It is the Year of Our Lord Twenty, Twenty Four. And I am pleased to announce that we have clearly exited what has been called the “Hype Era.” This was a superheated period of two years where the whole world stopped enjoying watches for what they are — the extraordinary cynosure between art and science, timekeeping and design — and started using them instead as objects for speculation. The result was a period of mass hysteria lasting two years, followed by the inevitable market correction and return to sanity. But for those YouTube pundits decrying the end of the Swiss watch industry and the inevitable further plummeting of residual prices, they have clearly never studied history. Take it from Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund which controls assets of 97.2 billion U.S. dollars. He is a big believer that studying history is the key to predicting what is to come.

Consider the wild speculation on U.S. real estate from 2005 to 2007 that led to the 2008 U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. Immediately following the correction, you could pick up distressed prime Florida real estate for a song. Cut to the present day and you can see that Miami commands some of the highest real estate prices in the world. Similarly, truly great watches will never plummet in residual value, because they represent something unique in luxury — a highly transportable, low-maintenance and sophisticated mechanical object that generates incredible emotion and that endures forever. Today, it can be said that watches have largely been decoupled from the general public’s use of them as instruments to turn a fast buck. This is a good thing, firstly, because it allows real customers to finally get their hands on them. Secondly, it allows us to truly appreciate a watch without first factoring in its inflated secondary price as the primary metric of its value. And lastly, it brings an end to the Hype Era and ushers in an era of rationalism.

What is the era of rationalism, and who will benefit from our collective return to sanity? Two types of watches will come into focus. The first type are timepieces that are expressions of métiers d’art. As we become increasingly immersed in a digital world, we will find greater refuge in innately human craftsmanship. The second type are watches that resonate with true content and authenticity. And when it comes to authentic watch brands, one of the greatest is Omega. I’ve made no secret of the fact that Omega Speedmasters comprise the greatest part of my personal watch collection, which includes three 145.012-67 “Ultraman” watches, one of which comes on a Holzer bracelet as it was delivered to Mexico City. As such, I bestowed upon this particular watch the colorful sobriquet “El Hombre Ultra.”

The Magic of the Omega Speedmaster

Why do I love the Speedmaster so damn much? For all the reasons that it is the antithesis to the “hype watch,” because everything about it resonates with authenticity. First, it was the very original chronograph to place the tachymeter on the bezel, not only for enhanced visibility, but also to add a sense of roguish badass allure. Imagine, in the context of 1957, if you rocked up to an elegant dinner party wearing a CK 2915 on your wrist and your fellow guests noticed your watch bristling with racecar driver cool with its double push-button and its (gasp!) tachymeter on the bezel. The fact that you had a scale to help you calculate your average speed per kilometer (or mile) on your wrist would immediately conjure up images of a gentleman racer with a Corvette, Porsche 356 Speedster or even a Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, all of which were available that year.

Second, the Speedmaster was the only watch that passed NASA’s torture tests, beating Longines, Rolex and Hamilton to qualify it in 1965 for official use by NASA astronauts, even though in 1962 Wally Schirra had already worn his Speedy into space. On the subject of authenticity, there’re few stories that resonate with greater heroism than that of the Speedmaster onboard Apollo 13 that was used by Jack Swigert and his crew after a catastrophic electrical failure onboard, to time the crucial 14-second maneuver to get the spacecraft at the right angle so it wouldn’t burn up or skip off the Earth’s atmosphere on re-entry. When it comes to heroic lore, there is no more epic chronograph than the Omega Speedmaster.

The Games of a Lifetime

Since 1932, Omega has also been inextricably connected to another stage for extraordinary acts of heroism, the Olympic Games. Says Raynald Aeschlimann, CEO of Omega, “As human beings we are always inspired by sports, because there is no lying in sports. It is about achieving the very best as a species — the fastest, the strongest, the most resilient — and for 92 years Omega has played a crucial role as the Olympics’ Official Timekeeper.” This is far more than a simple pragmatic function. Think about it this way. Inside Paris Stade de France this year at the 100-meter men’s final, the United States’ Noah Lyles and Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson both crossed the finish line with a time of 9.78 seconds. The job of irrefutably determining who crossed first, and the role of writing the history of Olympic conquests, belonged solely to Omega. As the brand’s photofinish camera proved, it was Lyles by 0.005 of a second.

