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By: Magnus Bosse (registered)
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Ever been a guinea pig for watches? Well, that might happen if Ludwig Oechslin appears!

Date: Feb 07, 2010,03:24 AM -  (view entire thread)
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Dear All:

I wanted to share this story with you since quite some time, but the dodgy thing with time is its fugacious nature... So it did not happen so far.

But the positive things with time's passing is that sometimes it brings its benefit. More on that further down.

The story begins on a saturday in October 2009. I was in transit in Zurich and had some convenient hours to spend before my plane back to Vienna would depart. I called Beat Weinmann, one of the men behind the MIH project and the Ochs und Junior platform. Beat suggested to meet for a coffee, and so I found myself in the next train to Lucerne.

We decided to make best use of the still comfortable weather and seated ourselves on the terasse of Lucerne's Concert Hall, an architectural skuplture created by architects Jean Nouvel and Emmanuel Cattan.

While exchanging news and chatting, Beat's iPhone rang. It was Ludwig Oechslin! And since he was in Lucerne as well (what a coincidence!) he swiftly decided to join us.

Now, meeting Ludwig is always an endeavour with an unpredictable outcome. He is constantly on the run, thinking, conceptualising, realising. He wears a functional vest with many pockets, and all these pockets are full with 'stuff': smartphones, calculators and prototypes for new watches. What marvel would he produce this time out of his idea's chest? Well...


Ludwig has a network of good friends scattered all over the globe. Being himself not the greatest fan of long-distance travelling, he keeps contact with them mostly via phone. But of course you don't want to call them in the middle of the night - so a dual time zone watch is needed!

As we all are aware there is a huge selection of models available on the market. But Oechslin wanted to have one that displays two time zone with one set of hands, one one view.

So, he did what he always does, he retreats into his 'laboratory' at home, thinks, draws and produces a prototype.

This is how the Ochs und Junior La Due Ore is born. It does not only display different timezones at a glance, it also uses less parts than its base movement has! Ludwig once again came up with a minimalist solution.

We continued our chat, and I mentioned that I would soon leave for intensive business travels to Latin America and Southeast Asia. 'Magnus', Ludwig said, 'you are the right person to test-ride a prototype of the La Due Ore in the field - would you agree?'

Counterquestion: Would you say 'no'? The logistics were quickly agreed on with Beat and Ludwig, and I was promised the prototype as a loan within short time!

Fast forward a couple of weeks. My departure was drawing closer, still no news. Then a call from Beat: Ludwig finished your watch!

It arrived literally hours before my flight. There it was - and what a beauty:

Attention, warning! The following contains images of objects in their raw state. No measures have been enacted to conceal the brute intrinsic tell-tale signs of their origin and nature. If objects left without polishing, make-up and coatings are offensive for you, you are advised to close this windows (or at least look only at the images in the second part of this post)!


The watch is on the first view a simple 3-hand watch. But take a close look and you'll see 12 small windows at each hour index. Beneath is a time wheel which you can set to display the second timezone:



Now here comes the ingenious concept Ludwig has devised: The time wheel carrying 12 hours indications replaces the date ring of the base movement. Those can be advanced in 1 hour increments via the former date-setting mechanism of the movement. The click which normally would advance the date at midnight has been removed.

This is why the watch actually has less parts than the standard base movement (Beat and Ludwig opted for the ETA 2824 as the engine driving this watch -its reliable, robust and available).

From the above it is obvious how to use and set the watch. To set the time difference of the second time zone, pull out the crown one click and turn it until the aperture marked by the orange dot shows the correct number of hours' difference. Now pull out the crown a second click to set the time of day. Done!



Since the watch has no date, it can be used either as 'stay at home' or as 'travel' second time zone watch.

This watch is special, it is home made: it has been entirely made by Ludwig in his 'laboratory' in the cellar of his house: case, dial, the modification of the movement. You can clearly see the difference to the known Ochs und Junior watches. This one is really raw - but it is a prototype, a mechanical study, and it is not for sale.

There are bold traces of machining, inconsistencies in the heat treated german sivler dial. Noticed the small dark spots? These actually stem from miniscule inclusions of oxygen in the gold, which exploded because of the heat.

The case is silver, is 39mm in diameter and executed in the typical Ochs und Junior fashion with only two parts: a combined bezel and case band, and a back plate with lugs. I personally find this case the most refined and elegant of all Ochs und Junior watches, the relative dimensions of the elements to each other have reached an unprecedented harmony:



Again, look at the marks on the case. Its in stark contrast to the production pieces of Ochs und Junior, and it gives a good imporession on the overall exactness of the latter. I personally like the unpolished charme of this prototype, and especially the fact that it has been made by Oechslin himself, at home and on his own machinery.

