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Trivia

The preferred timepiece of the Russian Tsar was the Breguet.
Both Napoleon and Wellington wore a Breguet at Waterloo.
The Cartier Tank watch is named after a WWI tank.
Both the Russian and American astronauts wore the Omega Speedmaster during the first-ever craft meeting of Apollo-Soyuz in 1975.
Sir Edmund Hilary wore a Rolex Oyster when he climbed Everest in 1953.
Rienhold Meisner also wore a Rolex when he climbed Everest without oxygen.
Neil Armstrong wore the Omega Speedmaster Professional during his walk on the moon in 1969.

An Omega moment
In 1970, an explosion aboard the Apollo VIII destroyed the spacecraft’s timing instruments. With communications from NASA severed, the astronauts’ wristwatches, Omega Speedmasters, provided the sole timing devices as the firing of rocket engines had to be timed to 1/10th of a second. Untimely firing would not achieve the correct trajectory for safe return to earth.

A date to remember

In 1511, Peter Henlein succeeded in manufacturing the first truly portable pocket timepiece, the famous Nuremberg Egg.
In 1868, Patek Philippe made the first wristwatch.
In 1871, Aaros Dennison of the International Watch Company (IWC) invented the waterproof case.
In 1914, Eterna created the first alarm wristwatch.
In 1933, the first watch made for children by Ingersoll (featuring Disney’s Mickey Mouse) was unveiled.
In 1945, Rolex Date was the first watch with a date display on the watch face.

Did you know?

At first, watches were made primarily for women, because they were not considered masculine enough.
Eric Clapton’s Rolex Red Submariner was auctioned at Christie’s on June 5, 2003 for a staggering Ł6,000. The most expensive Red Submariner ever? Probably.
Marine chronometers were created in England.
A trio of warships christened Royal Oak, named after the legendary Royal Oak - a hollowed out tree which offered King Charles II a safe hiding place from his pursuers - lent their distinctive name in 1972 to an equally distinctive luxury sports watch - the Royal Oak by Audemars Piguet. Since then, the Royal Oak has become the leading model of the world-famous firm in Le Brassus and helped the stainless steel wristwatch attain respectability among watch lovers around the world.
Founded in 1735 by Jehan-Jacques Blancpain, this house boasts a famous and oft-repeated slogan: “Since 1735, there has never been a quartz Blancpain watch. And there never will be.”
America’s first-ever radio spot commercial for watches was done by Bulova. It went: “At the tone, it’s 8 PM, B-U-L-O-V-A Bulova watch time.” Maybe as a thank-you, Bulova invented the world’s first radio watch.
Continuing its tradition of advertising firsts, Bulova aired the first television commercial: a simple picture of a clock and a map of the United States, with a voice-over proclaiming, “America runs on Bulova time.”
Cartier was founded in Paris by Louis-Francois Cartier, son of a powder horn maker.
The name Movado means ‘always in motion’.
At first, Omega was just a name for a watch created by a company named Louis Brandt and Fils. The overwhelming success of the name led to it being adopted as the sole name for all the watches of the company from 1903.
The first waterproof watch by Rolex was cleverly advertised around the world. To deter any scepticism of the watch’s waterproof abilities, the watch was displayed in an aquarium in the shop window. Not surprisingly, many people were convinced