A few thousand lucky people were able to attend the events of the Milan Cortina Olympic Games, but the overwhelming majority of Olympic fans followed them remotely. For these hundreds of millions of remote viewers, the spectacle is delivered by a proven duo: Omega, official timekeeper, and its partner Swiss Timing, an entity of the same Swatch Group dedicated to implementing the technological infrastructure for performance measurement.
At the 2026 Winter Olympics, the tandem demonstrated new capabilities aimed at placing the spectator in the front row. As if they were on site. And even as if they themselves were in the position of the judge and the referee. A unique way of objectifying sport, of capturing the essential data that allows it to be appreciated at its true value, most often using data and images that the retina alone would not have had time to grasp.
Omega and Swiss Timing combined AI and 3D modeling to present athletes’ performances in a clear and intelligible way for television viewers. This is the novelty of the Milan Cortina Games: beyond pure timekeeping (who is the fastest), the Omega / Swiss Timing duo makes it possible to analyze technique, fluidity, the slightest body inflections, and to understand many other objective variables beyond pure speed.
At the heart of the action
This is, for instance, the case in figure skating. A star of the Olympics, the discipline nonetheless allows very little time to distinguish grace from technique. The elements follow one another too quickly, and the untrained eye misses the subtleties that justify crowning one performance over others. Omega and Swiss Timing therefore developed a 3D model that makes it possible to sequence each executed element and assign it precise data (entry speed into the element, exit speed, time in the air, height gained, etc.). At Milan Cortina 2026, computer visualization was used to detect the angle of each competitor’s skate blades. Enough to step further into the judges’ shoes to assess a performance objectively.
Another discipline enhanced by new immersive technologies: bobsleigh. Omega can create a composite photo finish to compare each team’s time at the finish line. An image is generated after each run to show the gaps between their performances.
In ski jumping, the 10 meters preceding the jump and the first 20 after takeoff are generally those that matter for winning the event. Omega therefore also developed a visualization technology to display the biomechanical characteristics of each athlete and the way they position their body during takeoff.
A long history
All these developments were only made possible by the layering of a long, very long history of Olympic timekeeping: Omega and the Olympic Games have been moving forward hand in hand for 94 years. It is the longest partnership in the watch industry, and probably also the longest in history.
What was achieved in Milan Cortina is therefore the result of two stories drawing closer together. On one side, Omega’s constant efforts in the quest for precision. Since 1916 (Omega’s first measurement to 1/100th of a second), the watch brand has worked to make the results of its R&D in this field accessible to the public – the most recent example being its Master Chronometer certification. On the other side, Swiss Timing, since its creation in 1972 (already with Omega, but also Longines), has refined its means of measuring sporting performance. Today this is done using optical lasers, 4K UHD (ultra-high definition) cameras, augmented reality and artificial intelligence. It is the combination of these two areas of expertise that, in Milan Cortina, was able to immerse the general public in the front row of the competitions.
