[Get It $63,000]

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.

Not only do the Olympic Games press the limits of human ability within sport, they pioneer developments in diplomacy, engineering, and science.  While celebrating the struggle to reach the best within us all, the games remind the world that all nations are in effect, one community capable of the near-impossible.  China spent close to $41 billion preparing for the 29th Olympiad; 300 million alone on the opening ceremony.  A true testament to a world-wide festival of human achievement. 

An unprecedented precision of timekeeping was born when 30 stopwatches were provided for the 14 sports in the 1932 Olympic games.  Those historic chronographs “watched” as records fell in each of the 14 athletics, including 10 of the 11 swimming events; sounds a lot like the past week at the Water Cube. 

At this year’s Olympic (and Paralympic) Games in Beijing, Omega continues it’s tradition of excellence with sport-specific data-handling that extends to 37 venues within 28 different sports.  With 450 on-site professionals, 420 tons of equipment, 175 km (105 miles) of cables, and close to 400 scoreboards, “times” have changed slightly, but the pursuit of excellence, witch defines the Olympic legacy remains strong.    

Through the years, OMEGA has continued to break records of its own, from the world’s first independent portable and water-resistant photoelectric cell in 1945 to the world’s first photo-finish.  OMEGA then created the Omegascope, which superimposed racing times on the TV screen, and even developed the “contact pads” for swimming which recently recorded Michael Phelps and Dara Torres’s respective one one-hundredth of a second attainment and surrender of gold.

The OMEGA Pocket Watch 1932:
The case back opens to reveal the the intricate precision, protected by a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal. Stamped on each case back, is the official five-ring logo of the Olympic Games.  Along with the logo is an engraved edition number and the title of “Official Timekeeper of the Olympic Games” as well as the words “Limited Edition”.

[Get It $50]

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.

At more than 80% sold out, NBC has already secured sponsorships that has driven Olympic advertising revenues north of $1.8 billion.  According to Brian Walker, senior director of corporate communications at NBC sports “…we are on pace to break records for the Olympics”.  With triple the coverage of the Athens Games (2004) and 20 times the coverage of the Atlanta Games (1996), lets hope the American public can keep up.

During the average night in prime time, the games will be 75% live including the major events, but with the pending talks of boycotts and in the wake of the Beijing ticket scam, there are many individuals left frustrated with these Games. 

Shrouded in controversy, there has been a major push from government officials around the globe to prevent athletes from attending the Beijing Olympic Games, in a human rights protest stemming from China’s mistreatment and even genocidal tactics used in Tibet and Nepal.  Stephen Harper (the Canadian Prime Minister) is one that has already boycotted the opening ceremonies. 

Though the Chinese actions have been closely watched, it’s difficult to say whether some events are staged such as Tibetan protestors inciting a riot that lead to the “Chinese reported” death of 22 people (the Tibetan government reported one hundred more were not accounted for).  The Dali Lama insists that the Tibetan protestors were peaceful and that the riots were staged.  It seems prudent to mention that there was a photo of Chinese soldiers being handed monk looking clothing. 

Hitler used the now traditional torch relay as a tool of propaganda to help introduce European citizens to his fascist government and project the image of the Third Reich.  The Chinese also planned their torch route with careful political precision, planning on marching through Tibet, up Everest, and through Taiwan’s capital, Taipei.  Due to tension between the Taiwanese and Chinese leaders, the Olympic Committee changed the route in respect to Taipei, but China’s history with Tibet, Taiwan and Darfur are certainly political concerns that should not be taken lightly. 

I think it’s great that more attention and awareness can be directed towards the 200,000 deaths in Darfur by Sudan (supported by Chinese oil and military interest) or the gross mistreatment of Tibetan monks, but in the act of a boycott we not only forfeit our liberty to a force of evil, but we deliberately contaminate the spirit of an event specifically designed to unit the nations of the world in celebration of basic and fundamental human achievement and passion.  If anything, shouldn’t we use this forum as a platform to showcase not the inequality and disapproval of one nation, but the achievements of the human nation?

Citius, Altius, Fortius,