Reply With QuoteThanks for the info.
The review section might have been a better place for this post, as it has less traffic, and threads don't age as fast. :wink:
I was wondering whether all the O&W stuff exists in a single place on the net? I posted a similar article at RLT, but many of the essential links were removed by the forum administrator because of links to other watch fora and sites that also sell watches. I hope that posting here is OK with Eddie :) I think it's important to retain as much info as possible about brands like O&W before such info is lost forever.
Given that Mr Ollech apparently died in the early 1970's and the fact that Albert Wajs must be getting on a bit if the company was founded in 1956, I think an overview of the O&W is due. Ideally, the sort of rigorous analysis done by Pete Millar (flying doctor) about Doxa or Chuck Maddox about Moonwatches would be carried out. In the absence of such thoroughness, here's what I've found from various sources on the net minus moderator restrictions.
From Albert Wajs's own site at http://www.chronotime.ch/:
"Short History of
The story begins 1956 when, together with a partner, I founded the Ollech & Wajs Watch Company. Right from the beginning, we concentrated
on manufacturing rugged, good looking sports watches at affordable prices. One day, a young American student on visit in Switzerland, bought
one of our watches. He said to us: Why don't you sell your watches in the US. Everyone there, needs a timepiece like that, that can stand it's man. To keep quality high and prices low, we decided to try something new... To sell by mail to US customers direct from Switzerland and eliminate the middleman's profit. This approach proved very successful, for our company, and also for the many happy US owners of our watches. Our company received many letters from satisfied customers. You can view some of these letters on my homepage.
All our watches were equipped with mechanical movements with at least 17 jewels. When the first quartz watches made their appearance, in the
early 80ties, mechanical watches came temporarily out of fashion. We stopped production. Today, Swiss mechanical watches of good workmanship are very much sought after again Quite frequently I was approached by former customers in need of a solid, sturdy timepiece. That's why I decided to resume manufacturing mechanical watches under my new company, A. I. Wajs. The models shown here are 100% Swiss, of very good quality, and prices are affordable because of selling direct.
Thank you for your interest. Please use the information and Online-Ordering form to fax or E-mail your order which I will charge to your VISA
Card. If you have no VISA card, please mail your order together with bank check, or money-order for speedy delivery by registered insured airmail.
A.I. Wajs
Swiss made Army Watches"
from Neil Wood's site in conjunction with A. Wajs at http://www.chronomaster.com
"The History of Ollech & Wajs - Written by Neil Wood, but in consultation with Mr. Albert Wajs for authentication of the history of his company
Ollech & Wajs started business in the 1950?s when Albert Wajs began making and supplying stainless steel bracelets for wristwatches. In 1956, a partnership was formed with Mr Ollech, and they soon began manufacturing wristwatches. From the outset, the design philosophy was to create durable and good looking sports watches at affordable prices. Business was done from their retail premises in Zurich. They soon began to expand into world wide markets, more notably the US and UK markets. This was achieved through a low cost approach so as to keep the watch prices low. They began to advertise in magazines that were popular with aviators, soldiers, divers and sportsmen. They were selling direct to the end user by mail order from Switzerland. They cut out all of the middlemen, and there was no need to invest heavily in overseas infrastructures, so the cost of quality watches was kept to a minimum.
Sales were increasing so the O&W company were able to produce more models and focus on production methods so that the quality became better. In the 1960?s they were selling a high quality professional divers wristwatches for US $12. These watches became very popular with US soldiers who bought them privately, as they were the best quality watch and value for money they could find, and they were a vast improvement on their inferior quality government issued disposable watches.
Sales reached an all time high during the Vietnam era when they were selling thousands of watches via direct mail order. Towards the late 1970?s, Mr. Wajs bought up much of the Breitling stock for the aviation models such as the Navitimer. They began producing their own label watches with the Breitling cases and the same calibres used in Breitling watches. These watches were branded ?Aviation? and are now highly prized amongst collectors. The advent of the quartz powered mechanisms drove down much of the traditional watch making industry, and O&W ceased production in the early 1980?s.
By the early 1990?s, the more discerning consumers who were concerned with quality, style and craftsmanship were becoming tired of quartz wristwatches. Whilst quartz watches were accurate, they were mass produced, often lasted less than a few years years, lacked in character and had no soul. This thought allowed a resurgence in Swiss watch making where customers preferred the machines made by highly skilled craftsmen who have inherited their skills over hundreds of years in the making. O&W subsequently began production again, this time under a new company, formed by Albert Wajs. The company is called A. I. Wajs, who proudly present A. I. Wajs Army Watches. They still use the logo and the brand name Ollech & Wajs or O&W, as these brand names are owned by Albert Wajs.
