Ollech & Wajs M75 chrono

This is a rare and quirky chronograph made by Ollech & Wajs (O&W).

Its exact history is rather unclear, but here is the story as I understand it: at some point around the late 70s/early 80s, O&W made these in a bid to have them accepted as issued watches for NATO military forces — hence the broadarrow and circle-T.

The movement chosen was the Valjoux 7765, a manual-wind chronograph with 60-second and 30-minute subdials at 9 and 12 respectively, and date at 3. The 7765 was also used in a few Heuers, but I haven’t seen it used by many other makes.

The case is polished stainless steel, about 36mm diameter, with a screw-on back. No water resistance is indicated: with non screw-down crown and chrono pushers, I’d say this might be nominally rated to 5ATM, but I’d be wary to get it more than damp.

Hands are Rolex-style with a Mercedes hour hand, and the black dial has train-track minute markers and highly legible Arabic numerals. The dial detail and lume painting on the hands and numbers is very clean.

Now, this is where things get a bit murky: the sales spiel from the place I bought this watch, Howard Marx’s Westcoastime (http://www.westcoastime.com/) said that the watch was rejected by the military as it cost too much and the movement was too rare and odd-ball. But it’s not clear to me whether my watch, bought a few years ago, is entirely new old stock (NOS) and had been sitting around for 20 years, or whether the cases, dials and movements were hanging around at O&W and they were put together much more recently (I suspect the latter!).

The watch came on a NATO nylon strap, and it also looked good on a black leather band with off-white stitching, but I’ve settled on wearing it on a Rolex-style oyster bracelet: I think it has a nice, pre-Daytona sort of look to it — a tool-watch with a bit of class.

One Response to Ollech & Wajs M75 chrono

  1. Matt says:

    That is a beautiful watch, I’ve been looking for one myself for quite some time and I’ve yet to locate one for myself!

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