Omega raises US$600,000 for eye charity Orbis through auction of Hong Kong special edition watches
- The Swiss luxury brand recently auctioned 11 suitcases, each containing 11 MoonSwatch Moonshine Gold Hong Kong edition watches via Sotheby’s
- Omega epitomises sustainability as its handmade watches are meant to last forever, CEO and president Raynald Aeschlimann says
Switzerland’s Omega, the only watchmaker certified by Nasa for all manned space missions, has raised more than US$600,000 through an online auction for the charity Orbis International as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative.
The luxury brand, part of the Swatch Group, auctioned 11 suitcases, each containing 11 MoonSwatch Moonshine Gold Hong Kong edition watches via Sotheby’s, raising 534,670 Swiss francs (US$604,225) for Orbis.
Swatch has been supporting Orbis, which fights avoidable blindness and vision loss around the world, since 2011.
Omega does not really like to talk about CSR because it is “so obvious for us”, said Raynald Aeschlimann, CEO and president, adding that its handmade watches are the ultimate expression of sustainability.
“Our watches are made in Switzerland so we don’t send things around the world to make them,” he said. “The DNA of the Swiss watch industry and a brand like us is that Swiss-made watches last forever.”
During his recent trip to Hong Kong, Aeschlimann met Derek Hodkey, president and CEO of Orbis, who briefed him about the charity’s work on the Flying Eye Hospital. It is the world’s only fully accredited ophthalmic hospital on board an MD-10 aircraft that undertakes eye-care missions across the world.