Albert Wajs is running the company with as much energy and enthusiasm as ever. He is constantly coming up with new ideas and creating new models. He calls upon his wealth of knowledge and technical brilliance to create innovative, fresh and appealing designs. His philosophy however still remains today as it did when he started in business ? cost effective, durable and good looking watches. He is passionate about watches, is well known and well respected amongst the Swiss watch making fraternity. His passion and desire is reflected in his ?appeal to all? wristwatch designs, and his personal success."
some more general info at http://www.internationalwatchclub.com/aiwajs-watches/
"The company now known as A.I.Wajs Army Watches is a manufacturer of durable, rugged yet affordable sports watches. An interesting history began in the 1950s when Albert Wajs was supplying the stainless steel bracelets for wristwatches. Wajs partnered with Mr Ollech to begin to manufacture solid and sturdy timepieces and the company launched as Ollech & Wajs.
The business model that Ollech & Wajs followed was to maintain a low price by selling direct to customers and they have maintained this model through the rise and fall of the company. Very popular with soldiers, sportsman, divers and aviators, the Ollech & Wachs watches were sold predominantly to the US and the UK. The Vietnam era was a peak period for the firm and the Wajs aviator watches created from Brietling cases are still a prized collectors item.
In the 1980s the company closed along with many others as the quartz movement came into fashion. However demand for the reliability of a mechanical watch led Wajs to reopen the company by himself in the 1990s under the name A.I. Wajs.
A.I.Wajs watches are still popular today, still 100% Swiss and still sold via direct mail. Time proven business and design models continue as the basis for the company?s success. New watches sold under A.I.Wajs brand retail on average for approximately US$200. Collectors watches under the brand name Ollech & Wajs can retail for up to US$2000."
general info from http://www.broadarrow.net/ow.htm:
"Ollech & Wajs got their start in 1956, manufacturing and selling rugged sports watches at affordable prices. Their heyday was during the 1960's when many of their watches were sold to servicemen overseas. This catalog is representative of their line during the 1960s. Interestingly, they also offered Omega, Breitling and Enicar watches in addition to their own.
Ollech & Wajs ceased production during the 1980's when quartz revolution took place and mechanical timepieces all but became extinct. Today Albert Wajs has resumed production of fine mechanical timepieces, and O&W is once again gaining a reputation for their rugged mechanical sports watches at affordable prices."
Some info about the EarlyBird can be found at:
http://www.50717.com/notissued/ow-earlybird-01.html
Some info about the Caribbean 1000;
http://scubawatch.org/caribbean.html
http://www.personal.u-net.com/~carnfort ... rdware.htm
Some Caribbean 1000 stuff from TZ:
"Not a review. Just a look at an inovative idea designed 30 years ago and why a little known company built something that should have been built by Rolex in IMHO.
The watch in the scans below is an Ollech & Wajs Carbbean 1000 meter dive watch. O & W were not only makers of interesting watches, but also supplied parts to Breitling for their Navitimer models.
The case is a s/s unibody (one piece) with the movement inserted from the top. 40 mm in diameter and 45.5 mm lug to lug. With crystal on. The height is 16 mm. Crown is a screwdown with threads on the inside of the winding tube.
The movement is an unadorned ETA 17 jewel automatic with date.
Bezels came with 60 minute or 12 hour bi-directional turning with luminous markings. The watch came in dark blue, black, yellow or jade green with matching bezel insert. There were also two different widths of bezel inserts. A thin model (shown in scan) or the wider (about 1 mm more)
The watch in the early 70's was used to set a number of dive records. With tank and without. Been also said that the watch was a favorite of Vietnam military personnel who purchased the watches rather than use one's supplied to them.
The interesting thing about the watch is the crystal and why the watch warrents it's 3000 ft. depth rating.
The movement sits in a movement ring and is placed deep into the case. The crystal is then placed into the case and held in place with a s/s screwdown retaining ring. A rubber "O" ring under the crystal and a flat rubber ring under the retaining ring insuring proper water tightness.
With the bezel on. The crystal has a very low profile. The edge is barely 1/32nd above the rim and sit's about 1/8" higher in the middle.
