OMEGA WATCHES: An Olympic Legacy

Over the course of this Games and across 33 sports, 339 events will take place with each one timed by our friends at OMEGA. Whilst the focus will rightly be on the athletes who have worked tirelessly over the years to reach the top of their game, their dreams depend on the final results, which makes the precision of OMEGA’s timing a vital part of the event.

But this isn’t the first time the brand has held this important duty, so the competitors can rest assured that they are in safe hands. In fact, this is the 29^th Olympic Games in which OMEGA has been the Official Timekeeper, with their first event back in 1932.

By the time the Olympic Games came to London in 1948, two of the greatest revolutions in sports timekeeping made their first appearance, courtesy of OMEGA. This was the beginning of the “electronic era” when technology began to outperform the capabilities of the human eye.

Amongst OMEGA’s technological introduction was the first photofinish camera, pinpointing exact finish positions in races, and the first Photoelectric Cell, which electronically stopped the clock as the first athlete crossed the finish line. Precision had never been better!