Ollech & Wajs

For the railroad, see New York, Ontario and Western Railway.

Ollech & Wajs (O&W) is a watch company based in Zurich, Switzerland.

O&W logo

History

Ollech & Wajs started business in the 1950s when Albert Wajs began making and supplying stainless steel bracelets for wristwatches. In 1956, a partnership was formed with Joseph Ollech, and they soon began manufacturing wristwatches. 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 by advertising in magazines that were popular with aviators, soldiers, divers and sportsmen, selling direct to the end user by mail order from Switzerland.

O&W M1 diver model

In the 1960s O&W sold a variety of professional automatic and manual-wind mechanical military and dive watches for an average of US $12. The Ollech & Wajs M 65 military watch was often sold at PX's on US military bases. These watches became very popular with US soldiers who bought them privately as a replacement for their government issued disposable watches.^[1] Sales reached an all time high during the Vietnam War era when they were selling thousands of watches via direct mail order. Towards the late 1970s, Mr. Wajs bought up much of the Breitling company's stock for the aviation models such as the Navitimer. They began producing their own label watches using Breitling cases and the same calibre movements used in Breitling watches. These watches were branded “Aviation” and are now prized amongst collectors. During the first season of the 1970s British television series The Professionals, actors Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins wore what appear to be Ollech & Wajs Caribbean 1000 wristwatches. ^[2]

Due to the growing popularity of quartz powered watch mechanisms in the late 1970s, much of the mechanical watchmaking industry suffered, and O&W finally ceased production in the early 1980s.^[3] In the 1990s, the company resumed production under a new company name, A.I. Wajs, formed by Albert Wajs. They continue to use the logo and the brand name Ollech & Wajs or O&W, as these brand names are owned by Albert Wajs.^[4]

See also

• Automatic watch
• Mechanical watch

References

1. ^ http://ow-watch.com/historic.html O&W France, History
2. ^ http://www.mark-1.co.uk/Professionals/hardware.htm The Authorised Guide to The Professionals
3. ^ http://www.chronomaster.co.uk/ollech_&_wajs.htm Chronomaster, History of Ollech & Wajs
4. ^ http://www.chronotime.ch/about_us.htm About Ollech & Wajs

External links

• O & W Watches home page
• 1969 O&W catalog