Rally Turistico de Andorra - The Story of a Unknown Artifact

In the hunt for the ultimate timepiece we sometimes find related accessories. This time, a mysterious artifact, a banner flag that clearly mentioned Omega but gave zero results on the world wide web.

As a real internet Indiana Jones I traveled far and back but never found it's original heritage. Until I found a magazine covering Omega from 1957. As I flipped through the pages I noticed a familiar name; Andorra Ralley Turistico.

So after several years I learned the reason of existence for a small flag banner carrying the Omega brand name. In this article the original Spanish article is translated and digitized.

Tourist Rally, Andorra

March, 1957

The varied national landscape, from Barcelona to Madrid. Setting up a rally to Valencia and back to the starting point in Andorra. This was the scene of this commemorative competition for the Moto Club de Andorra.

A rally with numerous of secret control points and the main incentives for the participants were smaller timed stages, the arrival times at the destination point were not essential for the classification.

The timing team car therefor had to follow this entire route accompanying the runners.

Arrival of a participant at one of the controls

Secret control, en route.

Another arrival at the end of a timed stage.

The public waits for the last participants to arrive.

The timing car in place.

Another view of the goal.

The arrival in Valencia was lively and people had a lot of interest in the rallye.

Arrival of the first participant at the timekeeping station.