BIENNE, Switzerland — At Baselworld, the world’s premier watch fair, Omega will trumpet the rollout of six new Master Chronometer movements for 2016, including the new annual calendar for the Globemaster that places the months on each facet of the pie-pan dial. Also on offer: new Planet Ocean Chronographs for women and men and a Speedmaster Moonphase.

History, precision, branding. Those watchwords seem to echo through the halls of Omega’s imposing headquarters on the outskirts of this industrial town, where German and French coexist and its parent company, Swatch Group, operates nearby.

Not far from the reception area, a museum, open to the public, houses timepieces and memorabilia that highlight 160 years of company history. “To me, Omega stands for perfection,” said Petros Protopapas, the museum curator, as he pointed to Omega’s first wristwatch, a 1900 timepiece fitted with the 19-inch Omega caliber.

“Omega is the only company named for this most important movement — not for a founder,” he said.

Omega prides itself on being the brand chosen for precision timekeeping: by the Allied forces during World War II, for the Olympic Games and by NASA for the United States space program. Mr. Petros himself glows when talking about the museum’s latest addition: a Speedmaster Chronograph worn by Capt. Ronald E. Evans on the Apollo 17 mission to the moon in 1972. Mr. Petros helped buy it for $245,000, a record price for the model, at a Christie’s Omega auction in December. “We are actively using our past to make our future,” he emphasized.

At the company’s helm is Stephen Urquhart, president for the past 16 years.

This day, in his spacious office on the third floor of the company’s main building, he is wearing the latest Bond watch, an Omega Seamaster 300 Master Co-Axial “Spectre” Limited Edition, one of 7,007 timepieces produced to coincide with the 2015 film.

“The producers wanted a bezel that could turn both ways,” he explained with delight while turning it back and forth and then pointing out the distinctive lollipop seconds hand and NATO strap. “It’s eye-catching and beautiful. People love it.”

So does Omega.

Asked how much the 20-year Bond connection means to the company, Mr. Urquhart flashed a wry smile: “It’s unbelievable what it’s meant for the brand.”

He said sales of its Bond-related watches ramp up immediately when Omega, working on a handshake-basis with the franchise’s producers, runs its obligatory film-related advertising around a new movie. “Commercially, it’s a fantastic operation for us,” Mr. Urquhart noted. “I wouldn’t say it’s manna from the sky, but it’s very rewarding.”

History features prominently in the match. Mr. Urquhart tells the story of the fashion designer Lindy Hemming who set about revamping Bond’s image in 1992 — picking the right car, the right Champagne, the right watch. She chose Omega’s Seamaster, first introduced in 1948, because it was strongly favored by Britain’s Royal Navy, where the fictional spy holds the rank of commander.

Mr. Urquhart also readily recounts his own history. Born in the West Indies to European parents, he was initially schooled in England. In 1968, after his university studies in Switzerland, he joined the Omega communications department. “I answered an ad in the paper,” he recalled. “I was interviewed in this building on this floor.”

He left for a job at Audemars Piguet in 1974. “I didn’t see a future at Omega,” he explained, his departure coinciding with the beginnings of the rise in quartz watches that would accelerate the decline of the mechanical watch sector into the 1980s.

His return to Omega in 1999 came at the behest of the Swatch Group mastermind Nicolas Hayek, who plucked him from Omega’s sister brand, Blancpain.

“Hayek called me in Lausanne one Saturday — I remember it vividly,” Mr. Urquhart recalled, breaking into a grin. “He said, ‘I want you to take over Omega. And by the way, you have no choice.’ I started two days later.”

By then, Omega was again on the rise, thanks to the company’s embrace of the experimental coaxial escapement that year, invented by the British horologist George Daniels to improve watch durability and accuracy.

“Mr. Hayek and I sat down and said, ‘This will be our mission statement for the future,”’ Mr. Urquhart said, noting that Omega produces 500,000 watches a year with the coaxial movement, which is 75 percent of its total production.

On Mr. Urquhart’s list of corporate achievements, coaching the coaxial movement through a seven-year development phase comes first — followed by cracking the magnet problem, the bane of timepiece accuracy. In 2013, Omega created the world’s first “cageless” movement to resist magnetic fields up to 15,000 gauss.

