Hands-On Review of the Ollech & Wajs Ocean Graph

Vintage-inspired dive watches are extremely popular these days. You can find them at just about any price-point. But perhaps none are more interesting than Swiss brand Ollech & Wajs. While the name might be new to you, the brand actually has quite the heritage. The brand was originally founded in 1956 by Joseph Ollech and Albert Wajs and for over two decades produced high precision tool watches. Indeed, Ollech & Wajs produced the first watch to be given a 1000 meter depth rating and even had watches worn by NASA astronauts.

The brand was relaunched in just 2017 and continued its mission of creating high functioning tool watches that pay homage to the original Ollech & Wajs models. I had a chance to spend some time with their Ocean Graph model, which is an attractive dive watch with 1000 meters of water resistance, inspired by the brand’s original Ocean-Graph model from 1968.

Like most of Ollech & Wajs’ offerings, the Ocean Graph has heavy vintage inspiration. But while many of its competitors opt for the standard vintage Submariner homage, Ollech & Wajs offers something unique with the Ocean Graph. The matte, almost smoked, blue dial is unique and makes one wonder why we don’t see it on more watches. The hour markers are white, with orange triangle markers at 12, 3 and 9 (and an orange marker under the date window at 6). The orange on the dial and hands is reminiscent of vintage DOXA and Seiko dials, but instead of the entire dial being orange, Ollech & Wajs employed the orange in subtle accents. This makes the watch a lot more wearable for all occasions.

The watch has a decompression bezel that helps a diver calculate the time elapsed during a dive, as well as the decompression stages that correspond to the duration and depth of the diver. This bezel is above and beyond what most dive watches offer today, but we think it works aesthetically. The outer part of the crystal bezel is in a blue that matches the dial, while the interior portion of the bezel is white with orange writing. All together, the dial and bezel is well thought out and creates a cohesive design.

The watch comes in just under 40mm in diameter at 39.56mm and is 49.5mm from lug-to-lug. This is a pretty good size for a vintage diver. However, the overall thickness of the Ocean Graph is a pretty hefty 15.8mm. This is partly due to the 5.6 mm thick domed sapphire. Ollech & Wajs opted to make their watch water resistant to 1000 meters, and in order to achieve that that means a thicker case and crystal. It also means the watch wears a bit larger than its 39.56mm case size would suggest.

The Ocean Graph runs on a Swiss Made ETA 2824-2 automatic movement. We have no complaints there as this is a workhorse movement. And if you aren’t producing your own in-house movement, it doesn’t get much better. The ETA 2824 runs at a frequency of 28,800 BPH and has a 38 hour power reserve. The mainplate is engraved with “Ollech & Wajs Zurich 1956” and the watch also has an OW machined rotor.

When I received the watch, I was hoping to have it on the beads of rice bracelet (the watch is offered on either a stainless steel bracelet or a NATO-style strap). Unfortunately, I received it on the NATO-style strap, so I cannot give my opinion on the bracelet. I have to say, while the actually watch is made with incredibly high quality, the NATO strap did not live up to the rest of the watch. It felt rigid and almost papery. