This is an interesting and informative thread. But if cost wasn't the major consideration in changing from a column wheel to a cam system what motivated Omega in the mid-60's to invest in the research and engineering to redesign the traditional column wheel system that had been used for generations in chronograph movements? The Swiss don't do anything outside the box, they stick with what works, and a column wheel works. Why invest time and money in a new mechanism when the old one works just fine? The answer is probably lost to history but something motivated Omega.
If this change had happened a few years earlier the watches submitted to NASA for testing would probably have been the newer cam jobs, in which case no one would have cared about the old 321 movement today, they would just be a musty, dusty relic of Omega's history and not really worth collecting. Timing is everything.
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