OMEGA BEGAN selling watches fitted with its revolutionary Co-Axial escapement in 1999 - in a limited edition. Production was soon industrialised and now this ground-breaking movement is playing a major role in Omega's plans. It is already used in half of all watches with mechanical movements sold by the company.
Omega president Stephen Urquhart said: 'It is used in all our collections now and this is a very important milestone for the brand. It is our aim one day that all our mechanical movements will use the Co-Axial escapement. It gives us an edge and it is something to talk about. It is a fantastic movement and has performed in excess of our expectations in reliability. We are very happy with it and now we are working on a new development of the Co-Axial escapement.
Mr Urquhart said Omega would make a major presentation about its use of Co-Axial escapements at the end of this year.
'Our aim is to introduce them throughout the Omega range,' he said. 'We have it now in our basic model and we have it in our chronographs - and a smaller size is coming soon for ladies' watches. We want the name of Omega to be synonymous with the Co-Axial movement.
The Co-Axial escapement was developed by Omega in the 1990s in conjunction with its inventor George Daniels, an Englishman who has been described as one of the greatest watchmakers. His invention is the successor to the English lever escapement, which has been used in watches for more than 250 years.
Dr Daniels originally conceived of the idea in 1976 but it was another 25 years before Omega became the first company to recognise its importance.