2006 TZ Tour Installment 3, page 2

2006 TimeZone Tour

Installment 3, page 2 - Visit to Omega

Our host for this part of the tour was Cyrano Devanthey, the watchmaker who heads up the Haute Horology group. Mr. Devanthey has been with Omega for over 8 years, and has lead the Haute Horology group for a year. He also speaks French, German and English, and it was interesting to see him switch between the languages as he spoke with the watchmakers and other staff.

Omega produces approximately 50 tourbillon watches per year, only in precious metal cases. Over 90% of the watches produced by the Haute Horology group are tourbillons, with the remainder being skeleton watches. The tourbillon was released at Basel in 1995.

Below we see the tourbillon cage. The tourbillon movement is an automatic winder, and is COSC certified. The tourbillon cage itself is titanium, and the watch's winding rotor is platinum.

Mr. Devanthey spent time explaining the technical details of the movement, along with the development process itself.

Next we had an opportunity to enter the workshop. As you can see...our visit was not a surprise.

Below, Patrice Mangum examines the tourbillon under a stereo microscope, while Nick Lerescu, Jackson Wei and Chris Ip look on.

Watchmakers work on tourbillon watches.

And here is a partially disassembled cage...

The workshop is well lit, and the huge windows provide plenty of natural light. Here is a view from the window...

After the presentation on the tourbillon and the tour of the workshop, it was time to make our way across the street for lunch, and from there, it was on to the museum...

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