WHEN Omega first kept time at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, it had one technician and 30 stopwatches.

For the 1936 Games, watchmaker Paul-Louis Guignard took one suitcase with 185 chronographs to Berlin.

When Omega takes on the job again in Beijing in August, it will be using 175 km of cables and optical fibre and 420 tonnes of equipment, including transponders in shoes and GPS systems to time the 302 competitions.

Photograph: Getty Images