Located around the corner from its old premises, the Omega Museum has just reopened within La Cité du Temps – “The City of Time” – an impressive glass and wood building designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, who has worked with the brand on several projects, including its new factory.

Connected to the new Swatch brand headquarters via an aerial bridge, La Cité du Temps sits just behind Omega’s main building in Biel, a city about 90 minutes from Zurich by train. Appropriately, it is on a street named after Nicolas G. Hayek, founder of the Swatch Group, the Swiss watchmaking conglomerate that’s Omega’s parent company.

La Cite du Temps, the horizontal building in the middle

La Cite du Temps at right

While the original museum was opened in 1983, making it the oldest watch brand museum in the world, the new museum sits on the second level of the five-story La Cité du Temps, with the Swatch Museum one floor above and another floor dedicated to temporary exhibitions. The new premises give the Omega Museum an expansive space to detail the watchmaker’s long and diverse history on a scale that was impossible in the museum’s former home, which it shared with the company canteen.

The 64-window display that’s built like the links of a steel watch bracelet

Each of the key themes in Omega history are captured in comprehensive exhibits, including being the official timekeeper for the Olympic Games, the Speedmaster Professional and the Moon landing – complete with a giant, “walk-in” Speedmaster – and James Bond.

The lunar landing display, complete with a moon rover and lunar surface

Olympic starting blocks

A model of George Daniels’ co-axial escapement

The “walk-in” Speedmaster…

which can be entered between the lugs

Entry to the museum is now free, but an entry fee will charged to visit the entire La Cité du Temps once the rest of the building, including the Swatch Museum, is open.

Address and opening hours