Did Omega offer a diver's watch in the 50's?
Yes, and Omega actually has a longer history than Rolex (if I may "anticipate" a bit beyond the specifics of your question here).
Among the most practical applications of timekeeping accuracy were in sea navigation and railroad track coordination. But it was military applications that made it acceptable for men to wear watches on their wrists (something decidedly feminine before this practical need over took convention). Rolex was a leader in addressing this need. And its engineering efforts focused on making its watches more reliable by figuring out ways to seal their cases against dust and ever increasing forms of external contaminants that could mess up the works.
A remaining weakspot was the winding crown. So next subsequent efforts went into self-winding mechanics ("perpetual movements"). In the end, we might say that Rolex watches were built to be robust and never to need winding.
Non-military applications were in sports. The two most well-known Rolex Bond watches of the three featured in EON films were the Submariner (Connery > Moore) and Submariner Date (Dalton): A/K/A, "sports watches."
Omega went after the sports segment by increasing its precision among fractions of seconds. "Chronographs" have been very important to capturing by exactly how much one competitor in a race versus another actually won the event. Or engine burn times during space flights such as Apollo 13. They were certified by NASA for the moon program, went to the moon, and, in fact, the brand is strongly associated with its "moon watches" (ie, the Speedmaster line).
Rolex was probably the first company to recognize the value of applying a brand name to the watches it distributed. From that it built on momentum by creating early "publicity" efforts, such as putting its watch on the wrist of the first woman to swim the English Channel, attaching a watch to the outside of a deep sea diving bell, and immersing it in boiling water in dealer display windows. After all of which, then, showing the piece still to be running. Too many watch collectors play dismissive about the value of brand and marketing. But as a James Bond fan, I see this as one of the great film brands of all time; thus, I know how valuable an asset a brand is to anything, including watches.
Tho' this does not seem to be confirmable, Ian Fleming seems to have known about Rolex through its brand-making efforts, and been sufficiently convinced by what he saw to put 007 in a Rolex watch. He could have and should have known Omega. As noted in another thread here, Omega had a diver's watch that was certainly functionally close enough to Rolex at the time of the Fleming novels to have been chosen.
In the last 25 years, a lot of the great watch companies got into financial trouble. They had difficulty w/ the profit margins and technology move that came w/ the quartz watch revolution. Rolex tended to be an exception to this. Partially due to its slow moves in watch design change. Partially due to its brand strength. But Rolex has also done something else in this latter regard, which is to manufacture its own movements. Omega, among others, use an ETA-based movement (that they modify before installation), leaving some w/ the impression that "a watch is a watch" under the skin. Ironically, Omega is owned by Swatch, which also owns ETA.
They've also allowed their brand to be compromised as a commodity through Internet pirates who violate Authorized Dealer network contracts by thinly-guised, paid salesmen who act as Forum participants and give "favorite dealer referals." Omega watches could in 2005 be commonly had then for 37% off MSRP, for example.
Last year, Omega took two strong, strategic moves to correct this. The first was to more broadly roll out its "co-axial" movement. Sufficiently different from other movements (tho' not completely in-sourced) to merit "manufacture" status. The second was to really weed out its Authorized Dealer network. The Brosnan-Bond Seamaster 2531.80 w/ the ETA-based caliber 1120 movement has been discontinued. The Craig-Bond Seamaster 2220.80 has the co-axial movement. Sometime early in 2006 (or late 2005), Omega SA made a public declaration that it planned to replace Rolex as the best known watch brand w/in the near future.
I don't know if this is possible or likely. But it brings to mind one of the Lazenby interviews from the UE DVD series where he answers a question about comparisons between he and Connery by saying that the basic fact that he's being compared at all says something of his success right at that point.
Since
Casino Royale was not made until 2006, it seems to me that it is
2006 data that needs to be considered (at least to some degree) when asking the question (if that's what we're doing here), "What would Fleming have put James Bond in for the film?" I think 007's watch is actually referenced in the novel; he looks at it or something. But no brand or further description is made. So even taking the common
On Her Majesty's Secret Service reference to Rolex in that novel risks imposing an association never explicitly made.
Hope I haven't taken this too far afield,
SecretAgent007. Your Post just really stirred me here on a subject I thoroughly enjoy. And in the end, I think it's just great to hear folks advocate for whichever brand they've gravitated toward and stuck with - based on its association near or far with James Bond 007!
Thanks for letting me indulge myself in these wee hours of a Friday morning.
