After 16 years leading Swatch Group AG’s Omega brand, Stephen Urquhart is retiring as president of Omega, Bloomberg reports. Urquhart, who turns 70 at the end of May, will work on special projects and consult for the company, according to Swatch Group’s statement from today. He will be succeeded by Raynald Aeschlimann.
Urquhart’s career actually started at Omega in 1969, which he left after 6 years, joining Audemars Piguet. After 15 years there and becoming chairman of the company, he left AP in 1989 for Jaeger-LeCoultre and then Blancpain, to finally return to Omega in 1999. Interestingly, this was also the year that Omega presented its first Co-Axial movement-equipped timepiece. With this new movement and the direction of Urquhart, the success story of the 21st century Omega had begun.
The quartz 5620 movement within powers the analog three-hand time notification with the accession of a countdown timer to get regatta racing, along with a host of electronic displays. If you did not know, the rationale countdown timers are important to yacht racing and so frequently found on these watches is that boats get a running start (five minutes) prior to crossing the starting line which they will need to time very carefully. The digital functions can show three time zones, chronograph, timer, (perpetual) calendar information, and two alarms. I’ll continue to say that negative LCD screens are just poor to favorable ones and can only be seen as a sacrifice of legibility for aesthetics. The regatta countdown timer is triggered by the red button at 9 o’clock and activates a series of alerts with recognizable ringing sequences (sounds stressful for me).Some differences from the Skywalker X-33 (hands-on here) from the Omega Watches Austin Replica Speedmaster X-33 Regatta ETNZ Limited Edition watch comprise layout cues for ETNZ, the particular functions intended for boat racing mentioned above, and naturally, that the omission of Skywalker from the title. The colors are of the New Zealand flag, and the blue ring in 9 o’clock that seems to reference an analog subdial is new and cool-looking. I happen to think that a more vibrant way of the X-33, as we saw here with the Skywalker X-33 Solar Impulse watch, which makes it seem a lot more contemporary and fun.We don’t have caseback images for the moment, but Omega tells us that it is “stamped having an EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND emblem and inscribed with ‘CHALLENGER FOR THE 35TH AMERICA’S CUP,’ ‘X-33 REGATTA,’ and also the limited edition number.” The bi-directional rotating bezel, made from a ceramic-titanium mix (has to be very mild), includes litle stars in the “compass points” in place of the air (stylized spaceship? K rail?) Symbols of the Skywalker. We can assume that there’ll be lume on the hands and indices, as well as the 12 o’clock star on the bezel, along with a back light for the electronic screens.
Fans of the brand need not worry too much, though, as not only will Urquhart continue to advise the brand, but Raynald Aeschlimann, who’s taking over the role of CEO, is also a brand veteran with 20 years of experience at Omega, where he has been Vice President of Sales. Aeschlimann will officially take over the role of President of Omega on June 1st, 2016.
The challenges that will lay ahead of him include further developing Omega’s METAS-certified in-house movements and introducing them to an ever wider range of products, overcoming the increasingly difficult market situations with declining demand from China, the company’s main market, and – last but not least, and something that likely is the key concern for Omega fans – keeping the brand on the right track, striking the correct and sustainable balance between honoring Omega’s extensive history and developing new and exciting products.
An era most certainly has come to an end as Stephen Urquhart retires from Omega Watch 601 Replica in June, 2016, but we are looking forward to seeing what the future, now under the oversight of Raynald Aeschlimann, will bring for Omega. omegawatches.com