The crystal is a slab of plastic. 1/8" thick on the side, with a 1/8" thick lip which the retaining ring presses down on. It's the top that's interesting.
Due to the lower sitting movement. The crystal has a very shallow curve on the underside matching that of the top. Between inside and out, is a 5 MM thickness of plastic.
At the time of it's creation. The Rolex Submariner had a 200 meter or 660 ft. depth rating.
Original value was $105.00
Most of these seen for sale are NOS due to the company going out of business just after the death of Mr. Ollech in the early 70's
At most, have seen over the past year and a half is less than 50 watches listed for sale. How many were produced is unknown, but willing to say that compared to a vintage Rolex from the same era that the Caribbean is much rarer
Current prices for the watches are about $550-$700. With a price of $1000.00 expected by the end of the year by some collectors."
Here's some very interesting info. about the purported relationship between O&W and Jenny by Peter at watchuseek:
"Jenny Caribbean is a dive watch but is also significant as a vintage watch. Jenny appears to have made watches for only about 10 years from the early 60's to the early 70's and they are accordingly rare and sought after.
The basic movements were ETA to which Jenny added special cases, dials and bezels.
Jenny invented the triple safe one piece case in the early 1960s and issued the first 1000 metre rated diver which ultimately lead to the Omega Ploprof.
My research shows that Jenny was probably assembled by Ollech & Wajs under a reciprocal arrangement that allowed O&W to sell the Jenny patents with their own branding.
The evidence for this is that whilst it is well known that Jenny owned the patents, there is no evidence whatsoever that Jenny had a watch making facility. O&W ofcourse had a well known factory.
Moreover, the Jenny divers came in some very unusual shapes and only the O&W Caribbeans can be found with exactly the same unusual cases.
The Caribbean range included Super Water Proof Divers rated for deep water use between 200 metres and 2000 metres, and Dive Chronos rated for use in more shallow water.
The Jenny Caribbean 1000 came with a decompression table bezel and as we have recently cracked how to use it in the WUS Dive Watch Forum I can tell you it had no purpose other than underwater use.
The extremely rare Jennys are the Caribbean 1000 in Orange or Blue from 1963."
Some O&W links and old catalogues from Chuck Maddox:
http://home.xnet.com/~cmaddox/o_and_w/i ... r.html#Top
http://home.xnet.com/~cmaddox/o_and_w/i ... s.html#Top
http://home.xnet.com/~cmaddox/o_and_w/c ... talog.html
http://home.xnet.com/~cmaddox/o_and_w/o ... s.html#Top
Some Aviation watch details at http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread ... t=aviation:
"The story has been told numerous times before, so I'll only give a short version here.
In 1979 the original Breitling company that was founded in 1892, and had been in family hands all its life, was liquidated. Several parties acquired parts of the Breitling heritage. Name, designs and parts all went to new owners.
The Ollech & Wajs company was founded more then twenty years earlier, somewhere in the 50's, by the two gentlemen that gave the company it's name. They specialised in good quality, affordable tool watches, and achieved quit a good reputation among soldiers, that preferred them to the government issued watches. In 1979 O&W had the foresight to buy much of the parts that were stocked by Breitling to build and/or service their watches from the Navitimer line.
Up to this day they still have on offer new, unused watches build from original Breitling parts, and parts that came from the original Breitling suppliers. They are sold under the Aviation name.
There are six models available. All of them in steel, and some also plated and in 18k gold. Prices range from SFr 2150 (US$1800) for the ref.nr.44017 in steel, to SFr 8425 (US$7060) for the ref.nr.34017 in 18k gold. All of them with vintage movements, including a gift box, leather strap and instructions for use.
It's important to notice that these watches were designed in the 60's and 70's, and although they are new, they must be considered classic watches. They have beautiful vintage mechanical movements, that will give years of trouble free service if well maintained. Most are hand wound, although two models make use of the Buren Cal.12. These latter movements lack a running second hand, and have a reputation for being fairly difficult to maintain. All of these watches should be considered very poorly protected against water. Don't even wear them when coming close to water. The one exception is the ref.nr.6081, that in its days was supposed to be waterproof. But although this watch will be better protected against accidental submersion, for practical purposes it should be considered not to be waterproof as well.
Just suppose you're in the market for a classic pilot's chronograph. You like the Navitimer designs, and you are fascinated by the rich aviation history of the Breitling brand. You prefer a new unused watch, and want to avoid the risks that come with buying a vintage wristwatch.
