Omega has served as the official timekeeper of the Olympics Games since 1932, and this year the brand will be officially timekeeper of the Games for the 32nd time. Let’s take a look at the history of Omega throughout the Olympic Games.
Omega will be official timekeeper of Olympic Games for the 32nd time at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Omega’s journey through the Olympics history began with the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. That year, Omega was in Los Angeles with just one watchmaker to keep time of 117 events in 14 sports. It was the beginning of a timekeeping history.
Omega’s next stop was Berlin. At the 1936 Winter Olympics, the brand used 186 chronometers in the games. In the same year, the brand had tried a new method in ski racing by using two chronographs; one at start point and one at finish point. For twelve years, the Olympic Games were not held because of the WWII. After a long break, the Summer Olympics were held in London in 1948. That year, Omega introduced the first photo-finish camera. Recording the moment athletes crossed the finish line, photo-finish cameras were one of the historic events for timekeeping at the Olympics. And the next page for Omega was the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. That year, Omega marked with an electronic chronograph that could print the results instantly.
The innovations of Omega for Olympics continued to create innovative technologies in the upcoming years. At the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics, first large electronic scoreboards were introduced. Â In 1964, Omega was able to display the elapsed time of performances in television. And there was a new player for timekeeping history: Omegascope.
At the 1968 Mexico Summer Olympics, the brand used electronic timekeeping in all events for the first time. Thanks to the updated Omegascope, the details of races were projected on television. Furthermore, touch pads were used to keep time in swimming races in the same year. With this technology, swimmer able to touch the pads on the wall to stop the clock.
