I think it might surprise some longtime readers and friends to learn that I kind of love the Olympics. I’m not the biggest sports fan and generally scoff at watches tied to athlete ambassadors and endorsements, but the sheer spectacle of the Olympics gets me everytime. I won’t sit here and say that I’m some great expert on competitive swimming or track and field, but without fail, every four years, I get drawn into the inherent drama of it all. So I’m looking forward to this weekend, when the Paris games begin in earnest, and following along as much of it as I can. And while it’s not the reason I’ll be tuning in, I’m mentally prepared for an absolute onslaught of Omega advertising and branding to blanket the telecast.
Omega, of course, is the official timekeeper of the Olympic Games, and they have a long history of producing watches to mark the occasion. They began counting down to Paris one year ago with a nicely refined white dialed Seamaster featuring a gold bezel. Gold, unsurprisingly, factors heavily throughout Omega’s run of Olympic watches. For mark the start of this year’s Games, Omega has unveiled a watch that, fittingly, makes use of all of the metals associated with the Games, the Omega Paris 2024 Bronze Gold edition.
Omega fans will immediately recognize this watch as a new version of the fan favorite CK 859, a limited production piece in a throwback 1930s style that is the antithesis of the often oversized sports watches Omega has specialized in recently. This edition has a 39mm Bronze Gold case (the alloy is proprietary to Omega, and as the name suggests is a mix of bronze and gold that has just enough of the latter metal’s luster to make it clear it’s not just bronze), a dial made from Ag 925 silver, and hands crafted from 18K Sedna Gold with a PVD Bronze Gold coating. Why Omega would coat gold hands in PVD is an open question, but regardless, they’ve successfully occupied all three podiums in this piece.
The CK 859 linked above, and this watch, both trace their lineage to an Omega that first appeared in 1939, and was notable for running on the manufacture’s classic 30T manually wound caliber. The new version also runs on a manually wound movement that is a similar expression of the state of the art in watchmaking of its day. The Co-Axial Master Chronometer Calibre 8926 is viewed by Omega as a tribute of sorts to the 30T, and features all of the benefits of the Master Chronometer certification applied to virtually all Omega movements (which include better than COSC timekeeping and resistance to magnetic fields).
While there’s something a tad on the nose about using bronze, gold, and silver together for an Olympic themed watch, I have to say that I think this new take on the CK 859 is quite beautiful. This is a decidedly more luxe version of the watch than we’ve seen before, not only thanks to the Bronze Gold case, but the “Clous de Paris” pattern on the inner section of the dial and its contrast with the brushed finish on the minute track- it just works really well.
The new Omega Paris 2024 Bronze Gold is not a limited edition, but like other Omega releases under their “Specialties” category, we suspect it will be limited in production. The retail price is $12,000. Omega
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