PERSONAL COLLECTION - COLLECTOR'S ITEM OMEGA GENEVE CHRONOSTOP GENTS WRISTWATCH

CAL. 865 CIRCA 1970's - S/N 29610103

Brief Information on Omega Geneve Chronostop Omega Chronostop wrist watches are another interesting line. I bought mine, without knowing anything about this style of watch. As usual, after studying the various watches available on eBay, it became apparent to me that there are quite a few variations available. I only own one of these watches. So can only authoratitively state facts for that particular watch. Firstly what is a Chronostop watch ? These are watches with a SINGLE pusher to operate a stop watch function. Press the pusher once to start the stopwatch hand. Press it again (& KEEP it pressed) to stop the stopwatch hand (& read the time) & release the pusher to reset the hand to zero. There is NO minute sub-dial. SO if you want to measure something for more than 60 seconds, you have to count the minutes yourself ! There is no continuous second hand on these watches. There are 2 movements that have been used in this watch series. The 865 & 920. Simply said, the 920 has a date & the 865 doesn't. Both movements are manual wind. The 865 movement was introduced in 1966 & 124,000 were made. The 920 movement was introduced 2 years later in 1968 & 61,000 were made. Both of these movements were only ever used in Chronostop watches. The both have 17 jewels & run with 21,600 Bph So it would appear that 185,000 Chronostops were made in total. (figures from "OMEGA SAGA") The prototype of this line (with the crown @ 03:00) received an Honourable Mention in the category "Sports Chronographs and Watches" in a contest organised by the Swiss Watch Federation for the Montreal World's Fair of 1966.