Messages: 5569 Location: New York
Registered: November 2003
Ochs und Junior in New York
Sat, 08 October 2011 15:47
This morning I stopped by the Ace Hotel in midtown Manhattan to see Beat Weinmann and his family. They were visiting New York for 2 weeks and decided to throw a little watch event in between. It's one of my favorite activities - seeing people who love what they do, and watches. A combination we see almost always with independent makers.
The hotel is a perfect match for the brand because it's very industrial and "indy"
The event was held in a large suite and refreshments were served for the guests.
The room was set up with watches and brand materials spread everywhere. The guests were encouraged to look around and discover things. The poster below shows the different lines of the brand. From least to most expensive price points you have: the Settimana Junior for kids; the Tinta, a highly customizable watch; the Idea, watches closer to the essence of Ludwig Oechslin's prototypes; and the Anno Cinquanta, an annual calendar that uses a movement from Paul Gerber as a base.
A list of some of Ludwig's prototype designs.
When enough people had gathered, Beat began the very personal presentation telling us the background behind the brand and watches.
Beat went through the different lines and explained the rationale behind the ideas and designs.
The tinta is a line in 42mm that can be customized by choosing your own set of colors from the Pantone book. The dial, hands, strap, markers, can all be customized with different colors.
Some multicolored hands.
The buckle can be one of two designs. The larger one looks especially good with the 42mm watches.
Beat explained that when they work with a customer, they send a PDF document with the watch, to scale, with the colors chosen. The customer can then cut out the watch and try it on the wrist to see how it looks! The printout he's showing is for a customer in Singapore who wanted a blue dial and accents.
Throughout the room there were posters explaining the designs.
There were inspirations for design (this is a sundial from Nomos)...
... and resulting prototypes. This became a pendant watch for ladies.
Every design in the watches has a reason. The straps are made with raw leather and are 'branded' with the Ochs und Junior logo.
Beat went through each of the complications, explaining how they worked and how the philosophy was to have complications with as few parts as possible.
The parts for the selene, a watch with moon phase accurate to 3478.27 years. It's the most precise moon phase complication ever built into a wrist watch and is done amazingly with only 5 parts.
When the presentation was over the guests wandered around the room and played with the watches and notebooks.
The Settimana Junior. From the Ox und Junior web site: "The settimana junior sports a seven-day calendar featuring the characteristic orange dot. Its seven apertures are arranged in such a way as to line up with the hour digits 1 to 7. This watch is Ludwig Oechslin’s concept for children – or for anyone wishing to retain something of the nonchalance of childhood. Fashioned from skin-friendly titanium, it’s fitted with a water-friendly natural rubber strap. The junior is powered by the proven ETA 2824 self-winding movement."
One of the idea watches, the luna mese, in 39mm with silver case. From their site:
"It’s four in the morning: the moon is as full as it can be and moving slowly towards Mount Pilatus, Lucerne’s landmark peak. It’s a clear night – and so is the thinking behind this watch. The hour pinion of the basic movement drives the integrally moulded lunation disk with its 58 teeth. A minuscule pinion on the back of the solid white gold dial transfers the power to the moon disk with its 59 teeth. This performs a complete rotation to indicate the next full moon exactly 29-and-a-half days later. Amazing! If you’re unable to sleep that night, you’ll see Ludwig Oechslin’s innovation displaying the full moon in all its glory.
The ochs und junior luna mese is an astronomic moon phase watch capable of indicating the relative positions of the sun, Earth and the moon. It accomplishes this using just four components – and that includes the functional dial! Any analogue watch can be used to find out roughly where south is using the hour hand and the sun. The luna mese can also do this at night!
Shorn of any alphanumeric indices and featuring the intuitive spiral date display, the luna mese is the poetical watch for romantic night owls."
The due hore tinta, a dual timezone watch that doesn't require a separate set of hands or dial indications. The second timezone is ingeniously done using the date wheel instead.
The mese tinta at the bottom.
The packaging for the tinta line is very bare bones. A recycled piece of cardboard with the watch attached. This minimalist idea traces its routes back to the MIH watch, that was delivered inside the day's newspaper.
The colors in the tinta line can be whatever you want, no matter how bold or crazy.
The packaging for the idea line is a little different but still minimalist. The watches come with this leather pouch, made from the same type of leather as the straps.
The anno cinquanta, the annual calendar with only 3 parts! This is the watch ludwig wears with a silver case.
I'd like to thank Beat, his wife Bea, and his kids, Anne-Sophie and Jérôme, for their kind hospitality. It was a lot of fun and it's a pity I had to rush out, but I have my own little Sofia to take care of this afternoon! For more information on the watches including options and pricing, please visit the Ochs und Junior web site (click here).
- felipe