Omega chronograph movements over the years

dsio

I've already called shotgun on the next one to turn up 😒, I've been looking for years, literally every Lemania I look at, I check the movement just in case it has a golden ticket inside. I'll try to find some more of the pictures and post a separate thread sometime dedicated to it.

The bumper design is interesting as its almost completely outboard of the movement, but with the 27mm movement size they've got enough room to do it without making the watch too big, probably would have fitted in the Speedmaster if they'd wanted to make the Moonwatch automatic from the beginning.

Also note the engraving on the rotor:

"Premiere Chronographe A Remontage Automatique" - dated 28th October 1947

Which translates into English as:

"The First Self-Winding Chronograph"

Apparently it was simply a lack of demand for an automatic chronograph in the post-war years that lead to it being shelved before full production began, it was a sufficiently robust and reliable system, there was just no way to justify the added cost.

Northernman

I have joked about selling members of the family and/or parts of my body in order to fund certain watches.
This just might be the one that sees it happen.....

BTW: The CH27 - 27mm base also spanned the Lemania 36xx family of (rotor) automatics introduced in the mid 1950s.

dsio

Wouldn't have been anywhere near as pretty though with a rotor blocking the movement, nor as unique, I think this is probably still the only bumper automatic chronograph design ever attempted.

Early in the following year, in January 1948 (document below ), a series of ten CH27-C12A movements comes to Omega for evaluation spread over one year. After one year, the Omega experts give their verdict: although considered mechanically reliable, the "flip-flop" oscillator is not commercially recoverable. In itself, the automatic watch is far from unanimous among fans. A fortiori, an automatic chronograph! The shock of the mass against the stops seem to displease the consumers, who feel that something is out of whack in the watch. For its own chronograph, Omega will only continue operating the hand-wound 27 CH (Omega Cal. 321), excellent tractor used by many other brands, including Patek Philippe.

dsio

There are two older articles that offer a bit more detail, both were in Italian from memory and a discussion on O&P from many years ago with some good information.

This quote from that article though sums up why it didn't end up in production:



Which isn't surprising given when people come here with a bumper even today we ask them "does it feel like there's a coin or something bouncing around inside the movement" to confirm its a bumper.

It could have become a defining moment in Omega's history though if in 1948 on their 100th Anniversary they'd released their first bumper auto chronograph along side their first bumper auto dress watch in the OT2499/2500 Centenary models. Maybe the El Primero would have become the El Segundo... maybe it still should? 😀

dsio

Just bumping this thread because its one of my favourites with a lot of cool stuff in it. I still haven't seen any more CH27 automatics sadly 🙁

watchtinker

Not so early, actually. The very first version was equipped with a cut balance wheel.

watchtinker

Yes. Here is a very early Omega version with balance wheel 6541. 😀