Pointing out that magnets, which are everywhere in modern life, cause watches to slow down and even stop, Mr. Urquhart said, “We felt ours was a big breakthrough — a spiral which we could make in silicon. It’s a new standard.” He gestured to the floor above his office where this year Omega installed a Swiss government lab to test its watches, certifying each as waterproof, accurate and magnetic-resistant.

His other major achievement: reviving the flagship retail concept that Omega had used during the ’50s and ’60s. Beginning with a flashy Zurich boutique that opened in December 2000, Omega has steadily opened 137 corporate stores worldwide, plus 150 franchised ones.

“It’s a very costly operation,” he said, noting that Omega does not make public its sales figures, finances or revenue. “But I believe, down the road, it will really be a tremendous asset for the brand.”

These days, most of Mr. Urquhart’s time is spent on what he labels product branding. “That is the key,” he said. “I work with the team on design ideas and help bring each watch from inception through to market.”

The unsettled global economy, Mr Urquhart maintains, does not affect product design. “We are making no drastic changes and certainly won’t compromise on quality,” he said. “If anything, we are trying to raise standards so that Omega remains relevant and prominent as a watch brand. You can see that in what we are doing with our new Master Chronometers. It’s all about creating more desirability and giving customers confidence in their choice.”

As for favored locations, China will remain the brand’s star because it still leads the world’s luxury market, despite a sharp drop in 2015 watch sales due to its economic problems and the government’s anti-corruption drive. As one of the first brands to enter China, Omega maintains an edge in the country, Mr. Urquhart said, and intends to focus on its flagship stores there.

“It’s showing the way,” he added. “The middle class is growing every year by enormous figures. It’s still unbelievable market for the future.”

Mr. Urquhart on:

The definition of luxury

“I don’t like the word, it makes you think of diamonds; remember, good water is also a luxury. But luxury in Webster’s Dictionary is defined as ‘what you don’t need.’ I would have to agree with that.”

The watch industry’s biggest enemy

“Magnetism is the biggest enemy of mechanical watch that exists today. Magnetism is rampant today — you find it in induction stoves, in handbags, in every tablet cover. If I take a normal watch and put it on a tablet cover, the watch will stop.”

Mechanical watches vs. smartwatches

“To have watch on your wrist is to give you a sentimental, emotional reassurance — and pleasure. A smartwatch, to use the awful word, won’t give you that.”

Women’s watches

“We have to get away this idea of a ‘woman’s watch.’ Women don’t want to buy something made for them because they’re women.”

His favorite Omega?

“That’s difficult to answer. It’s like asking, ‘Who’s your favorite child?’ I’ve been involved, in some manner, in developing every product. But if there’s one product from the past that stands out, it’s the Speedmaster watch that went to moon. I bought one, the same watch we sell today, which I have at home. I don’t wear it much; I want to keep it. It’s an iconic product.”

Omega prices

“The average price for an Omega watch is $7,000. We’ve moved up alot, but I don’t think it will go much higher.”

Omega’s Bond connection

“In the current film, the watch is very prominent, and we’re very happy. But we have little say in how the watch is used. The filmmakers come to us with their vision and we help them achieve it. We see what watch Daniel would like to wear. Pierce had his taste; Daniel has a different taste. But it always has been a Seamaster, and will always be a Seamaster.”

The financial link between Omega and Bond

“It’s a unique business structure. We commit ourselves to invest ‘X’ amount of money on Omega ads with ‘Spectre’ a few weeks before and after the opening. We would be crazy not to do it. Every year we overshoot what we commit to do. It’s all built on trust. There’s no contract.”

Whether star branding pays off

“People ask me all time, does working with stars, does it pay? I can’t answer that question. It’s impossible. How do we know? But Bond? Easy. I can show a graph for eight films. It’s a perfect chart. Every time it goes up when the promotion starts and comes down when the promotion stops. But the sales are always higher than they were before the film.”

On China’s anticorruption drive

“What the government is trying to do there is a positive thing. But gift giving is still there, though not for the same reasons. In China, when someone does you a favor, you give him something back. It’s part of their way of life. People are buying watches with their own money today. Now what’s been slowed there, and curtailed, has been nearly compensated for by normal consumption.”