Beautiful and Iconic, Museum Quality ** Omega Seamaster Memomatic Alarm Automatic Wristwatch ref 166.072, Switzerland 1970s
This 1970 Omega Seamaster Memomaticcomplete with original box, is notable in numerous ways: Superb case design, Amazing dial that remains appealing to the contemporary eye and Ground-breaking functional features not found on any other vintage alarm wristwatch of the day, including precise minute-by-minute alarm setting.
Further remarkable, the Memomatic’s calibre 980 movement was sole to feature an automatic winding system which simultaneously drives the timekeeping and the alarm systems through a single barrel.
It’s important not to underestimate the technical brilliance of this movement, which represented cutting-edge mechanical watch technology, to the point that Omega registered a patent over the design in 1968 and published it in May 1971 despite the wave of quartz watches which already was beginning to affect mechanical watchmaking in Switzerland.
Designed by Raoul-Henri Erard under the eye of Albert Piguet and produced in Omega’s Lemania factory… source of all Omega’s chronographs and complicated watches, the automatic movement offered a 48-hour power reserve which included one alarm activation. The power was dispersed at 21,600 beats per hour. Functional finish was highgrade and the movement finish continued the Omega tradition of electroplated copper/berylliumtrace coating.
Under 35’000 pieces across four modes (less than 6’000 of the present early model) were produced; and in the world of production watch-making this makes this series uncommon from inception.
- Case: Stainless steel, fully signed Omega
- Dimensions: 39 mm (excluding the winding crowns) x 44 mm (lug to lug)
- Movement: Omega caliber 980, fully signed Omega
- Bracelet: New old stock vintage.
- Condition: Near Mint to Mint, fully serviced by Master Swiss watchmaker.
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OMEGA history
The Omega Watch Company was founded by Louis Brandt in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, in 1848. Initially the firm assembled key-wound precision pocket watches using parts supplied by local craftsmen.
After Louis Brandt’s death in 1879, his two sons Louis-Paul and Cesar took over control of the business. Louis-Paul and Cesar Brandt both died in 1903, leaving one of Switzerland’s largest watch companies – with an annual production of 240’000 watches and 800 employees – in the hands of four young Brandt family members, the oldest of whom was Paul-Emile Brandt.
The difficult economic times that followed World War I caused Paul-Emil Brandt, as of 1925, to actively seek a union between OMEGA and Tissot… which subsequently led to their merger in 1930 within the group SSIH.
By the 1970s, SSIH had become Switzerland’s no 1 producer of finished watches. However, due to the severe monetary crisis and recession from 1975 to 1980, SSIH had to be bailed out by the banks. In 1985 the holding company was taken over by a group of private investors and renamed SMH Societe suisse de microelectronique et d’horlogerie.
The new group achieved rapid growth and success to become today’s top watch producer in the world. Named Swatch Group in 1998, it now notably includes Blancpain and Breguet.
Dynamic and flourishing, OMEGA remains one of the company’s most prestigious flagship brands.
