OMEGA POCKET WATCH 1932

Don’t tell China, but all three are actually gold.  As you might already know, OMEGA is the official timekeeper of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.  The company was the first to be entrusted with this massive responsibility back in 1932 for the Los Angeles Games; hence the commemoration above.  My question is, do actual Olympic medals even cost as much as these watches?

Housed in hand-crafted contemporary yellow, white or red 18-carat gold cases,  the beating heart of the “1932” is the OMEGA double column wheel chronograph with a 24’’’ (53.7mm), 36,000 beat movement calibre (assembled from restored components).  The gilt plates and bridges have been reconditioned while the 57mm white enamel dial with Arabic numerals, 5-60 minute-scale and red OMEGA name are identical to those of the chronographs used at the Olympic Games in 1932.

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The 2008 Summer Olympics kick off in two days, and while individuals outside the U.S. are mortgaging their homes to endorse efforts at attending the games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing, most Americans are preparing by barely noticing that this is an Olympic Year.  Fairly low hype considering the US will send 596 athletes to the games (according to the U.S. Olympic Committee). 

Not only are the Olympic Games the most prestigious athletic venue in the entire world, it is the most coveted broadcasting event in all of television, with NBC paying upward of $2 billion for the advertising rights; hard to believe that American viewership of a CSI repeat beat out a night of the Winter Games two years ago (not to mention American Idol, Grey’s Anatomy, Dancing with the Stars, Desperate Housewives, Lost, and Survivor).    

The U.S. market response to the Olympics seems to be a pretty good litmus test for the collective intelligence and ranking of our nation.  The decadence pattern for the U.S. ratings of the Olympics over the past couple of decades seems to parallel the U.S. decline in literacy (US ranked 55th) , infant mortality (48th), Freedom of the Press (44th), Overall health (72nd), and other measures of a countries worth.   

With NBC declaring that they will present more than 3,600 hours of coverage for the Beijing Games (more than the combined total of every Summer Olympics ever televised in the U.S.), 212 hours of Olympics a day, it’s about time Americans get their sporting priorities in order and honor the greatest athletes as they represent their countries in the biggest sporting venture the world has ever known.

*Keep reading for more info about the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing China.

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