IOC and Omega renew timekeeping contract
Swiss watch manufacturer Omega on Friday extended its partnership with the Lausanne-based International Olympic Committee (IOC) until 2020.
The brand, which is part of Biel-based Swatch Group, the world’s largest watch manufacturer, has promised to spend more than SFr1 billion ($977 million) on sports timekeeping over the next decade.
The extension means Omega will have been the official timekeeper at 29 Olympic Games, starting with the 1932 games in Los Angeles.
Omega is the only brand to have been worn by astronauts on the Apollo Moon missions of the United States.
The new finance will go towards improving the sensitive instruments needed to determine time within a fraction of a second, whether on the track, in the pool or on the pitch.
IOC President Jacques Rogge said Omega’s pledge to continue developing sports timekeeping was “a source of enormous confidence for the IOC and the organisers of the Olympic Games.”
The IOC, which meets next week in Copenhagen to decide on the venue for the 2016 games, has now signed up five top sponsors for its 2013-16 cycle: Panasonic, Samsung, Omega, Coca-Cola and Atos Origin. The target is ten.
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