Omega De Ville by Andrew Grima

There was a moment in the 1970s when watchmakers stopped looking to traditional horology for inspiration and started looking to art, architecture, and jewelry instead. Few collaborations captured that spirit better than the partnership between Omega and the legendary British jeweler Andrew Grima. Known as the "jeweler of Swinging London," Grima counted royalty, artists, and cultural tastemakers among his clientele. His work was bold, sculptural, and often unconcerned with convention. In fact, Grima famously claimed that if one needed to know the time, one could simply ask one's chauffeur. That changed in 1969, when Omega persuaded him to create the groundbreaking "About Time" collection—a series of watches that treated timekeeping as a design exercise rather than a technical one. This De Ville is a direct descendant of that philosophy. Produced as part of Omega's subsequent Time In Style collection, it translates Grima's avant-garde vision into a wearable production piece. The defining feature is its remarkable faceted crystal, cut to resemble a polished gemstone. Rather than functioning as a simple protective cover, the crystal becomes the watch's primary design element, creating shifting reflections and subtle distortions that transform the dial beneath. The dial itself is almost radically minimal. Aside from a discreet Omega signature and De Ville designation, there is virtually nothing to distract from the elegant black hands floating beneath the crystal. The effect is closer to modern sculpture than traditional watchmaking. Housed in a yellow gold-plated case and measuring approximately 32mm by 24mm, the watch wears with the refined proportions expected of a 1970s dress watch. Inside beats Omega's manually wound Caliber 625, while a black leather strap completes the understated presentation. Today, watches inspired by architecture and industrial design are everywhere. This Omega was doing it more than fifty years ago.