This is like owning a Giacometti statue!


As will all Ochs und Junior watches, it is fitted with either a rubber or, as in this case, with a vegetably tanned leather strap carrying their branded logo. If you look closely, you will realised that they meanwhile created a punching tool that is not mirrored anymore:



The strap was initially another miracle to me. Look at the tang buckle - how is one supposed to strap this on?



Like this! You pull the needle through the correct hole in the strap, and then, similar to some deployant clasps, you fold the remaining parts of the strap through the clasp below the other. Oechslin designed it this way because it reduced the danger of losing your watch in case the buckle opens. Also, you need two parts less: there are no flaps needed to secure the remaining strap part.



As I said, I consider this the most harmonious case of all the Ochs und Junior watches. It just sings to me. But how did it fare in real life?



I found it to be a versatile und unusual travel watch. It is unobtrusive, and it is one of the extremely rare cases where you wear a price of art on your wrist. Uncompromised!

Sure, due to its reduced-to-the-max concept, the second time zone can only be advanced, but not set back. Also, it does not have a 24h indication. And after all, human beings have a brain to use for thinking. Don't we already rely too much on 'pre-digested' information?

I am fascinated by the very straightforward approach to this type of complication, and that fact this it is realised actually by exchanging one part and taking away a few others. The solution is simply compelling, and allows the watch to be used as a watch to time events far away, or nagivate through timezones while on the road. I discovered its only a question of seconds to set it to any timezone I desired.

So everything is golden and shiny? No, there were some quirks I noticed: First of all, the contrast on the time wheel (the engravings of the numbers on the second timezone disc) was to low. Under certain lightning condition, I could not even detect any number. This is due to the choice of german silver for dial and time disk, which does not yield to such high a contrast.

Secondly, the watch uses the MIH watch's crown, which is quite large in diameter and has some rough edges. While this is not a problem with the rather substantial height of the MIH watch (and also the Anno 50 that uses the crown as well), the low profile of the La Due Ore leaves the crown closer on the wrist. Marks were left on my skin (you can see them even on the last pic above).

Finally, the base movement had an out-of-factory defect in the keyless works, but this is just bad luck and has nothing to do with Ludwig Oechslin's work.

A few months later: where do we stand now?
Ochs und Junior have decided to create an outlet for Ludwig Oechslin's ideas. As he is constantly onto something, creating, imporoving, developing, there is a lot to show.

Ludwig's Ideas Chest is an additional platform to Ochs und Junior and is devised to allow interested aficionados to take part in his thought process and developing work. Powered by a reliable ETA movement, Ludwigs' ideas chest will be the platform for timepieces being built as one-offs or in small series.

Every ochs und junior product is rooted in an idea. From idea to product takes a vast spectrum of development work. Ludwig's ideas chest presents watches as case studies or pilot products of this development work. Thus each watch of this series will represent a different stage of development. The watches will be examples of how an idea becomes a product – a completely different product to the one originally conceived.

And this now closes the circle. The La Due Ore will be the first out of the chest. As I will demonstrate below, much of the experience gained during test-driving it has been implemented. Please note that the following pics were sent to me by Beat Weinmann (they are taken by Beat's wife Bea), and that I have not seen the final watch in the flesh myself.


The case is now made by Peter Cantieni (as mentioned above). Its as much directly out of the machine as Ludwig's own version - you get a good idea about the primary workmanship quality Peter achieves.


Furthermore, the crown now is modifed with an anglage to reduce the sharpness of its rim:



The treatment of the dial has been further developed, and contrast is a non-issue now. As with previous Ochs und Junior watches, white gold is now used and heat treated. The experiment with german silver was abandoned. You can read it well at almost all types of light:


The watch above is made in titanium. Why titanium? There is a nice story to this. I suggested to Beat and Ludwig that a travel watch should come in a metal which is guaranteed to cope serenely with Asia's challenging climates (or any other tropical/sub-tropical climate). Steel or titanium? The choice between titanium and stainless steel was decided by a flip of a coin - titanium won!

In addition to titanium watch will be available also in silver.



Judging from these pics, the watch seems to have gained even more in its appeal - to me that is. Its obviously not for everyone's taste.

I myself was grateful to being able to participate to some extent to the development of this timepiece. It has been a unique and very satisfying experience.

I hope you liked my report.

Cheers,
Magnus This message has been edited by Magnus Bosse on 2010-02-07 03:44:18

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