OMEGA inaugurated a worldwide advertising campaign celebrating the tenth anniversary of its revolutionary Co-Axial technology, at a party at London's Saatchi Gallery on the 14th of October. The campaign will have its global launch on the 19th of October. Party guests toasted two of OMEGA's prominent spokespersons George Clooney and Cindy Crawford who were on hand at the celebration.

The advertisements feature photographs of OMEGA's high-profile ambassadors, including Crawford and Clooney, sporting or holding loupes, the magnifying glasses favoured by watchmakers.

Crawford and Clooney, joined by OMEGA president Stephen Urquhart, posed for photographs in front of poster-sized reproductions of their advertisements. They also looked at the larger-than-life images of their fellow OMEGA ambassadors including Buzz Aldrin, Michael Phelps, Michael Schumacher, and Caterina Murino.

The special guests came directly to the party at the prestigious gallery from the premiere of Fantastic Mr. Fox, an animated film based on Roald Dahl's book of the same name. The movie features Clooney's voice along with those of Meryl Streep and Bill Murray.

After taking in the exhibition, Clooney and Crawford chatted with international media and posed for photographs with fans and well wishers.

Advertising as art: where better than the Saatchi Gallery?
The Saatchi Gallery on Kings Road, where the exhibition was held, has one of the world’s pre-eminent collections of contemporary art and along with works by established artists, it features work by largely unseen young artists or by international artists whose work is rarely exhibited in the UK.

Inspired by OMEGA's award-winning advertisement
The campaign’s visuals were inspired by OMEGA’s award-winning “Watchmaker Wanted” advertisement featuring a Greg Williams photograph of George Clooney wearing a lab coat and a loupe.

The headlines in each of the advertisements refer both to the ambassador's professional accomplishments and to OMEGA’s Co-Axial calibres.

Cindy Crawford's features the bold legend, "The beauty is in the detail." For Clooney, there is a reference to the fact that his father has been a long-time OMEGA wearer. “It runs in the family,” the headline says.

All of OMEGA's other high-flying ambassadors are featured in the campaign. Advertisements featuring actresses Nicole Kidman and Zhang Ziyi are still in development.

The other "stars" in the adverts: OMEGA's Co-Axial calibres
The Co-Axial escapement, introduced in 1999, was the first practical new watch escapement to be developed in some 250 years. The escapement is, in simple terms, the heart of the mechanical watch. It maintains the oscillations of the balance, the watch's regulating mechanism. The Co-Axial Escapement reduces the friction among the parts that transmit energy to the other components, resulting in longer service intervals, a reduced need for lubrication and, above all, greater stability of the watch's precision over time.

"Co-Axial has been a turning point"
Commenting on the advertisements, OMEGA president Stephen Urquhart said, "The Co-Axial has been a turning point for us. It has given substance to our message. Creating a campaign around the quality of OMEGA's Co-Axial movements using these pictures of our brand ambassadors is an innovative and eye-catching way to communicate how proud we are that the calibres have been so well received and how confident we are about the role they will play in OMEGA's future."