Says the brand’s then-product director Gregory Kissling, “For almost 100 years, Omega has been at the forefront of timing innovation to ensure that every single Olympic event is correctly timed, because we understand that we are not just recording a race. We are writing history.” It was Omega’s Scan ‘O’ Vision Ultimate, that photo-finish camera with line scan function that recorded this moment for posterity. Says Kissling, “This camera allows us to take 40,000 frames per second to ensure there is no doubt about the result.” Included in Omega’s data was the fact that Lyles reached the staggering top speed of 43.6 kilometers per hour, making him officially the fastest man on the planet. Now what is truly remarkable about Omega’s relationship with the Olympics and Noah Lyles is that it extends beyond the starting block and finish line to the athlete’s heart, mind and wrist.

Noah Lyles: The New Sprint King

Lyles, who was the subject of the Netflix series Sprint, where he came to a meeting with a metal briefcase containing his secret racing kit, is an avowed Omega Speedmaster fanatic. Amongst his timepieces are the Speedmaster “White Side of the Moon” with diamond bezel, as well as one of my personal favorite Speedmasters, the “50th Anniversary” Apollo 11 edition. Even more meaningfully, on the day of the 100-meter finals, Lyles exploded off the timing block created by Omega, crossed the finish line timed by Omega and raised his arm in victory wearing an Omega “Dark Side of the Moon” Apollo 8.

But Lyles was just one of many athletes creating history with Omega watches on their wrists throughout the Paris Games. Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis achieved a new world record of 6.25 meters wearing an Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra 150m Ultra Light “Mondo Duplantis” edition with a laser-profile-turned seconds hand themed after his pole on his wrist. Other athletes wearing Omegas on and off the podium included Léon Marchand with a Speedmaster Chronoscope, Michael Phelps with an Aqua Terra Chronograph GMT, and Shaun White with a Speedmaster in Moonshine Gold. But to me the most exciting and genuine moments were when the athletes wore their watches in the heat of competition.

Femke Bol: A Spirited Relay

For me, the most enjoyable of these was the 4×400m Dutch women’s mixed relay team anchored by the incredible Femke Bol, who joined Eugene Omalla, Isaya Klein Ikkink and Lieke Klaver. Bol was in fourth place when she received the baton and was a clear and seemingly insurmountable 20 meters behind American Kaylyn Brown. What Bol would do (which you can see in this video) was simply extraordinary. With each step, she closed what at first seemed a massive gap. Just a year ago, at the 4×400m at the World Finals in Budapest, Bol had run the same race but crashed out while in the lead just meters from the finish. So in Paris, the pressure was heaped massively on her shoulders. Rather than discourage her, it seemed to fuel her with a positively mythological Valkyrie’s fury. Commentators would later describe this as a “comeback from the depths of hell.” Bol ran the final leg like a woman possessed in 47.93 seconds, and in one of the greatest finishes ever seen in live sports, she glided past Brown and Amber Anning of Great Britain just before the finish line. On her wrist and that of her teammates was the Omega Aqua Terra Ultra Light.

Omega’s Technology for the Games

A visit with Omega to the Olympics creates a real understanding of the incredible role played by the Swiss watch brand in terms of timing innovation for the Games. This year, there were 329 events that comprised this extraordinary spectacle and every one of them involved time as an element. Some of the technology provided by Omega included an electronic starting pistol, the aforementioned starting blocks for runners, an incredible Quantum Timer stopwatch with a margin of error of one millionth of a second, Touchpads for swimming events and multiple positioning systems, such as motion sensor tags and image tracking cameras.

The undertaking to be the Official Timekeeper of the Games is massive from a technological investment perspective, but it is something that the brand undertakes willingly because of the cultural and historical significance of the Games and their ability to inspire, unit and uplift humanity, as with the 4×400m relay won by the Dutch team and the incredible Femke Bol. Accordingly, Omega has created a series of commemorative edition timepieces, including a Seamaster Diver 300m and a Speedmaster Chronoscope Paris 2024 edition, as well as a lovely sector dial watch, known with minimalist efficiency as the Paris 2024 Bronze Gold edition. As mentioned, athletes at the Games were seen wearing a variety of Omegas, notably the Aqua Terra Ultra Light and the Speedmaster “Dark Side of the Moon.” But these watches are not simply the result of endorsement deals. They are symbols of the profound and sincere relationship Omega has had with the Olympic Games, a historic partnership that is, at its very core, deeply authentic.