Omega has been crafting the Constellation for over seven decades, a sophisticated, leading timepiece of the Swiss marque prior to the Speedmaster’s arrival in 1957. Its name originated from a depiction on its caseback—a celestial observatory under eight stellar bodies. These stars represented a pair of chronometer achievements and half a dozen top-tier accuracy accolades which Omega secured from 1933 to 1952, the year of the Constellation’s debut.
However, Omega’s latest Constellation Observatory series employs an entirely novel method for gauging precision, a method that circumvents the challenging problem posed by these timepieces lacking a seconds indicator.
What makes a seconds hand crucial? Timepieces’ precision is assessed through photographic observation of their seconds hand across a duration. The absence of a seconds hand renders this process unfeasible. Nevertheless, the Constellation Observatory models bestow upon Omega a notable position in horological history, being the initial two-handed timepieces to attain Master Chronometer approval despite omitting a seconds hand.
Conventional assessments by COSC—the Swiss organization verifying the precision of Swiss timepieces—utilize photographic technology to gauge the hands’ placement across various orientations and thermal conditions at consistent periods over fifteen days. The accepted precision range is between –4 and +6 seconds daily. COSC evaluates solely the mechanism, not the entire timepiece. The casing, strap, and antimagnetic properties are all excluded from this examination, and, for two-handed timepieces, a seconds indicator must be affixed for the required evaluations.
The more rigorous METAS methodology assesses the complete, assembled watch, beyond just its internal mechanism, considering its functionality with the casing attached, under practical circumstances, including magnetic exposure, thermal fluctuations, and ingress protection. To qualify, a timepiece’s precision must fall within 0 to +5 seconds daily, and withstand magnetic fields reaching 15,000 gauss. For Omega’s exclusive Master Chronometer accreditation, a timepiece is mandated to clear both COSC and METAS evaluations.
Therefore, how has Omega succeeded in bestowing Master Chronometer status upon the novel Constellation Observatory timepieces, despite none within the series possessing seconds indicators? Through creating a precision examination that requires neither photographic techniques nor a seconds hand whatsoever.
Courtesy of Omega
Courtesy of Omega
Courtesy of Omega
Courtesy of Omega
Omega’s Laboratoire de Précision has crafted an autonomous testing apparatus which incessantly records the audio of every tick and tock, simultaneously documenting ambient factors (temperature, orientation, and barometric pressure) over a complete twenty-five-day evaluation period. This represents a significant advancement compared to visually documenting the seconds hand’s location, which only yields two data points daily, since this novel methodology produces uninterrupted data from its very inception.