Comments on O & W
- by James Elsener

Ollech & Wajs (O&W) was founded early 1950 in Zurich in Switzerland by a man called Albert Waijs. He was making steel watch bands. In 1952 he was joined by Josef Ollech and they started making watches.

O&W invented the mail order business for watches from manufacturer to consumer! They started selling watches to the UK by mail order the same year the company was founded.

It seems as if O&W watches had become very popular with GIs during the war in Vietnam. They were inexpensive and very reliable. The brand got its push into the US from there. Their best selling watch, the M-65 is currently being revived.

In the 1970s Mr. Waijs bought close to all of the Breitling stock of watches. Breitling along with most of the Swiss watch industry went through a rough period at the time. By end of the 1970s O&W ceased making watches, too.

The Breitling stock permitted O&W to sell watches by mail order to the UK and the US for many years to come without having to manufacture a single watch!

If I remember correctly Mr. Wajs began designing watches again in 1990. The watches are made by private label manufacturers in Switzerland. I do not know however who sells them today. Here in Switzerland their original company Ollech & Waijs Spedirekt is being wound up since 2003. So I presume that the people who are behind the brand have shifted their focus to another country and run their O&W brand from there. The brand in Switzerland is still owned by Albert Waijs. He must be in his late 80s to early 90s by now.

I personally remember their store back in the 1970s. Whenever I passed through Zurich on my way to work during my apprenticeship I passed their store at Kalkbreitestrasse. The shop window held hundreds and hundreds of different watches. It looked very bazaar style compared to today's slick window displays over here. As it was cheap and the owners hard-working men, they had a thriving business. My then boss turned to them whenever he had to off-load excess production and did not want to 'disturb' our markets.

Zeno?  Zeno Watch Basel?
- by James Elsener

ZENO and ZENO WATCH BASEL are both brands that are registered in the name of Zeno-Watch Patrik-Philippe Huber SA from Basel. The registrations say that the use of the brand names is limited to watches. There is a US company with the name Tyrell Inc. from Houston that has registered the use of the brand Zeno for medical devices in 2006.

Until about 1966 the watches were simply labeled ZENO. After the company had moved from Bienne to Basel they started adopting the brand name Zeno Watch Basel. Most likely to stress the fact that they had moved to Basel.

ZENO was foremost a private label company. They started entering the branded watch industry in the late 1960s in earnest. That was when they launched their famous airman collection.

In Europe ZENO WATCHES BASEL are popular with fashion conscious people. Some of the design they launch are very original. Today's owner Felix Huber has a penchant for flamboyant marketing strategies. His approach to selling his watches has paid off for the company. They keep on growing.

Editor's Note:  These two articles are
re-printed with Mr. Elsener's permission.  James is the owner of Montres Edouard Lauzières, and a very active and helpful BDWF Member.

www.edouardlauzieres.com

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