THE FIRST PRECISION BALLOON RACE

In 1909, OMEGA was given the honour of timing the Gordon Bennett Cup – a prestigious and dangerous balloon race that saw an international field of competitors attempt to outfly each other across Europe.

The winning team on the day was Edgar W. Mix and Andre Roussel in their “America II” balloon. The duo outdistanced competitors by travelling 1,211.11 km from the start point of Zurich, Switzerland, in a time of 35 hours and 7 minutes