More and more companies propose to modify iconic watches on request. Sometimes, owning a legend isn't enough.

With total production of 750,000 units, Omega manufactures 500,000 mechanical watches a year, all fitted with the famous Co-Axial escapement (the one exception being the Moonwatch, for NASA flight-qualification reasons). The next step will be to make all these movements completely antimagnetic using 15,000 gauss technology, unveiled by Omega this year.

After its first tentative efforts to build on the Co-Axial escapement, Omega decided to develop a family of movements around this new technology. Introduced in 2011, the 9300/9301 calibre, the first Co-Axial chronograph, is an excellent example. ETA has set up an assembly line specifically for this movement.

Chopard’s transformation into fully-integrated, state-of-the-art watch manufacture over the past decade is often overshadowed by the company’s enviable success as a high jewelry company – something that is only reinforced by the fact that it just won the “Jewellery Watch” Prize (for the second year in a row) at Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève last month. But Chopard’s roots actually lie in watchmaking. Chopard began life in 1860 as one of Switzerland’s original watch manufactures in the Swiss Jura town of Sonvilier.