Just in time for Summer, Ollech & Wajs have strapped a striking Perlon 'Regatta' band onto the mighty Astrochron, making it ocean ready. Those familiar with the International maritime flag system will recognise its two-tone pattern as the nautical code for ‘J’ (Juliet). Really observant seafarers will also know this flag can be used as a signal to warn others - “I am on Fire”. Gotta love a good cipher! PR release here
THE OLLECH & WAJS ANTHOLOGY
Ollech & Wajs watches has a rich and colourful history. From its humble beginnings in 1956 on the Stockerstrasse, Zurich the OW marque became a globally recognised shorthand for rugged durability. An eight decade odyssey that has traversed the space race, the Vietnam conflict, deep sea exploration, Aviation, Arctic expeditions, endurance rallying and Rock’n’Roll. One of my undertakings as marketing director is to inventorise and the archive the history of Ollech & Wajs. Despite its eclectic past, much of the company’s history had never been documented in detail and some stories remained hidden deep in the vaults for decades. To preserve OW’s precious heritage and share its past with future generation of watch lovers, I have created an anthology of stories, exploring 65 years of watches and the men who wore them. They are curated on the OW website and distributed via the OW newsletter and selected editorial partners. Read the stories here
THE OW ASTROCHRON: EXPLORING THE LIMITS SINCE 1967
The OW Astrochron story began nearly 60 years ago, amidst history’s most ambitious era of exploration. The race to go faster, further and deeper had the world poised at the edge of several new frontiers, the most notable being outer space. The astral realm represented the ultimate in exploration and inspired the name of the famous Ollech & Wajs 1967 ‘triple-register’ chronograph. I prepared and co-ordinated the global PR launch and created a pre-release teaser campaign on Meta.
The all new 2023 Astrochron spliced with its forbear - the original 1967 Astrochron
CLASSICS IMMORTALISED
Pre 1970 Swiss watchmakers rarely produced colour product photography. There are no documented images of OW’s original watches in their prototypical state. Furthermore, most OW watches were worn in professional environments and subjected to considerable daily abuse, many of the classic watches that survive today are heavily patinated, and pristine examples are scarce. So we commissioned specialist watch illustrator and typography expert Bjoern Altmann to retrospectively create original artworks of each watch, exactly as they would have looked brand-new. By studying period documents from the OW archives, and a cross-section of examples of each model, Altmann has skilfully created photo-real exemplifications of each watch, accurate in infinitesimal detail. The project is part preservation and part revelation. Details that may previously have gone unnoticed, hidden under scuffed crystals or burnished away by years of wear, are revealed. The ability to scrutinise these details like never before provides us with a greater understanding of how the design codes of OW watches evolved during the company’s most prolific period. The ‘OW Classics Immortalised’ project featured in Oracle Time
Read the OW Newsletter announcement here
TIME TO GET TECHNICAL
One difference between a marketing director and a creative director is that when it comes to how knowledgeable you need to be about a product - a creative director can get away with bullet points. A marketing director on the other hand needs to know every single technical specification, how it differs from other products in the portfolio and how it differs from other products in the market. A mechanical watch typically contains upward of 200 components, inside a case measuring just 39.5mm by 12.5mm. That takes some cramming, on the part of the watchmaker and the marketing director! One of my most important undertakings this year was to introduce a new ‘movement’ for OW. The quality of a watch is measured by the heartbeat that powers it and this was a landmark moment for OW. The wording had to be precise. Read the announcement in full here
TRIBUTE TO A FATHER
We often hear from OW owners whose watches have served them well for 60 years or more. Some of these owners are Vietnam veterans who wore their watches in combat. We also hear from owners who were bequeathed OW watches by relatives who served in Vietnam. One such owner is JT Hinkle of Rogersville, Tennessee whose father, Marine Sergeant Jerry Hinkle wore an OW at the 77 day siege of Khe Sanh, one of the key battles of the conflict. 50 years on, as a tribute to his late father, JT set out on his own mission: to find the exact same Ollech & Wajs watch that had served his father so well all those years ago. His story is now part of the OW anthology, if you have time, pour yourself a coffee and listen to the audio version here.
Read the full story here
THE NEW OW M-110: NAVIGATE ANY CHALLENGE
You may well ask what use is an analogue compass bezel is in a time when GPS devices are so ubiquitous. Some would argue that we have developed an unhealthy obsession with technology and have become over-reliant on it. For instance, how many of us could light a fire without matches, or distinguish toxic mushrooms from edible ones without Google? A compass bezel represents the essence of human ingenuity and capacity to improvise, adapt and overcome. In a world where we are constantly tethered to satellites, it’s unlikely you will need it every day, but you might need it one day. Ex-British Army Commando and bushcraft survival expert Harrie Ellaway believes one of the best ways to reorientate is to go right back to basics, and that there’s no better place to test a person’s resilience than in the wilderness. It’s also an ideal environment to field-test OW’s latest tactical watch.
The M-110 on test in the wild
Read the OW Newsletter in full here
Pre- launch we playfully revealed the name of the M-110 in Morse and hinted at its tactical features
Full page print ad in Summer issue of Oracle Time
PEACE IN UKRAINE
Within hours of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ollech & Wajs made an immediate financial donation to the Ukrainian Red Cross and pledged 100CHF per watch sold, to help emergency humanitarian relief until hostilities cease. A small, symbolic gesture for peace that we hope will help alleviate the suffering of the Ukrainian people.
RETURN OF THE OW NAVICHRON
One of my first tasks for Ollech & Wajs was to craft and co-ordinate the global PR and social media release of the much-anticipated OW Navichron. Inspired by a long line of OW speciality sports chronographs, and named after one of our most loved watches of the 1960s era, the new Navichron, like its predecessors, is aimed at professionals for whom split-second timing is critical. ‘Worn & Wound"‘, one of the leading watch journals in the US described it as “pretty skookum’ - which Google confirmed is entirely complimentary.
A NEW WEBSITE FOR O&W
In 2022 I oversaw development and delivery of a new website for Ollech & Wajs. I say ‘website’, it’s more than just an e-commerce platform. It’s a virtual global boutique, an inventory of historic models and a comprehensive archive of the brand’s history. As a global brand with small network of select retail partners, the website is our most effective way to both share the OW collection and our rich brand story. We approached the design of the site with the same meticulous attention to detail as our watchmakers apply to creating OW watches. I rewrote all the copy across the site and reinstated historic tag lines “IN THE AIR - ON THE LAND - UNDER THE SEA” and “EQUAL TO ANY CHALLENGE”. Vintage watch enthusiast might recognise the pale beige accent colour which features throughout the site as ‘aged tritium’. It was sampled from the faded indices of a 1967 OW Astrochron.
www.ow-watch.ch
