Omega Museum Collection 1945 Chronograph, 2003

Dealer description — S.Song Watches

It is fair to say that Omega has been one of the pioneers of honoring their heritage and historical importance as a brand. While it is quite common and trendy these days for brands to dig into their archives to produce reissues, Omega has been doing this for a long time now. In fact, Omega has one of the easiest archival systems to access, with extracts easy to order, detailing information for all the watches (yes including vintage) ever produced. The Omega Museum, in fact, opened in 1984 and is one of the oldest and largest watch museums dedicated to a single company with over 4000 pieces in the collection. As a result of their respect to their past, the Museum Series has long been a tradition, beginning in 2001 where each year Omega chooses an iconic model to pay homage and reissue. The one condition is that it has to be older than 50 years old. The watch here today is one of the earliest from the Omega Museum Collection, the 1945 Officer’s Chronograph released in 2003. With a limited run of 1945 pieces, it honored their famous Officer’s watch that was produced in there 40’s. Back then, the original was powered by the iconic Cal. 33.3, a movement that is legendary and known to be one of the best of all time. An original example today at auction will hit astronomical figures both due to its rarity and quality which makes this 2003 reissue, in my opinion, a fitting one. Sized at a respectable 37.5mm, it has no doubt vintage aesthetics to it. From its thick hour bezel with beautiful stylized fonts to the characteristically busy dial that features tachometer, telemeter, and pulsometer, it is quintessentially 40’s in its styling, fitted into a case with a more modern sizing. Multi-scale watches were in vogue during the era, with gilt black dials such as this being the norm. This Omega Museum Collection 1945 Chronograph is a respectable tribute to a great watch and is in itself a collectible piece that is fantastic to wear.