Omega Constellation Women's Wrist Watch, Diamond, Gold, and Stainless Steel. Includes extra link. Champagne dial with applied hour markers. 

Size (Open): 3 1/2 X 3 1/2 in. 

#7117 . 

Omega SA is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. Founded by Louis Brandt in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1848, the company originally operated as La Generale Watch Co. Brandt assembled key-wound precision pocket watches from parts supplied by local craftsmen, and sold his watches in Italy, Scandinavia, and England, his chief market. In 1894 his two sons Louis-Paul and César developed their own in-house manufacturing and total production control system named Omega that allowed component parts to be interchangeable. Louis-Paul and César Brandt both died in 1903, leaving a company employing 800 people in the hands of their four children. The eldest, Paul-Emile Brandt, used the success of the Omega brand to spin off its own company, and the Omega Watch Co was officially founded that same year. The economic difficulties brought on by World War I led to a merger between Omega and rival watchmakers Tissot in 1925, then to another merger in 1930 into the group Société Suisse pour l'Industrie Horlogère in Geneva (SSIH). Despite hard times, Omega’s reputation continued to grow, first for its use by the Royal Flying Corps and U.S. Army and later by NASA for their Apollo missions. Omega has been the official timekeeper of the Olympics since 1932, and is the current timekeeper of the America’s Cup yacht race. When Joseph Reiser took over the company in 1955 he began an aggressive expansion campaign, absorbing or creating nearly fifty companies, including Lanco and Lemania, manufacturer of the most famous Omega chronograph movements. By the 1970s SSIH had become Switzerland’s top producer of finished watches and third in the world. Omega found itself in a chronographic arms race with Rolex, its main Swiss rival in the luxury watch segment, and during the Quartz Crisis Japanese watch manufacturers such as Seiko and Citizen rose to dominance due to their use of quartz movements. Omega tried to compete in the quartz watch market with its own movements, but, weakened by the recession of 1975 to 1980, SSIH was bailed out by Swiss banks in 1981. Switzerland’s other watch making giant Allgemeine Schweizerische Uhrenindustrie AG (ASUAG), owner of various brands including Longines, Rado, and Mido, merged with SSIH two years later to avoid further economic collapse. In 1984, the company officially changed its name to Omega SA and opened a museum in their headquarters in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland but was then taken over the following year by a group of private investors, who created the umbrella conglomerate The Swatch Group to run them in 1998. Omega experienced a resurgence with advertisements that focused on product placement strategies, such as in the James Bond films from the 1990s onward. The Omega Speedmaster Professional Chronograph was the first watch on the Moon, worn by Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong’s 105.012 Speedmaster is displayed at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The brand remains one of the most sought after in the world, both in new styles and as collector’s items for the various important roles they played in the 20th Century.