Omega Electronic f300 Genève Chronometer Day-Date — Cal. 1260 Tuning Fork 1970s
$ 483.12
Description
Omega Electronic f300 Genève Chronometer Day-Date — Cal. 1260 Tuning Fork 1970s. Bulova & Pat.'. for the tuning-fork patent that traces back through Bulova to engineer Max Hetzel. Quartz won within five years and buried the lot, which is what makes a running one now a clean artifact of an industry deciding under real uncertainty. An Omega Electronic f300 Hz Genève Chronometer — the tuning-fork watch Omega launched in 1970, months after the same company put a hand-wound Speedmaster on the Moon. Inside is the caliber 1260, Omega's copper-plated take on the ESA 9164, stamped 'Lic. Bulova & Pat.' for the tuning-fork patent that traces back through Bulova to engineer Max Hetzel. Chronometer-certified, gold-on-gold, day-date, still humming at 300 cycles a second after fifty years. The movement: Caliber 1260 is an electronic tuning fork, not an escapement — 300 Hz of unbroken tone instead of a tick. A mechanical watch sounds like it is keeping time; put this one to your ear and it sounds like it is insisting on it. The copper plating across the plates is Omega's own finishing, distinguishing the 1260 from the nickel-plated ESA base every other house used. The moment it comes from: The f300 was Swiss watchmaking's transitional hedge — more accurate than mechanical, less radical than the quartz on the horizon. Omega, Longines, Tissot and Baume et Mercier all ran the same ESA guts while the industry waited to see which way the future broke. Quartz won within five years and buried the lot, which is what makes a running one now a clean artifact of an industry deciding under real uncertainty. The watch: Gold-on-gold: a 20-micron gold-plated cushion case with a matte gold linen dial, faceted baton indices and day-date at three. The legible, desirable combination, with a chronometer grade on top. Condition: Runs and keeps time with the 300 Hz hum audible, day-date functioning on a fresh battery. The case shows minor surface marks and light dings from age, gold plating intact with no brass-through. Currently on a non-original black NATO. For the collector who prefers the footnotes to the headlines — an electromechanical dead-end from the most interesting twelve months in Omega's history, running perfectly. Included: Watch on a black NATO strap; fresh battery installed.
