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Rolex Vs Omega: A brief history of two great watch brands

As aforementioned, both watch makers have a long history. Before the time of Quartz watches, Omega was the top-selling brand of Swiss watches and was consistently selling more units per year than Rolex. At that time, although Rolex was selling fewer units, they were doing so at a higher price point.
 

Omega also made history but providing the first watches used in the NASA space program yet in the 1970s it lost its way in terms of marketing. The battle of Rolex vs Omega really tilted in the direction of Rolex, which did some brilliant marketing by providing its watches to world famous explorers and placing them in popular movies.
 

With the advent of Quartz-battery powered watches however, many Swiss watch producers (including Omega) unsuccessfully tried to compete with the Japanese in producing cheap quartz watches, while Rolex (which was owned by a private trust, and as such, didn’t have to cave in to market pressure) stayed the course, and continued to focus on producing high quality mechanical watches (although they did experiment a bit with quartz movements).

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Under the worldwide economic crisis in the 1970s and a restructuring as part of the swatch group in 1983, Omega had become weakened, and Rolex increased market share until it became the undisputed ruler of the Swiss watch world.
 

It was only in the past two decades that Omega managed to really make a comeback under the leadership of the Swatch Group. Part of this was due to new marketing strategies that focused on product placements. James Bond started wearing an Omega (traditionally it had been a Rolex Submariner but in in the 1980s he switched to wearing an Omega Seamaster) and the popularity of Omega vs Rolex watches started to shift. You can read a fascinating history of James Bond’s watches from different website.
 

In terms of the watches themselves, being quartz-powered most would agree that Omegas are more accurate (although Omega also makes a huge range of fantastic mechanical watches). As such for those who need a super-accurate timepiece for professional reasons, the Omega would definitely be the better bet. At the same time however, for those who are more interested in the prestige of a luxury watch, and can handle a higher up-front cost, Rolex would be best way to go. This watch may lose in its accuracy (which is still extremely good), it makes up in its brand value. As Rolex is the most well-known, desired, and copied watch brand in the world, (and most likely will continue to be so in the foreseeable future) it is the safest bed for re-sell. Furthermore, (and most likely as a function of it’s of higher price) Rolex is known to have both customer service that is second to none, and a wider dealer network.