There are several options open to you.
Obviously you can go for a brand new Breitling. The Breitling name was revived again in 1982 by Ernest Schneider from the Sicura firm. Ever since they have produced new watches, some of which are in design at least close to the original and carry the Breitling Navitimer name. The Breitling company has successfully tried to move upmarket, and both the quality and price are in a different league then the originals were.
You might want to have a look at Sinn. Helmut Sinn bought the rights to the Navitimer design, and the Sinn company still has a few models in their line-up that are closely related to the Navitimer. In some ways you might argue that Sinn is closer to the philosophy of the original Breitling company, in the sense that they focus on technical improvements, and try to keep the price modest. Their Navitimer derivative is more a tool watch, like the Navitimer was once meant to be.
If you want to stay closer to the original, and you don't need the technical improvements that were made in the last 35 years, there are still a few options left.
You could buy a NOS original Breitling from Old World Jewellers in the US, but there are only a few Navitimer models left, and prices are very high.
Finally there's O&W. If you can live without the Breitling print on the dial, this is probably as close as you can get to the original Navitimer. It's basically a brand new watch made from original parts. In several ways, these Aviation's are more closely related to the much loved 60's/70's Navitimer's then the present day Breitlings are."
Here's another link to Aviations and their relationship with Breitling Navitimers on the http://www.navitimer.net website. If the link doesn't take you directly to the O&W section, it can readily be found on the left hand menu:
http://www.lesmala.net/jean-michel/navitimer/index2.htm
I have tried to bring together here a list of all of the O&W info available on the net. If anyone knows of anything else, please add it to the list.
Thanks for the info.
The review section might have been a better place for this post, as it has less traffic, and threads don't age as fast. :wink:
Cheers,
Martin ("Crusader")
Good idea Martin :) How does a post get moved to another section?Originally Posted by Crusader
Dave,
Why don't you just start your own O&W site? You probably have enough space to get you started with your own ISP (NTL give you 50MB). This will be plenty to get you started and don't worry about how it all looks, just get the information up there and organised. As you have gathered, these type of sites always start with people scouring the net for info, then sticking it all together.
It's a good idea Tony, but I suspect that more people will read info on a forum than having some Joe like me with his own homepage longingly looking at the webcounter advancing in ones and twos :wink:
All interesting stuff Dave.
I think I have read most of it but would be a good thing to have in one place as you say.
Cheers,
Neil.
Thanks Neil
I intend to find out some of the missing pieces of the story such as what did O&W do during the "wildernesss years" from the mid 1980's (quartz revolution biting hard) to the early 1990's mechanical renaissance? Another interesting thing would be to find out the list of manufacturers that O&W made watches for from the 1950's to the 1970's. I know that some LeJour, Berios and (tentatively) Jenny were made by O&W and suspect that many of the other brands carrying the Caribbean name would have been manufactered by O&W too.
I should also point out that Roy and I have now resolved our little misunderstanding and that Roy has been most helpful by sending me a 1968 letter from Global Marine Inc. Oceanics Division to O&W apparently reporting the results of a field test (diving obviously) of an O&W Caribbean 1000 model 702 diver and an O&W Astrochron model 2003 chronograph. I was then able to post the letter on the site :)
I don't think that O&W made Jenny watches, Ollech was a manager/director of Jenny prior to joining Wajs and Jenny made all the Caribbean cases used by several watch manufacturers. It's not impossible that Jenny made all the Caribbean watches and badged them for their customers.
The original "Aviator" (Breitling) cases were long ago used and Albert Wajs had more made but the newer ones are nowhere near the quality of the originals.
I have a number of original O&W brochures from the 1960s somewhere.
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
Eddie, your info. seems directly at odds with what Peter at WUS has to say on the matter of the relationship between O&W and Jenny. Maybe I should ask Albert Wajs about it?
With regard to the Aviations, I've never held a Navitimer 806 or Navitimer Chronomatic to compare with my Aviation 44017 and 6081. However, the quality of the Aviations seems comparable to my modernish (2000) Breitling SuperOcean.
It would be great if you could find the old O&W brochures and scan the images to compare with what I have and with what is already out there on the interent :)
I was the first dealer in the UK to take on O&W Dave and sold them for 5 years until 2000, when I took on Zeno following a disagreement over quality issues at O&W. I covered most of the points in your post with Albert Wajs during this 5 years, speaking with him a couple of times a month at least.
