Sometimes I get down to thinking about some ridiculous stuff...so today I was wondering about watch brand colors...as in Omega is well known for red. Another example is Rolex is well known for green. Also, it seems that Hamilton is known for orange. Does anyone know the history of when and why these these brand colors originated? Not just the brand colors mentioned above but also other brand colors. I did some Googling and didn’t find anything...but I’m not exactly a Googlemeister.

Input is appreciated.

Token pic below of my birth year 105.003-64 Echo Whiskey’s box...featuring Omega red...

 

Wish I had more to say about the historical aspects of these choices, but I'll try to channel information from my graphic art classes.

Keep in mind that these color choices preceed the internet and even color ads in magazines - meaning that the first time a customer saw the brand color was when they got to handle the watch box, like the red and gold for your Ed White speedy. This also ties into the idea of 'buyers remorse' , that the more money someone has just spent, the fancier the packaging needs to be.

Rolexes green is quite subtle, whereas omegas red with gold trim is really trying to push the idea of "this is a luxury item".

Edit: I also tried to Google and came up with nothing - sorry!

 

According to this marketing guide possibly Omegas are all about excitement for the bold and the youthful (sounds like a soap), Rolexes = peaceful for growth and the healthy, and Hamilton’s = friendliness for the cheerful and confident...on second thoughts there must be a better reason

 

Well, first color psychology depends of what you want to sell and where you want to sell. Red is not the same for cars than for horror movies
Plus, colors are not always perceived the same in all countries... For example luck is represented with green is occident, while in China you should use red. We do not even have the same panel of words across language to describe them, and we group them differently

Also, we are talking here about brands that exist before proper marketing exist. Did they choose theses colors from the beginning or during the 40's-50's?

We all know that for sport cars, the color of the brand was mostly dictated by their racing country colors. Jaguar and Aston Martin are green, Ferrari is Modena yellow but are mostly seen in Rosso Corsa, Alfa is also Rosso Corsa, Bugatti is blue, Honda is white, Mercedes is either white or silver... No marketing here, just heritage.

Now for watches, it is difficult to say. Rolex was founded by an englishman, maybe they just chose the British Racing Green at one point because of this heritage. Green+Britain was already a very powerful association 100 year ago.
If you look to vintage ads and boxes, Omega select Red in the 30's or before. Swiss racing colors are red & white, but I do not know how strong people could think about Swiss when seeing red and white back in these days.

 

Copy that. The use of colours in advertising is a fascinating subject. I think you’re right about the association between red and Swiss products, and I have no idea about Hamilton & orange. As for Rolex, apparently Hans Wilsdorf, their founder, was married to an Irish lady and chose green to honour her Irish heritage. No marketing there, just old-fashioned romance.