming is interesting as despite being a name found on some constellations from back in the 50’s its also the name of the mighty all-American Boeing C-17 Globemaster, a heavy-lift military aircraft able to carry oh I don't know, take your pick; An apache helicopter, 2 black hawk choppers, an M1 Abrams tank, or 6 Humvees.
Olympics
It’s Greek. It’s global. But above all else, it’s American. When we think of the Olympics Michael Phelps and the Stars and Stripes come to mind. Omega wasn’t the first brand to be the official timekeeper of the games; that title goes to Heuer (read about it in our blog HERE). The partnership has been in place since 1932. What started as a lone watchmaker managing 30 stopwatches has become a massive technological timing operation, as with each passing tournament, we see Omega and America sharing the top step of the world's podium.
It is with this partnership we have seen quite a few great omegas (and you can bet we are going to do a full blog and these soon). With too many to pick we are going to list a few here.
Presidential
JFK is possibly the most iconic American president in history. When we think of his watches we might think of the Rolex Day-Date gifted to him by Marilyn Monroe but as we all know he didn’t actually wear that watch and instead opted for his trusty omega ultra-thin. The watch must have been good to be worthy of ditching the solid gold Rolex from Monroe.
Joe is not as cool as John, and neither are his watches. But he does have two Omegas, a Speedy and a Seamaster. At this point, it would be rude not to get a rail master and if I were part of his circle I am confident I could get him to buy the trilogy set, perhaps using our watch-sourcing service. (tothegeezers@geezerswithtweezers)
Moonshine?
Quick one. All the watch brands these days have some goofy name for gold or steel or whatever. Out of all the names Omega could have chosen they landed with an American staple, ‘moonshine’ gold.
Jailhouse Rock
What's America without rock and roll, and what's rock and roll without Elvis? War hero, Wild West actor, and 1 billion records sold, Elvis was so American his favourite food was peanut butter and bacon (Google it!), and he never toured outside of his home continent. We normally hate diamonds on watches, but may we introduce you to his Omega commemorating 75 million record sales. To make the watch even more special (and American), it’s signed by Tiffany & Co and features the Omega 510, a movement that we can say with experience, is a really nice manual wind movement.
License to kill
Alright James Bond is British but it’s all Hollywood nonetheless. Produced by MGM, the Broccoli family and now Amazon it's got American hands all over it. Bond has worn all sorts in the past such as Heuers, Breitling, Rolex, and even a Greun but since ‘95 a Seamaster has been strapped to his wrist. Omega may be trying to deceive us with some British class here but again this is another example of the brand in bed with the yanks.
America's cup
I didn't think people cared about this competition but after reading about the history and the sheer amount of money involved in this form of racing I realized I must be wrong. The event is not even American. The cup was produced by Garrard and Co in Victorian England and commissioned by the Royal Yacht Squadron. After a competition with the Yanks in 1851 saw them rename it ‘Americas Cup’. Between 1851 and 1983 the New York Yacht Club was unbeaten and won 25 times, way more wins than any other competitor. To me, it sounds like an incredibly boring competition but being the oldest trophy in world sport and the cost of each campaign exceeding 100 million dollars in cost it is apparently a huge deal.
When Omega entered the sport they sponsored the team to BEAT America, Team Vietna- I mean New Zealand. In 95 they finally broke NYYC’s decades-long run of predictably boring success. Since then they have dipped in and out of the competition with a few quirky watches along the way, these include regatta timers, diver 300M’s, and planet oceans.
The space saga continues
Most recently omega has partnered up with Privateer. Who are they and what do they do? Even after looking into this company, we still don't know. It seems like some sort of supercomputer that can track all sorts of objects in space and our oceans, which of course uses AI. Its founded by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Omega have joined as some sort of partner but you would struggle to find out what roles the brand plays by reading the press release that as usual is some corporate sustainability fluff, with references to the moon missions crammed in. What we do know about this company though, is it is pretty darn American. Silicon Valley tech bros’ America’s obsession with space with a whole load of AI mixed in and now we can see why Omega was keen on chucking in a few quid to ensure they have yet another way of marketing the hell out of the Speedmaster.
So that's it really, do you believe us know? Without us realizing, for decades, omega has had its fingers in American pies…
Below are 5 omegas we have recently seen that salute to the stars and stripes.
1 Omega Speedmaster Grey Side of the Moon PCA Porsche Club America
Forget the American dream and 'buy American' just like American auto forgot about Detroit. What do Americans do as soon as they have money? They buy foreign. No other object makes a bigger case for this than a Porsche sports car. Limited to 99 pieces, Omega created this edition of the speedy grey side of the moon for Porsche Club America members (whom we imagine are a great bunch of lads). Does it get more American than this? NASA's little toy that went to the moon now made extra special for a load of trust fund kids who yap on about German sports cars.
2 Omega Speedmaster Apollo 11
obviisly another Speedmaster but this one comes in its own damn landing craft. I almost always say box and papers do not matter one bit, but I think we can make the exception for this watch. along with your gold accented Speedmaster, with an image of Niels rear end as he floats out of the lander on the 9oc sub dial, you get a matching gold accented landing craft shaped stand for the watch, a gold book on the 50th anniversary of the moon landing and of course a badge of an eagle on the moon with earth in its background.
3 Omega Speedmaster Apollo 15 40th anniversary
This Speedmaster is a little more under the radar than the others on this list. Apollo 15 was the 4th manned mission and the first to use the lunar rover. The dial and sub dial are surrounded with red white and blue bands that are so so American.... unless you are aware of the Russian flag.
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