Omega: Buzz Aldrin's Moonwalk Watch, the Quartz Crisis and James Bond

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Louis Brandt opened a workshop in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, in 1848, assembling key-wound pocket watches. In 1892 he produced the first minute repeating wristwatch with a movement from Audemars Piguet, and in 1894 his sons Louis-Paul and César introduced the Omega caliber, built on interchangeable parts. It sold so well that in 1903 the firm renamed itself Omega, the same year both brothers died and left 800 employees to relatives led by Paul-Emile Brandt, not yet 24. A 1925 union with Tissot became the SSIH group in 1930, and by the 1970s it was the top Swiss producer of finished watches and outselling Rolex.

Japanese quartz watches from Seiko and Citizen changed that. Omega tried to compete on price and utility, SSIH went bankrupt in 1981 and needed a Swiss bank bailout, and Seiko explored buying it. A 1983 merger with ASUAG and Nicolas Hayek's 1985 takeover led to the Swatch Group, which raised prices and won James Bond for 1995's GoldenEye. The Speedmaster went to the Moon in 1969, a Seamaster reached the Mariana Trench in 2019, and the co-axial escapement, 15,000 gauss resistance and Master Chronometer tests followed.

• Neil Armstrong left his Speedmaster in the lunar module, so Buzz Aldrin wore the first watch on the Moon; it was later stolen in transit to the Smithsonian.
• Costume designer Lindy Hemming put Pierce Brosnan's Bond in a Seamaster Diver 300M, replacing the Rolex of earlier films.
• Elvis Presley's white gold Omega sold for $1.812 million in Geneva in 2018, bought by the Omega Museum.
• The WWF gave Omega its lowest environmental rating in 2018, and the brand faced pressure over sponsoring the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
• The $260 MoonSwatch, made with Swatch in 2022, had buyers camping outside stores for days.