See also: Ofmega documents

Country: Italy

Ofmega were based in Sarezzo near Brescia and were still in business until recently (and may still be so - but I cannot detect any signs of life).

The origins of the company are much debated. A plausible story is that Ofmega grew out of a company called Officine Mecchaniche Giostra (OMG), Ofmega being the first two letters of the first two words and the first and last letter of the last word. OMG itself appears to be related in some way to the earlier legendary brands ‘Magistroni’ and possibly ‘Gnutti’. On their 2003 web site Ofmega claimed to have in business for over 50 years, so there is probably some truth in the idea that they used other brand names or did sub-contracting work for other brands.

The history of Ofmega’s patents sheds some light on these various stories. In a 1966 patent the company was referred to as ‘OF. ME. GA’, with full stops after the ‘OF’ and ‘ME’. It is not difficult to imagine that ‘OF. ME.’ stands for ‘Officine Mecchaniche’, but ‘GA’ is a bit more obscure. The company is described as being owned by Dino Perotti. More...