I don't propose correcting everything which is now reported about the history of O&W but suffice it to say that some legends have evolved which have no foundation in fact.
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
I was under the impression that O&W have never made any watches.
My understanding is that they just had certain models "badged up" for them.
Every O&W I have seen has used generic parts seen on other makes at the time.
This is only my personal view and I stand to be corrected.
Cheers,
Neil.
That may well be true, Neil. However, I have at least 2 watches signed with Ollech and Wajs on the bridge of the movement, and they're not O&W watches.
Here's my Le Jour with Valjoux 7730:
I owned an Ollech & Wajs watch in the late 1970s. I saw one on the wrist of a business partner and enquired about the watch and from where it came. It may have been 1977 thinking about where I was when I owned the watch.
I don't even remember the model I bought but all transactions were carried out by post. (seem to remember it was an M1 or M6 or something?).
My friend said he had seen his watch on the TV and made enquiries about it and found out who made them. I sent a letter to O&W and there you go.
I asked O+W to put a steel bracelet on my watch as I didn't like the Nylon type strap that came as standard. They did this and the watch was delivered to me in a very short time.
I remember it was a manual wind watch and kept as good time as my most respected watches or any of the other watches I owned. I still have a soft spot for my Rotary's. :)
I did get quartz watches too in that era and some were very well made and accurate but they didn't appeal to me then.
I know nothing of the history of O&W but I did own one many years ago and it seemed like a quality watch.
I supose I ought to take a second look at these watches before the I get my final call up?
Sorry my memory isn't more accurate, getting old and infirm is not for those that lack balls.
:wink:
Nice watch Dave. I have lost count of the number of chronos I have had with that case. :wink:That may well be true, Neil. However, I have at least 2 watches signed with Ollech and Wajs on the bridge of the movement, and they're not O&W watches.
Here's my Le Jour with Valjoux 7730:
I have an idea that the factory that put these watches together for various companies may have run out of Le Jour or blank signed movements and stuck in an O&W version.
Of course it's all conjecture. :)
Cheers,
Neil.
[quote=Neil.C]Nice watch Dave. I have lost count of the number of chronos I have had with that case. :wink:That may well be true, Neil. However, I have at least 2 watches signed with Ollech and Wajs on the bridge of the movement, and they're not O&W watches.
Here's my Le Jour with Valjoux 7730:
I have an idea that the factory that put these watches together for various companies may have run out of Le Jour or blank signed movements and stuck in an O&W version.
Of course it's all conjecture. :)[/quote:3fy9j2je]
Those chronos do show up regularly and a have a few myself with a wide variety of Valjoux and Landeron movements (well 3 anyway :wink: ). That said, I've let one or two with the rarer tricompax registers slip through my fingers :wink:
You may be right about the movements, of course. As you say, it's all conjecture and we may never know the details.
Thanks for that info John. It's good to hear from somebody who owned an O&W before/during the quartz revolution :)
Long time for an updtae, but I think that the mystery has been solved by my asking Jenny/Doxa:
http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=84415
They were much, much more forthcoming than O&W about this. I wonder why :wink:
Got my O&W Aviation 6081 recently, amazing watch!
Cracking photo and what a first post :lol:
Welcome to the forum Al0ha :-) Any more watches you want to share with us mad folk?
I'm not as think as you drunk I am.
What he said. We want more pics and a write up ...
john
THIN is the new BLACK
Thanks for the writeup - its good to see all the information you've pulled together and obviously worked to cross check for accuracy :)
can you find spare parts for old models?and where?
have the id3077 on a chronissimo. great everyday watch
i have an ID3077, black face on a dimodell chronissimo strap.
looks the dogs bits :twisted:
Very informative .... thanks .... :P
thank you for a great post
I had an M4 back in day, great Sub-a-like with ETA2824 for not a lot of dosh. Anyone know who's now got the UK distributorship out if interest - I got mine from Neil @ Chronomaster, who're not doing now. Just curious....
Roy Taylor. If you don't know the website, just fire "RLT watches" into your favourite search engine.
Great stuff Dave!
Interesting to see a post about O&W, gonna book mark this one for sure!
Thats a great piece you have there. :)
That may well be true, Neil. However, I have at least 2 watches signed with Ollech and Wajs on the bridge of the movement, and they're not O&W watches.
Here's my Le Jour with Valjoux 7730:
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