Omega

Louis Brandt started assembling watches in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, in 1848. The business later moved to Biel and took its name from the Omega calibre of 1894, and today it belongs to the Swatch Group. In 1957 Omega launched three professional watches at once, the Seamaster 300, the Railmaster and the Speedmaster, a chronograph designed by Claude Baillod for racing drivers, with the tachymeter on the bezel. Wally Schirra wore his own Speedmaster into orbit in 1962. In 1965 it was the only watch to pass all eleven of the tests NASA engineer James Ragan built to destroy one, beating Rolex and Longines-Wittnauer, and in July 1969 Buzz Aldrin wore his on the Moon while Neil Armstrong's stayed in the lunar module. The other half of our Omega coverage is the Seamaster Diver 300M of 1993, with its blue wave dial, skeleton hands and a helium release valve at 10 o'clock. Pierce Brosnan wore one in GoldenEye in 1995, and Bond has worn an Omega in every film since. The 2018 rebuild moved the dial and bezel to ceramic and fitted the caliber 8800. The Moonwatch Professional still winds by hand and still comes with a Hesalite crystal, the acrylic that cracks rather than shattering.