As the official timekeeper of the Olympic Games since 2732, Omega certainly has the right to obtain some limited edition sports commemorating its Olympic theme. Both products are introduced once every two years and are usually the re-editions of Omega’s most popular sports watch series. The details pay tribute to the host city of the current game; like Maple Leaf inspired Vancouver’s Seamaster Professional, Aqua Terra, Rio de Janeiro’s The theme of Copacabana Beach, and Planet Ocean in the red and blue bold design of Korea recently, was designed for Pyeongchang. However, there is another slightly updated Olympic watch that avoids the above-mentioned visual codes and dates associated with a particular game. These are known as the official watch of the Olympic Games. They pay tribute to many different original analog stopwatches for timed games. Today, we are looking for the latest products: the official Olympic clock for the Haima Olympics.
As mentioned above, the official Olympic timekeepers will not use any of Omega’s existing collections or design languages. These are the methods used by almost all Olympic editions before the Olympic Games, except for the actual watches and tools developed by Omega for game officials. It is these timing instruments – the same tools used to measure the rise and fall of world records – to collect the tools on which they are based. The last addition to this series was inspired by Omega’s pocket watch for the 1932 Los Angeles game. This time, the new master of the sea has received design clues from the racing clock of the 1976 Winter Games in Innsbruck and the Summer Olympics in Montreal that same year.
Compared to the original 1932 pocket watch, this watch, despite its simplicity and modernity, has a marked change from the global Olympic time trial in comparison with the sports car speedometer in the early 1980s. Hell, if it weren’t the 6 o’clock Olympic ring on the dial, this black and white model could be mistaken for an old racing watch, or perhaps the original spiritual master of Speedmaster Racing, in the form of a hand. In any case, the original data of this watch is very important, because these stopwatches are the last analog timing tool used in the game before the digital time comes.
In addition to inspiration, Omega is particularly suitable for the design of the wrist form – especially in the case of a 39.5 mm ratio and a compact lug-to-ear length. For Omega’s modern mid-sized watches, the 8800 coaxial astronomical watch movement was deployed (visible through the sapphire case back cover). It has a date and power reserve of 55 hours, but it lacks an independently adjustable hour hand. Its characteristics are: 8900 series movement. After the Olympic Games are over, they can only be seen after flipping the watch. Each of the five versions is equipped with a matching anodizing ring (which of course represents each of the five Olympic rings is colored), which shows the names of all Omega games since 1932.
Thanks to the high-contrast layout of the black dial center, white external minute track and flat panel handle, legibility is excellent. You may notice how the black tip of the minute hand extends slightly to the white minute track – this is a particularly good tactile feel that balances between two contrasting dial areas. The outer edge of the running dial is a pulse reader that matches the second hand color and is separated by three 20 second intervals, allowing the wearer to roughly measure their fitness by calculating their heart rate.