Instruments · Marine chronometer
Omega 'Megaquartz' marine-chronometer
- Maker / attribution
- Omega Watch Company (Made by)
- Date
- 1983
- Historical period
- Quartz Revolution (1969 – 1990)
- Country of origin
- Switzerland
- Place
- Neuchâtel (town)
- Object type
- Marine chronometer
- Materials / technique
- brass, mahogany
- Dimensions
- Length: 129 millimetres (box) Thickness: 75 millimetres Width: 172 millimetres
- Holding institution
- British Museum
- Accession / object no.
- 1987,0712.1
- Credit line
- British Museum, London
- Catalogue title (original)
- Omega 'Megaquartz' marine-chronometer (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by British Museum (object number 1987,0712.1), this is a marine chronometer by Omega Watch Company, made in Neuchâtel (town), Switzerland, dated 1983. The Atlas places it in the Quartz Revolution period (1969 – 1990) of its Instruments collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: brass, mahogany. Recorded dimensions: Length: 129 millimetres (box) Thickness: 75 millimetres Width: 172 millimetres. The record is illustrated with 3 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Description — British Museum
Omega 'Megaquartz' marine-chronometer; mahogany box with brass inlaid corners; hinged lid with applied brass plaque; black dial with white calibrations to indicate hours, minutes and seconds; white hands; socket in mechanism top-plate provides one-second impulses; battery-powered quartz movement with built-in voltage control; subsidiary plates with instructions for setting to time, battery reserve indicator and instructions for changing the battery; complete with presentation box, advertising brochures and rating certificate; also with mahogany slope for display.
Inscriptions & marks
signature; box lid and dial; OMEGA [with trade mark]; inscription; movement; CHRONOMÉTRE DE MARINE OBSERVATOIRE DE NEUCHATEL 1535 MEGAQUARTZ 4.19 MHZ SWISS
Provenance
Donated by:, Dierck Wettemgel; Acquired 1987
Historical context
Quartz Revolution (1969 – 1990)
Seiko's Astron begins mass quartz timekeeping; traditional industries contract sharply.
Electronic timing replaced mechanical instruments in sport, industry and navigation.
Read the period in the timelineMore instruments from this periodEarlier: Modern Mechanical Horology
Atlas type guide
Marine chronometers
A marine chronometer is a precision timekeeper carried at sea to find longitude: the navigator compares local noon, observed with a sextant, with the time at a reference meridian kept by the chronometer. Each hour of difference corresponds to fifteen degrees of longitude. John Harrison proved the method in the 1760s; Pierre Le Roy, Ferdinand Berthoud, John Arnold and Thomas Earnshaw then developed the detent escapement and the compensation balance that made chronometers practical to manufacture.
By the nineteenth century London, Liverpool, Le Locle and Glashütte supplied navies and merchant fleets. A typical box chronometer has a spring-detent escapement, a fusee to equalise mainspring torque, a bimetallic compensation balance with a helical balance spring, and is mounted in gimbals inside a wooden box so that it stays level.
What to look for
- Gimbals and a three-tier wooden box with a glazed inner lid.
- A power-reserve ('up and down') indicator on the dial, usually showing 56 hours on two-day instruments.
- Spring-detent escapement and a cylindrical (helical) balance spring visible through the movement.
- Admiralty or navy marks (broad arrow), and rating certificates from observatories.
- The maker's number on the dial and movement; many makers' registers survive, allowing dating.
Dating clues
- Earnshaw-type spring-detent chronometers became standard after about 1800.
- Auxiliary compensation devices on the balance appear from the mid-nineteenth century.
- Quartz and radio time signals ended routine use of mechanical chronometers in the 1970s and 1980s.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
Read next:Spring detent (chronometer) escapementFuseeBalance spring (hairspring)Detent escapement
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