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You can be forgiven if you’ve never heard of Swiss watch brand, Ollech & Wajs. For starters, the name doesn’t appear on any of its watches.
Instead, it favours a more oblique approach to branding, only demarcating its dials with the initials OW.
However, you’d be mistaken for thinking it is a new brand. Ollech & Wajs of Zurich has been making fine chronographs and sports watches for nearly 70 years. Once described as the ‘quiet kings of the tool watch’, it has also been collaborating with other watch companies and organisations long before the word ‘collab’ entered popular vernacular.
In 1964, a collaboration with Swiss casemaker Jenny led to the world’s first dive watch with a certified depth rating of 1,000m (700m more water resistant than the next best commercially available dive watch of the day).
The 8001 Tundra is born from a more recent collaboration with experimental Norwegian Architectural Design Collective, MIR. Named Tundra, after the rugged landscape that inspired it, its 39.5 mm x 12.7 mm stainless steel tonneau case is a throwback to the angular luxury sports watches of 1970s made famous by Gerald Genta.
Norwegian industrial architecture often frames scenic features like fjords, forests, and mountains, making nature a central element of the design, too. Similarly, the organic green fumé dial of the 8001 is framed by a beautifully engineered, brushed stainless steel bezel that interacts with light.
What elevates the OW 8001 Tundra further beyond today’s abundance of ‘integrated bracelet sports’ watches lies beneath its brutalist exterior. It is powered by a Chronometer-certified version of the Soprod Newton Precision P092 – a robust automatic, date-only calendar movement with a 44-hour power reserve. Additionally, the movement has been independently tested for dependability and durability at the internationally renowned Laboratoire Dubois in Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, and has been awarded a Chronofiable® certification. Put simply, this movement is the most qualified in its class.
The Tundra also boasts an impressive 300m/30atm water resistance, a depth rating more associated with a professional dive watch. Extreme water resistance has been a characteristic of Ollech & Wajs watches since the 1960s; indeed, none of the models in its current collection are rated below 300m.
So, who is OW’s new chronometer aimed at? If you appreciate fine Swiss craftsmanship and authenticity and don’t mind venturing beyond mainstream high-street luxury brands to find something a little more unique, you may just have discovered the watch you’ve been looking for. OW may not scream status, it quietly stands for the understated quality of an independent Swiss maker that has been in continuous production for seven decades.
The new Tundra is every bit as brutal as its name suggests. Forged in Bergen, refined in Zurich, hand-crafted in the Swiss Jura, and ready for any environment you care to wear it.
Priced £1,710.26 with free worldwide delivery including taxes, customs duties from ow-watch.com
