The Tale of A Speedmaster Wristwatch

In 1972, a man from rural Kansas traveled to Geneva Switzerland, and purchased an unusual timepiece. The Speedmaster Mark 3 wristwatch was worn nearly daily for 40+ years and was a prized possession for many-many years. Sadly, the day came when the watch no longer worked due to the many years of heavy use, and the owner himself passed away. However, that was not the end of the story for this particular watch.

Visiting Biel /Bienne Switzerland

As mentioned in a previous post, we planned our time in Switzerland very conservatively and kept the delivery of the watch as our primary purpose for our limited time there. To that end, on our first morning waking up in Europe, we ate a quick breakfast in our hotel (and grabbed a couple of ham croissants in a ziplock that I keep in my purse) and then raced off to the train station to make our way to Biel Bienne.

A fun fact about Biel/Bienne is that due to the heavy influence of both German and French in the country, this town adopted both the German and French names for the town.

Omega Watch Headquarters

My husband was very close with his grandfather and loved him dearly, so when his grandfather's broken watch made its way into his possession, it was once again a treasured item for the man that possessed it, which served as the primary inspiration behind the planning of a trip to where the story began.

The watch had previously been taken to a luxury jeweler and watch seller for an estimate of what may be required to refurbish the timepiece, which is when it was discovered that the watch would have to be sent (by any jeweler/dealer) back to the manufacturer in Switzerland. Knowing that the watch would have to travel to Switzerland no matter what, I took it upon myself to contact the manufacturer myself and inquire as to the process of hand delivering the watch for repair. Fortunately, the Omega watch organization responded quickly and provided me with the appropriate route to take in which this handoff could occur.

The Omega Watch Museum

The museum which is also located at the headquarters is free to tour and interesting even to those that don’t necessarily consider themselves “watch people.”