Calibre 681 — date and 24 jewels

In brief

Twenty-four jewels from the 671, a date from the 680 — the 681 brings both together and ends up the most fully specified of the ladies' calibres in the 6xx family.

Short history

The automatic 5xx calibres supplied most of what is in here. Bridges, wheels, the greater part of the jewelling: Omega designed them once and used them across two families, which shortened the parts list at the factory and, long after the factory stopped caring, leaves a healthy supply of interchangeable components. None of it is pretentious, and the same engineering sits inside countless Genève and De Ville watches. Omega ended the manual series in 1974, by which point the Swiss market belonged to quartz.

Watches that used it

• Omega ladies' watch (1960s)