The Opening Ceremony is still a few days away, but Swiss watchmaker Omega, the official timekeeper, is off to a flying start.

Several hundred members of the international press and other guests attended the opening of the Omega Pavilion at the Olympic Green.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, assistant to the Beijing Games president, Tu Mingde, and Gerhard Heiberg, head of IOC marketing, joined Omega executives.

There were four Omega-brand ambassadors, with dazzling Olympic credentials, in attendance, too.

Olympic multiple-gold medallists Ian Thorpe and Alexander Popov were joined by speed-skater Yang Yang, the first Chinese athlete to win a Winter Olympics gold. Shooter Xu Mai Feng, who was China's first Summer Olympics gold winner, was here, too.

Rogge says Omega's Games "partnership began in 1932 in Los Angeles, and the IOC has since come to rely on the unquestionable competence, enduring commitment and assured performance of its official timekeeper".

Exhibitions in the pavilion include equipment the Swiss watchmaker has introduced to the world of sport over the past decades.