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Gio 🇨🇭

@omegaprototypes

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+ Unaffiliated, unendorsed, unauthorised by Omega
+ Focus on Omega, but not exclusively
+ From collector for collectors
+ Educational & Non-profit

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⚠️ Unpaid promo, just a labor of love and passion ❤️

By popular demand, @collection.personnelle made it happen 🙏❤️
His fantastic new book, featuring magnificent photography by @henryleutwyler, is finally available for pre-order in English 🇬🇧😅

A perfect opportunity to discover the world of electric and electronic watches and plenty of reasons to reconsider any lingering prejudices you might have about them. Link in bio 👍 by @omegaprototypes

Immensely proud to have been part of this amazing project 🤩! Congratulations Clément, it’s a masterpiece 😍! I’ll never forget the pasta cooking with @henryleutwyler, @sondidoingthings and @misterrolex during the shooting in Zurich 😋! Such positive energy and dedication which instantaneously made collaborators becoming good friends 😘. Thanks a lot @collection.personnelle 🙏😘 for this opportunity to help promote the extremely important history and the beauty of battery driven watches made in 🇫🇷🇩🇪🇺🇸🇯🇵 and 🇨🇭over 7 decades.

Also a great thank you 🙏 to my friends @watch.and.write, @astieganwatches, @sonntagsuhr, @chronyves and Piotr (who is not on Insta) who contributed with some of their beloved and rare watches and trusted me with them without knowing the exact purpose 😅😇.

⚠️Unpaid promo: The book is available online and in selected book stores in French🇫🇷 and Italian🇮🇹. @editions.du.chene: I hope it will soon also be edited in English 🇬🇧 and in Japanese 🇯🇵🙏😅. by @omegaprototypes

Some watches don’t receive the attention they deserve. This is particularly true of quartz watches in general, and ladies’ quartz watches in particular.
This Omega, however, certainly deserves the spotlight.
An incredibly compact, multifunctional ladies’ version of the well-known Omega Memomaster, it is a fascinating piece of late-1970s electronic watchmaking.
It is assumed that the ladies’ Memomaster was produced in just 6,000 examples, in stainless steel and gold-plated versions.
An exceptionally small number, estimated at fewer than 20 pieces, were produced with what Omega historian Marco Richon described as a black-plated finish. These watches were reportedly presented to the female athletes of the Swiss skiing team in 1981.
This particular example has an equally interesting provenance: it was presented to André Beyner, one of the key figures in the development of Swiss electronic watchmaking.

Omega Memomaster Ladies, LE black version, 1980/1981. by @omegaprototypes

Designing a professional diving watch was no trivial task for the team led by Frédéric Robert. It must incorporate a range of features to ensure performance, reliability, and durability under extreme conditions. Omega’s Seamaster Professional 1000 embodies these qualities, but the journey to creating a watch reputed to be better sealed than a spacecraft was far from straightforward 😅.

Left: Omega Seamaster Professional 1000, f300 Prototype, 1970

Right: Omega Seamaster Professional 1000, 1976 by @omegaprototypes

Seiko Daini was the first to introduce low-consumption, high-performance CMOS integrated circuits into quartz watch calibers in 1971. These early Intersil ICs proved unreliable, eventually forcing Seiko to withdraw the 36SQC model from the market. However, this experience also allowed Seiko to further develop the licenced revolutionary Intersil technology. In parallel Omega had the CEH refining the CEH-CMOS tech for their 2.4MHz development permitting to slimline caliber 1500 for the use of one battery only and integrating date and TSI. This movement is one of the earliest known transitional examples between the 1500 and 1510 calibers, featuring one of the first CEH-developed CMOS ICs.

Omega Megaquartz 2.4MH prototype, caliber 1500-1510 transitional prototype, 1971

This post is dedicated to Thomas Dick (@retromega1977), who sadly passed away three years ago. This is the occasion to remember him, his fantastic collection and his pioneering research into this topic. by @omegaprototypes

I found my personal Holy Grail for my Omega Stopwatch collection. I was lucky enough to get the probably only prototype of the brass lab clock. This her was personally photographed by Marco Richon at that time so that this piece could be shown in the Omega book Journey through Time. The clock is on page 577. I am happy to get this piece of history to my other table clocks. Not without reason Omega is the official timekeeper of the Olympic Games.Omega is more than a watch - Omega is a feeling #omega #omegastopwatch #watch #omegawatches #vintagewatch by @omegaprototypes

by @omegaprototypes

The long-term development of ETA’s multifunctional quartz caliber demonstrates the remarkable versatility of the system. Beyond the addition of new functions, considerable attention was given to improving display legibility, hand readability, and ease of operation. These refinements enabled the caliber to be integrated into widely used pilot’s watches and helped it become the most frequently worn watch by ESA astronauts in space. Development of the system continues to this day, and its full potential has likely not yet been completely exploited 😅.

ETA multifunction caliber developmental sequence, 1983 - 2000

If you want to have more nerdy info 😬, follow the link in bio. by @omegaprototypes

Victor Vescovo’s Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean Ultra Deep Professional prototype No. X2 is arguably the most extensively field-tested prototype watch ever made 😅. It has descended to the deepest place on Earth 11 times, been worn by @garretmadison1 on the summit of Mount Everest, and traveled to space twice 😬.

📸 credit: Victor Vescovo, @madisonmtng by @omegaprototypes

The simplest watch design concealing the most complex Swiss quartz developement since 1970, embodying the most radical, and initially most contested decisions since the beginning of Swiss quartz research 😅.

Ebauches SA / ETA Caliber 2892 Quartz Prototype No. 2, 1975

The first industrial outcome of this development was ETA calibre 940.111, which became the slimmest industrially produced analogue quartz calibre with date indication at the time of its release, and its underlying principles, once further miniaturised, would enable the development of the ‘Delirium Tremens’ and ultimately of ‘Swatch’.

This prototype stands among the most historically significant Swiss quartz watches ever made. by @omegaprototypes

I’m a huge fan of this brutalist design 😍 and it’s just the right watch for this weather 🌞.

Omega Constellation Megaquartz 2.4MHz, 1974

For the history of its development follow the link in bio by @omegaprototypes

I wore a real rarity today. The Omega Chronostop with a racing dial – what makes it so rare is the back, which features the pentathlon symbol and the Olympic rings. I’ve had this watch in my collection for years – and I haven’t seen another one to this day. Could it be a prototype? @omegaprototypes
Omega is more than a watch #omegaisafeeling #omega #omegacollector #omegawatches #watchlovers by @omegaprototypes