THE LEGACY

From its inception, the Omega De Ville collection has been about inciting a simple, sophisticated and urbane mood. The Swiss luxury brand maintains the approach with the newly-released De Ville Trésor Small Seconds, with a campaign featuring South Korean actor Hyun Bin.

- John Ng

It all started when the Omega Seamaster was divided into two collections in 1957: and Seamaster De Ville, a sophisticated watch with clean lines and design such as the monocoque case, for the style-conscious gentleman. The latter was the one that gave Omega a rectangular case watch, with a distinguished stem and crown at 9 o'clock instead of the classic position at 3 o'clock. In 1967, it generated considerable attention and was so highly sought after as well as turning into an IT collection that it dropped "Seamaster” from its name and became a self-standing line in its own right – joining Seamaster, Speedmaster and Constellation as De Ville.

When the first-ever Omega watch to feature just “De Ville" on the dial was released, it well and truly established the independence of the De Ville collection in the family. Like its predecessor with the monocoque case, the watch stood out with a technologically advanced Unicoc case that could be opened only by removing its crystal, not forgetting a gold dial enhanced with polished solid indices with black onyx lines.