News On 13 November this year, Omega unveiled a new semi-automated assembly line dedicated to the Co-Axial 9300/9301 calibre.
The new assembly line is housed deep inside the ETA buildings in Granges. Completely isolated from other workshops, this separate entity, where around thirty people work, resembles a sterilization room. Its air is continually renewed, filtered and stabilised at a constant temperature. All who cross its perimeter - workers and visitors alike - are asked to don a white coat and bonnet, shoe covers and gloves… dust is the number one enemy! This revolutionary assembly line, developed by ETA, consists of multiple assembly workstations, either automatic or manual depending on the operation to be carried out. The line, or «motorway» as it is called by employees on the site, features a belt which conveys movements fitted with an electronic chip to ensure they are processed at each requisite workstation. If this doesn’t happen, the calibre continues its «journey» until the process is complete. The motorway is intersected by manual workstations where staff carry out difficult operations such as fitting barrels, column-wheel or balance-cock.
In the 1970s, George Daniels, inventor of the Co-Axial movement, was looking for investors to market his new design. Despite the prevailing watch industry crisis, the visionary Nicolas Hayek believed in him. Long years of research and development were then needed by Nivarox to industrialise this movement, which was assigned to Omega. The brand’s first timepieces were equipped with it in 1999. And it was in 2011 that the first version of the Co-Axial chronograph appeared, consisting of 336 parts including a column-wheel, two barrels and a silicon balance-spring (SI 14). By the end of 2013, around 500,000 Co-Axial movements will have been produced. Each calibre comes with a certificate from the COSC (Contrôle officiel suisse des chronomètres). In the short term, between 700,000 and 800,000 movements will be manufactured.
Co-Axial 9300/9301 movement
This innovative new chronograph movement with column-wheel stands out by the hands of the 12-hour and 60-minute counters of the chronograph function, placed together on the same counter at 3 o’clock. This well-known arrangement of the hands, which follows the customary layout, allows times displayed by the chronograph to be read intuitively. The central seconds-hand of the chronograph and a permanent small-seconds situated at 9 o’clock complete the picture. The two push-pieces controlling the chronograph functions operate entirely independently, ensuring that the chronograph mechanism is protected even if handled incorrectly.
The movement also has a time-zone function allowing the user to adjust the hour hand without affecting operation of the seconds-hand, an advantage particularly appreciated by travellers.
In addition, the movement is equipped with a balance-spring manufactured from silicon, a non-magnetic element which ages very slowly. The excellent strength of this material also greatly enhances the timekeeping performance of the balance-springs, produced by an engraving process on a silicon plate.
Compared to the widely-used Swiss lever escapement, the Co-Axial escapement quickly proves its superiority. Because of its design, friction is considerably reduced, thereby ensuring less wear and tear and greater accuracy.
Like other proprietary movements equipped with the Co-Axial escapement, the Omega 9300/9301 calibre features an arabesque decorative motif in the Côtes de Genève style.
Thanks to their performance and design, these new calibres offer a power reserve of 60 hours and also require less frequent after-sales service: every six to eight years instead of four to five years for movements with a lever escapement.
Inauguration of the Granges assembly line is only the start of Omega’s repositioning strategy. The Biel based firm has in fact just begun construction of a new building which will stand adjacent to existing premises in Biel and is expected to become operational in 2015. A new site is also planned in Villeret, opposite the Nivarox-FAR factory, which will be earmarked for the assembly of movements.
December 05, 2013
