SamJH
186
Omega historians -- weigh in: Most significant watch of the decade
. . . .each decade in the last 70 years, that is.
By most significant, I mean the most significant to the history of Omega. I am asking which watches changed the direction of the company and most affected its future. I don't necessarily mean a single model, but a design, a collection or a calibre.
I will give my candidates for each decade, working in reverse chronological order for seven decades. I know my knowledge of the older dates are sketchy, so I am expecting help from this learned group. Photos to illustrate the watches I cite but did not have examples of (or better examples of what I do have) would be welcomed.
2000s: too early to tell, but I suspect it will be the Hour Vision; I will also enter the Broad Arrow 33xx chronographs as a candidate. Both watches are new movements that open new possibilities to Omega. I suspect the Hour Vision and calibre 85xx will have more effect in the 2010s.
(no photo)
1990s: Deville Chronometer with co-axial escapement. The co-axial escapement put Omega back on the map horologically speaking. While late in the decade, the co-axial is the defining characteristice of Omega's future. 
1980s: tough choice -- this is a lost decade to me -- so much went wrong. Omega started the decade on the cutting edge of quartz technology with inhouse calibres and ended the decade bankrupt and using ETA calibres.
I would choose the Constellation Manhattan introduced in 1984, the design that continues today. It shows the direction that Omega went, and how it went awry. (I don't like that watch design, although it is esthetically appealing. It is not masculine or modern today.)
(no photo)
1970s: The days of heavy metal and the only watches with size to rival today's oversized jewelry pieces. (Yes, I said jewelry. When your watch is 50% greater diameter than the movement requires, it is decorative jewelry!) The designs of the 1970s were funky and best and ugly at worst. Omega began to go astray during this time. Mechanical manuals, automatics, tuning forks, quartz & very accurate quartz -- all at the same time. No focus.
I don't have a specific model, but I think if you pick a Constellation with an integrated bracelet and electroquartz movement, you have the watch that shows how Omega began to go wrong. Design that was trendy and is now dated, moving away from mechanicals and looking very much like everything else in the market. This showed where Omega headed.
(no photo)
1960s: One can definitely argue the Speedmaster Professional, introduced in 1957 but gaining the Professional designation and notoriety in 1964 and throughout the decade had a significant effect on Omega. 
But I think the Constellaion C model, introduced in 1964, may have had more long term significance.
The Constellation C, or the $1,000 watch, was more indicative of where Omega went in the future. It was the design leader for the excesses and mistakes of the 1970s. Show a Connie C to most non watch enthusiasts and they will date it to the 1970s.
(sorry -- no photo)
1950s: Once again, I pick a Constellation, the pie pan Constellation with arrow indices. This is the watch that made Omega's reputation. The pie pan continued until the 1970s. 
1940s: The 30mm calibre watches in Chronometer and other forms. The competition winners which gave Omega a name and the military watches which put an Omega, a fine Swiss timepiece, on the wrist of so many. The calibre was actually introduced in the 1930s, but the second modification, the 30 T2, is the watch many of us still seek.
This was an incredibly accurate watch for its time and was available in very affordable versions. 
I think that for the first 50 years after its 1952 introduction, the Constellation was Omega's flagship and bellwether. I chose the Constellation as the most significant watch to Omega in four of the six decades since its existence.
Since the 1980s, it has not been, supplanted recently by the Deville. Perhaps this is romanticism, but I think Omega will not regain the preminent position it once had until the Constellation again leads the brand. Hopefully, Omega will soon update the tired and aged Constellation Manhattan design (Double Eagle is just more of the same)
