Rolex, Omega and the Omega De Ville

Rolex & Omega. In the world of expensive traditional Swiss watches, dress watches are usually limited to watches with time and sometimes date and day functions. Tool watches are built to incorporate additional functions like chronographs or dual time; or, are engineered for high level of resistance to water pressure, shock or magnetic fields.

Rolex and Omega are often touted as rivals. However, the two are not really direct rivals. From a price standpoint, an Omega watch is usually half the price of its Rolex counterparts. In terms of watch manufacture Rolex and Omega are worlds apart.

Rolex manufactures just a few types of watches and maintains clear lines of distinctions between their dress watches and their tool watches. Omega, blurs the distinctions between their dress and tool watches, and even the distinctions between categories of tool watches.

Rolex offers a few models in a dizzying array of dials, numerals and materials. Omega offers a dizzying array of watches.

Omega Deville. We look at Omega's De Ville in that light. The Omega Deville which comes with the option of fine leather straps or dressy bracelets falls under the category of a dress watch. At the same time the De Ville is available as a GMT watch, a watch with a power reserve display, a chronograph or even a chronograph with a splits seconds function making it a tool watch at the same time.

Here is a quick look at the various iterations the De Ville is available in:

The Omega De Ville Chronometer. Its name indicates that it contains a COSC certified movement. It is a self-winding watch using the Co-Axial Omega 2500 movement (a Omega modified ETA 2892-A2) with a 48 hour power reserve. The movement produces 25,200 vibrations per hour (vph) and has time and date functions. The watch case diameter is 37.5mm and is water resistant to 100 m. This model pictured is Ref. 4154.20.00 with a red gold case and bracelet.

The Omega De Ville Power Reserve. It is a self-winding watch using a COSC certified Co-Axial Omega 2627 movement (a Omega modified ETA 2892-A2) with a 45 hour power reserve. The movement produces 25,200 vph (3.5Hz) and has time and date functions, and displays the watches power reserve. Seconds is displayed in a small seconds sub-dial. The watch case diameter is 38.7mm and is water resistant to 100 m. This model pictured is Ref. 4632.31.31 with a yellow gold case and black leather strap.

The Omega De Ville GMT. It is a self-winding watch using a COSC certified Co-Axial Omega 2628 movement (a Omega modified ETA 2892-A2) with a 44 hour power reserve. The movement produces 25,200 vph (3.5Hz) and has time and date functions, and has a second hour hand which rotate once every 24 hours. The 12 hour hand can be set independently from the 24 hour hand, allowing the watch to display two time zones simultaneously. The watch case diameter is 38.7mm and is water resistant to 100 m. This model pictured is Ref. 4651.20.32 with a red gold case and brown leather strap.

The Omega De Ville Chronograph. It is a self-winding watch using a COSC certified Co-Axial Omega 3313 movement (a Omega modified Piguet 1155) with a 52 hour power reserve. The movement produces 28,800 vph (4Hz) and has time, date and chronograph functions. The sub-dials at the 3-6-9 o'clock positions are for the 30-minute timer, 12-hour timer and continuous seconds, respectively. The watch case diameter is 41mm and is water resistant to 100 m. This model pictured is Ref. 4842.20.32 with a stainless steel case and brown leather strap.

The Omega De Ville Rattrapante. It is a self-winding watch using a COSC certified Co-Axial Omega 3612 movement (a Omega modified Piguet 1186) with a 52 hour power reserve. The movement produces 28,800 vph (4Hz) and has time, date and split seconds chronograph functions. This watch has two chronograph seconds hand, one of which can be stopped while allowing the second one to continue moving, allowing the watch to measure simultaneous events beginning at the same time. The watch case diameter is 41mm and is water resistant to 100 m. This model pictured is Ref. 4847.30.31 with a stainless steel case and black leather strap.

The De Ville line-up it not the only example of Omega's dizzying array of watches. Similarly, the Omega's divers watches comes with a variety of options, giving you the option of a divers GMT watch or a divers chronograph watch. Omega's Speedmaster line of chronograph watches also available with a GMT option.

In the end, the neither the Rolex way or the Omega way is wrong. They just do things differently. Personally, I prefer simpler watches without unnecessary complications or overly busy dials, although, sometimes I think it might by nice to have a Turn-O-Graph or Submariner GMT model.

About Omega SA. The forerunner of Omega was founded 1848, by Louis Brandt. The name Omega was first used in 1894. It was used as the name of one of the Louis Brandt brother’s watch movement calibers.