IN-DEPTH Guide - Everything You Need To Know About The OMEGA Co-Axial Escapement

[Music] it all started some 50 years ago when george daniels had the idea to develop a new escapement at the time a watch industry was a lot different than it is today following the quartz crisis from the 1970s mechanical watchmaking underwent sort of a renaissance back then very few brands had the capacity and the ability to develop and manufacture movements and even less to understand and reimagine the escapement which is in essence the core of chronometry as precision timekeeping eager to find a solution for improving the performance of the century-old swiss lever escapement george daniels created the coaxial escapements he visited several brands to present his development but it wasn't until the early 1990s that daniels would find support and an optimal framework with omega to develop and industrialize the coaxial escapements omega is known not only for the moon watch but also for its impressive reputation in the field of chronometry so that's a good match developing the coaxial escapement from scratch from a prototype to full-scale industrial production is far from easy yet today the coaxial escapement is besides the swiss leaf escapement the only other escapement produced at an industrial scale the coaxial escapement has now found its way into the majority of the omega collection and it's a key element in meeting the brand superlative quality standards including the master chronometer certification [Music] what's fantastic about the story of coaxial and omega is that it was like a perfect fit but what is fantastic about it is that the perfect fit was not given from the beginning if we go into the details of the coaxial you have george daniels this incredible and master watchmaker who had a great idea don't forget that when we talk about coaxial we're talking about a revolution in the watchmaking industry and that revolution was not just a small detail it was all about the precision it was all about the heart of any mechanical watches which is the escapement and on the other side there was omega and i think that's omega is exactly the brand that was and is the brand for innovation it's in the dna of omega to go for new technology for precision and to have the curiosity finally to bring the watch industry in terms of production to the next level and very honestly without the coaxial escapement technology being put into our movements we wouldn't have been able to go to the next level which is master chronometer technology and master chronometer certification which is another revolution in the whole of the watch industry indeed omega getting its name from the famous 199 calibers had in its dna this exact ability to go for the highest level to go for the precision but not only in terms of vision also obviously in terms of ability to do that and one of the biggest secrets of having coaxial today as one of the incredibly and most respected revolution in the watchmaker industry of the 20th century is to have george daniels on one side mr hayek senior on the other side and the omega brand which was like the third incredible part that was the most important because it was about bringing this revolution in terms of highest quality highest precision to many many many people around the world and this is why coaxial is for me the story of an incredible vision that was shared by two genius but that was also like dawn for the most dynamic watch brand in the watch industry today which is omega [Music] this development harks back to historic times it harks back to the beginning of the last century and to the chronometer competitions at the observatories where as you might know omega has achieved countless world records and set countless amazing world records like in 1936 at the cute eddington observatory in england a record that in its class remains still unbroken today but what does it all mean it means basically that within our pioneering spirit we always had this idea that if we can develop something for a specific purpose in this case evidently for watchmaking precision immense precision that it should at some point be developed into something that customers clients and friends of the brand can actually wear so it doesn't make sense for us to win and to set all these records but in the end of the day we don't give back something to watch making and to its clients so basically all these developments all these movements all these escapements because mind you we have developed also other escapements in the past or worked on versions variations of them like the grasshopper escapement that we did a pocket watch prototype on a redeveloped one that's called jakar escapement and then in the 1930s with the introduction of a 30 millimeter legendary movement we use that as a base to create a legendary let's call it a formula one movement you can see those you can see those movements here basically they had developments in them that ensured better power reserve more constant rate and all this ensured perfect amazing precision and world records that were set and all these things they trinkled down at some point into a commercial development and of course all this leads to 1999 and the george daniels coaxial revolution that's the development that we're trying to to share with you coaxial has an incredible place in watchmaking was a huge change is a revolution but the revolution has a real background and this background at omega is the heritage development [Music] the escapement is the heart of every timepiece it consists of the pallet fork and the escaping wheel it is the most vital part of the calibre and it distributes the energy into regular impulses and therefore dividing or even making time it is fitted at the end of the gear train the two function of any escapement could be the question escapement but also could be the swiss level escapement are lock and unlock the gear train this is for the first function and the second one is to receive and transmit impulses here you see a large scale model of the coastal escapement from the last generation as it is implemented in our omega master co-action calibers it features five rubies four pallets one two three four and one impulse bin the two main functions of the question escapement are divided into the four palettes the palettes number one and number three are responsible for locking and unlocking the gear train the other two pallets the number four and number two receive and transmit