ochs und junior annual calendar, fewer parts by design
An annual calendar with 3 extra parts instead of a hundred.
- Answers
- What makes the ochs und junior annual calendar special?
- Topics
- Durable · Freedom · art · creating · creativity · design · lifestyle · minimal · watch
- Full article on willem.com
- https://willem.com/en/2020-11-30_designing-my-own-watch/
Summary
ochs und junior watches use Ludwig Oechslin's simplified mechanics: my annual calendar, built for me in 2020, tracks short and long months with only 3 extra parts, where the classic version of this complication needs more than a hundred.
Full text
ochs und junior is a small Swiss watch company founded in 2006 by Ludwig Oechslin, Beat Weinmann and Kurt König. Oechslin, who restored the Farnese clock in the Vatican Library and directed the International Museum of Horology, is obsessed with reducing parts: simpler mechanics are more reliable and easier to manufacture and service. His annual calendar knows the difference between short and longer months, so it needs one manual adjustment per year, during February. In classic haute horlogerie this complication can take over a hundred additional parts; this design does it with 3. My own watch is titanium, 36 mm, waterproof with a screw-down crown, with luminous hands, an automatic movement and no painted surfaces. Excess material is milled away to make it lighter. I specified it by phone and email and received it a few months later.