I took an earlyish train from Basel to Luzern to meet up with Beat Weinmann, who is the co-founder and man running Ochs & Jr. A different kind of Independent watchmaking company, where one gets to have many choices and be part of the process of designing your personal watch. This approach takes a lot of time on the makers part, much more so than the typical company is willing or able to do.
Conceived with the great Ludwig Oechslin as the mastermind behind the simple looking complications and Beat Weinmann, as the front man and face of the business, they now have a showroom/planning office in Luzern, where the base of operations is.
Beat cut his teeth in the fine watch business down the road at Embassy, the rare Swiss jewelry company known for carrying Independent Watchmakers work alongside that of the usual suspect big brands. He was involved in Ludwig's other pet project, the MIH watch during this time, when Ludwig became curator of the Museum d'International Horology in La Chaux-de-Fonds and wanted to help promote the museum with a watch.
Meeting Ochs & Jr
I arrived into Luzern at 10am from Basel. Not knowing exactly where I was going, I wandered into Beat’s old place of work, Embassy. The very polite and kind staff, gave me his address and showed me on google maps where he was.
Armed with the correct address, I walked the 10minutes to 49 Zürichstrasse, where Beat is situated. I actually walked past the store front, that tells you how under the radar this amazing little watchmaking company is! Beat had to walk outside to greet me, as once I realized I had strayed too far up Zurichstrasse, I turned around and there he was smiling.
This is the scene to great you on the left as you walk in
And to the right behind the long dining room style table, the espresso bar...
I entered the shop/showroom/office eagerly getting out of the cold air, no gloves meant very chilly hands! An open plan space that felt immediately welcoming and a place that was comfortable and not pretentious in any way. I was quickly offered coffee by Beat, who masterfully dished up a perfect espresso within minutes. We then sat down to discuss the beginnings of Ochs & Jr. and I found Beat very easy to warm to and open about all that he was up to. An American fellow, hired by Beat about a year ago to manage the website content and style, formerly of Google, was also introduced to me. Cail connected with Beat after he acquired a MIH watch several years ago from Beat whilst he was still with Embassy.
Selection of Ochs & Jr laid out for me by Beat. Great to be able to examine current models and get a feel for the company history...
Preferring to stand up, I proceeded to get the history of how the company came about with Ludwig Oechslin designing the mechanics and his “Reduction” philosophy of watchmaking. Somewhat counter to the mainstream “Luxury watch business”, their ideas took a couple of years to be fleshed out to what it is they are doing today. One of the original models, the Anno Cinquanta was a predecessor to the annual calendar model of today. It featured a Caliber 41 from the esteemed Zurich watchmaker Paul Gerber, as the base automatic movement, with Ludwig’s second generation annual calendar mechanism. This model in a sterling silver case sold for around CHF42,000.
The Anno Cinquanta here cased in sterling silver
The Gerber inhouse Cal 41. twin barrel automatic.
Realizing this probably wasn’t the way they envisioned the company growing and also being dependent upon rather too many other companies for parts of their watch, they turned away from the traditional watchmaking industry for parts manufacturing and looked at a specialist machinist for Formula One racing engines, Sauber. The fellow was happy to help out Beat, and now is the supplier of the latest generation modular annual calendar and moon phase mechanisms together with the cases. The majority of the cases are Titanium, with an option for Sterling silver. A myriad of dial options are on offer and the client can customize his or her watch to almost any combination of metal finishes and colors.
From left to right, Anno Cinquanta (old model), Moonphase & Date.
The Moonphase with an oxidised copper dial, cased in Ti. 42mm.
Selling for CHF 7400 ex Switzerland, these watches offer the collector a tremendous value and experience of acquiring a watch, reduced to the basics of mechanics and styling.
Another rather fun variation of the Moonphase, again customised to the clients' wishes.
A Moonphase piece in Ti with brass dial and sporting a water resistant leather strap, Sturgeon skin is the key here and unique to Ochs & Jr. I believe!
A rather simple dualtime watch. Easy to read and operate.
The Annual Calendar with brass dial, intuitive dials show the remainder of the week or month, as the perforations in the dial reveal a "dot" to indicate the date, day and month in a circular linear fashion. There is also a Day/Night indicator, that reveals Daytime (6am -6pm) by one dot on the 6 o'clock dial, and Nightime (6pm-6am) with two dots. Reduction of the seconds hand to a small disc rotating in the middle revealing if the watch is running. The above watch reads just after 12:19pm on Thursday(if set up with Sunday at top), May 1st. Simply brilliant!
The watches are available typically in either a 42mm or 39mm case size, although other case diameters are available upon special request. They are powered by an ETA base caliber with the moon phase module/dial being only 5 parts and the annual calendar being reduced to only 6 parts!
The parts of the moonphase...
Together, this is the underside of the dial.
The six parts of the Annual Calendar
Again, together from the under dial side.
This is quite extraordinary and a perfect example of the company philosophy of "reduction”. One of Ludwig’s previous efforts at “reduction” in an annual calendar, was the famed MIH watch, which uses 9 parts for the annual calendar module, a revolution in its time back in 2005.
MIH annual calendar parts.
There is also what might be referred to as a base model, the date only model, with Ludwig’s brilliant date indicator, of dots, which also gives one a sense of where one is in the month. This piece sells for CHF5550 in a Ti case.
It's the black dialed one in the middle. Sorry poor photo!
I then was kindly taken across the road for lunch by Cail, as Beat had a previously arranged luncheon meeting with a local museum and local retailer who are together with Beat, responsible for raising money for the museum. A delicious meal was had, I then returned to the shop and sorted out my train to Biel, over an espresso, to meet up with Thomas Prescher for the next installment of my Swiss/Basel 2014 experience. I had the pleasure of meeting Beat’s lovely wife Bea, who is an integral part of the business and the photographer for Ochs & Jr.
Beat's desk, where the creation and management takes place.
Perhaps on my next visit to Luzern, Ludwig will be in residence, as he is shortly to have a work desk inside the shop, where he will spend part of his time since he has resigned as the Museum director in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
A huge "Thank you" to Beat and the team for spending a couple of hours with me, showing me many watches and explaining the story and vision of Ochs & Jr. Their business is all about relationships with the buyers and offering something that no other company is doing, so I may not have the opportunity to work directly with Beat and his team for now. I will remain hopeful that one day as the business expands, I can fit into their expansion plans, as there are many similarities in the way we see the watch business. I know we have many mutual clients and providing a level of personal service is key to what I do too.
Stay tuned!