the impulses to the regulating organ through the balance roller if we do a comparison with the swiss lever escapement both pallets have to perform both functions so thanks to the ingenious conception of the coaxial escapement the friction is reduced tremendously thanks to much smaller contact surfaces and impulses which are transmitted by the teeth of the coaxial wheel pushing on the side of the pallets instead of rubbing up against the angled surface of the pallets like in the swiss lever escapement less friction means less wear and tear but also less lubrication which has been drastically reduced in comparison with the swiss lever escape all this improvement result in the coaxial escaping remaining accurate and functional for much longer than the swiss lever escape the service intervals can be extended usually we advise a service every seven to eight years with a coaxial escapement instead of four to five years with a swiss level escape [Music] the first watches when we launched them in 1999 we had a yellow gold watch limited to 999 pieces a red gold or pink gold watch limited to also 999 pieces and a platinum one limited to 99 pieces that was the first launch of coaxial at omega in the year 2000 we had to launch the collection but the product was not 100 percent industrialized so we did another limited edition this time in white gold also in a real collection limited to 999 pieces we knew that the coisal with the test was much better in accuracy than the traditional swiss anchor and we had also a better stability of precision during the years in 2001 we are ready to launch the coaxial escapement in the omega collection and we do it in a devil with also a bracelet that is inspired from a constellation of the late 60s fantastic bracelet i think so we are not only introducing the caliber 2500 but also the 2627 that is a power reserve small second and the 26 28 it's a gmt caliber so this is really the beginning of introduction of coaxial in our marvelous collection so the year 2002 is coming and there we introduce the coaxial escapement in a new aquaterra it's a new watch in the seamaster collection and we come out also with the first chronograph with coaxial in the collection david 2004 here we switch from four hertz to three and a half hertz on the movements and we do that with uh new watches we do it in a james bond the seam master diver has an upgrade with craigslist escapement in 2004 and we do also a deville with a big date we do a deville with small second so enlarging the collection again 2005 i think it's a very important year because we introduced planet ocean in the sea master collection with this famous orange basil we had a big big success with this product back 15 years ago already in 2007 we came out with the omega's first in-house coaching movement which was the next stage in the revolution we actually created from scratch a totally new calibre around the new design coaxial escaping which can be considered as the second generation the coaxial wheel was designed with three levels offering a clear separation of impulse and rest functions this movement will go on again later on in all the omega collections so the watch is again a devil but we call it our vision because the watch has an opening on the side where you can even see the movement of course a transparent back to show the beauty of the movement in 2013 came out the first ever anti-magnetic movement resisting up to 15 000 gallons the design of the coaxial escapement remains the same but the materials and the different alloys for producing the escapement were different instead of protecting the movement by the magnetic field with the faraday sketch we decided to replace the most sensitive ferrous component the string with the silicon si-14 we also chant the material for the two spring of the nivea shock which is actually the shock absorber of the balance wheel we use special amorphous metal alloy thanks to the liga technology we change all the plates of the coaxial escapements in nickel phosphorus but also the plate of the regulating organ and finally all the staff were made with the niva girls alloy the development of anti-magnetic movements has been a fundamental milestone for omega for the watch industry at large magnetic fields are everywhere in our modern world and they affect the performance of mechanical watches the worst part is that the effect is persistent disrupting the functioning of the regulating organ permanently until it is demagnetized in a surface center following this major breakthrough in antimagnetism omega decided to certify the quality of its watches with a third-party control institute so we went to metas the swiss federal institution of metrology and we made specific criterias to measure the watch so each watch that has this master chronometer certification is individually tested severe test done by metas and the first collection or the first model appears in 2015 in a constellation globemaster today the coaxial is at the heart of nearly all omega watches with the exception of quartz models and in recent years even the iconic moon watch has been fitted with this amazing technology omega has also been implementing it in cutting-edge concepts such as the sea master aquaterra ultralight and more recent in that stunning devil central to beyond developing the coaxial escapement has been an adventure like no water in the watch industry and very few watchmakers have there to explore different parts than the swiss lever escapement omega is the only brand to have carried such a development for full fruition and took two decades to evolve from the first daniel prototypes to now being fit in practically all omega watches and most importantly it took vision expertise and perseverance [Applause] today this is an essential element in the performance and superlative quality of omega-time pieces which is tested by matas as you've seen it has been a long and challenging road but it was well worth the journey you

Channel: Monochrome Watches

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Keywords: Omega, Omega watches, Co-Axial Escapement, Co-Axial, Omega Co-Axial, Co-axial escapement explained, Master Chronometer, Omega Master Chronometer, co-axial George Daniels, co-axial technical guide, co-axial working principle, horology, technical guide, watchmaking 101, watchmaking explained, monochrome-watches

Id: wC9gBMk7_ss

Length: 16min 14sec (974 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 03 2021