A gold medal for the makers of chronometers

In history

Departure of 100 m. Thomas Burke is the second by leaving the left, Athene, 1896.

Competition timer to one tenth of a second, 1935, Vacheron Constantin

Chronograph mechanism accurate to 1/50ths of a second (Olympic Games of 1932) © Omega

1949 Racend Omega Timer, the quartz clock is automatically started up by the start pistol © Omega

Device with cut thread used to the 50s © Omega

Photo-finish Scan-O-Vision camera (1990) © Omega

Virtual representation 3D of a regatta, thanks to the GPS system which allows to see the position of sailboats (1996) © Omega

System of timing for the swimming courses © Omega

Omega timing equip, Olympic Games Torino 2006 © Omega

Since 1731, sporting performance and watchmaking inventions have advanced with reciprocal emulation. The good news today is that everyone has been declared a winner, with competition and chronometry becoming totally indissociable.

Flavia Giovanelli

From the moment when the important thing was no longer just to win, with due deference to Pierre de Coubertin, but also to quantify performance, inventors had just one obsession: to measure the time between the start and the arrival of any of the sporting events. Thus, while horses and athletes warmed up their muscles - we are in England in the 18th century - the master watchmaker, George Graham, invented what may be considered to be one of the first dead second hands. In 1920, Abraham-Louis Breguet, who will also be remembered as having begun to take an interest in marine chronometers, created the double second watch, the ancestor of modern chronometers.

Just before the start of the 20th century, in 1896 at the Athens Olympic Games to be precise, the need to refine time keeping by chronometer to 1/5th of a second or, coincidentally, the exact difference separating Thomas Burke, the Gold Medal winner for the 100 metres, from his runner-up was understood. The link between technology and sportsmen, or F1 racing cars at a later date, would henceforward not be broken.

Breaking the wire

From that time onward, development took the form of a pitched battle between the various brands, such as Longines, Omega, Tissot or TAG Heuer, which rapidly created their own personae in the field of chronometry and concentrated on producing new inventions, just like sportsmen who pursue the goals of hundredths of a second.

In 1916, Longines achieved a head start over its competitors by developing the famous system of electromagnetic chronometry known as the broken wire. Used for the first time in Basel for the 80 metres during the federal gymnastics festival, the process was as ingenious as it was progressive: the athlete simply broke the wire stretched over the starting line, triggering an electrical signal sent by cable to the finishing line, thus starting an electromagnetically controlled chronometer. In turn, Breitling caused a stir by manufacturing the first chronograph worn on the wrist, followed a few years later in 1916 by Heuer which patented a chronograph mechanism that was accurate to 1/50ths of a second. Between 1933 and 1934, Albert Pellaton, working for Vacheron Constantin, perfected a portable recorder for sports chronometry that was capable of measuring time to one tenth of a second. It obtained its first success in 1935, when it was the sole official time keeper of the motor Grand Prix at Berne.

Becoming professional

Flushed with its initial success, Breitling designed a watch equipped with a second pushbutton (up to then, the crown alone triggered the time keeping function). So the race for ergonomics was being run in tandem with the race for accuracy. In the early years of the 20th century, a number of Swiss brands were already riding on the wave of enthusiasm for sport and the Olympic Games. Heuer was one of the pioneers in official timekeeping for the Olympic Games, officiating at the Games in Antwerp (1920), Paris (1924) and Amsterdam (1928). Then in 1932, Omega scored a major point when it was awarded the supply and control of the 30 chronographs and counters for all the competitions at the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

As the times of athletic exploits became closer, the need to measure the smallest differences inspired the players in chronometry. Longines for its part concentrated in developing a pocket chronograph capable of measuring time to1/100th of a second. As early as 1940, it may even be claimed that sports chronometry in general achieved meteoric progress. In 1945, the firm in Saint-Imier perfected the light beam with a photo-electric cell. This invention signalled the end of the broken wire, which had been invented by Longines itself! From now on, image and the measurement of time would no longer operate separately. This was sweet revenge for the brand which, although in pole position in the Forties, was deprived of the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1940 because of the Second World War and their being quite simply cancelled. Not content with these early successes, in 1945 Longines perfected the first quartz watch which set an impressive record for accuracy at the Neuchâtel Observatory: 1/100th of a second was at last a fact.

An essential image

Post-war, it was Omega’s turn to use the accelerator. In 1946, the brand presented the first universal design continuous image photo finish camera (a camera that photographs time, editor’s note). This invention benefited all sports disciplines, whether slow or ultra-fast: rowing, cycling, skiing or even horse riding. Thanks to it, the positions of competitors on a virtual finishing line can be discerned, just as we still do today. “The Magic Eye”, as it was nicknamed at the London Games, was a positive advance! Omega, with its perfectionist attitude, would improve this instrument still further subsequently, renaming it the Racend Omega Timer and then the Photosprint in 1963. However, Heuer had not yet acknowledged defeat: in 1969, Jack Heuer produced the first automatic chronograph worn on the wrist, using the micro rotor.

With the constitution of the Swatch Group, some brands that previously had been competitors ended up finding themselves “in the same boat”. At the Sydney Games in 2000, the Swatch Group won the prize by composing a “dream team” » made up of Swatch, Omega, Longines and Tissot, within Swiss Timing. They now had to transport tons of equipment and ensure rock-hard organisation to match the planetary enthusiasm for major meetings of this kind. Is it surprising that this level of responsibility should have fallen into the hands of the most powerful group in the industry?

Win-win

Beyond the battle for turnover or innovation, it is interesting to note that, from now on, records and, a fortiori, victories are no longer in dispute. Chronometers have become absolute gods who set exploits for eternity, even though they are helpless in the face of drug taking! A development like this is indisputably beneficial to the majority, since examples of sportspeople robbed of their victories have been legion in the past.

Motivated by the interests involved, both monetary and in the media, the watchmaking brands have always sought to distinguish themselves in the field. And with good reason: winning the envied title of official time keeper of such major sports competitions as the Olympic Games or Formula 1 races has for a long time been an excellent vector for advertising. As for the inventions that result from this healthy emulation, their benefits trickle down to the final consumer, who will one day be happy to wear a watch he associates with a particular discipline, national team or his favourite sports personality. ■

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