A RARE OMEGA SPLIT SECONDS STOP WATCH CHRONOGRAPH USED FOR THE OLYMPICS IN MOSCOW1980.
USED BY THE WORLD RECORD OWNER IN HIGH JUMP STEFKA KOSTADINOVA AND HIS COACH DURING HER TRAINING.

A RARE OMEGA SPLIT SECONDS STOP WATCH CHRONOGRAPH.

Model: Stop watch
Date: Circa 1960'S
Movement: Signed, 15-Jewels, Cal.1210, No.227XXXX
Dial: Signed, black, red and orange seconds hand, white outer Arabic numerals division, subsidiary dial for minutes at the 12 o'clock position
Case: Steel black
Size: 64.66mm
Accompaniments: Red Omega box, No. MG.6603 o/31 892

Dimensions: 64.66mm.

At the time of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, the world was mainly divided into two antagonistic forces, the Communist and the Western. Bulgaria, a representative of the Communist block, was gifted three Longines and three Omega chronometers by the organiser, the Communist USSR.

Due to specific possession rules in socialist Bulgaria, no athlete had the right to own chronometers donated by Western manufactures for the Olympics. Therefore, all official Olympics chronometers were stored in the warehouse of the Bulgarian Athletics Federation. Following the fall of the USSR, rules in Bulgaria changed and a private company took over the administration of the Federation's warehouse and the safe storing of these time pieces and measuring instruments.

In 2003, the present owner came into possession of a box containing four chronometers accompanied by notes written by Nikolay Petrov (b. 6 June 1959), one of the most successful sports coaches in Bulgaria. With burning curiosity, the present vendor contacted the coach and received confirmation from him that the Longines Cal. 262 in our sale was the very one he used to train his athlete wife, Stefka Kostadinova, Olympic Champion in the high jump, seven-time world champion and five-time European. Her world record of 2.09m, set in Rome in 1987, remains unbeaten to this day.

A picture of the famous coach Nikolay Petrov holding the four watches is available upon request.