Omega pocket chronograph/tachymeter; 18 ligne, 17 jewel cal. 39 CHRO (a collaboration with LeCoultre, first produced in 1929). This example, cased in sterling silver, is 50mm in diameter, features a near-flawless enamel dial, purple-hued steel hands, and dates to around 1931. The lower sub-dial is a second counter for the the basic time function, while the upper one is a 30 minute counter connected to the stop-watch and tachymeter functions.

These watches were developed primarily as sports timers, as suggested by the ad shown below for the 1936 Olympics. Also of relevant interest is the following from the Omega Museum (emphasis mine):

"Few people in the history of aviation have captured the public's interest and imagination to the extent that Amelia Earhart did. Although she and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared in 1937 on an attempted round-the-world flight, there has been decades-long speculation about the shy pilot's fate. Even now, three quarters of a century later, potential crash sites in the Pacific are being investigated in the hopes of solving an enduring mystery. Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10E NR was equipped with a dashboard mounted Omega 39 CHRO chronograph. On her wrist, the most famous aviatrix of all time wore an Omega 28.9 chronograph and Fred Noonan sported and Omega Marine."




The acronym S.G.D.G. seen on the dial stands for "Sans Garantie du Gouvernement". Under French law, it granted the patent holder temporary exclusive rights, but did so without any explicit guarantee of the French state.











Cheers,

Tony C.

 

very nice, my first one was a ww II hamalton crono stop watch.

 

Very nice!

Do you need a box for it?

http://omegaforums.net/threads/reco...n-ebay-not-inquiries.1790/page-85#post-114453

 

A jewel.

 

Wow, great condition!

 

Rare to see such well conserved SGDG chrono as a complete unit. A real keeper.

 

Great watch!

This caliber had a long life on the Omega catalog. Here in a 1933 French catalog :



Another catalog of the same year (the chrono existed apparently with tachymetre, pulsometre and productometre)



1935 :


1936 :


1938 :



1939 :


1940 :


and the version for plane :

 

Thanks for the kind comments. T-c, thank you very much for those excellent catalog images! Much appreciated.

Regards,

Tony C.

 

Beautiful chronograph! Great thread!

 

Those are some of the most collectibles, i'm mostly talking about the wrists in your 30's catalog. Can't express how hard you could ever get one... While the pockets are dazzling beautiful.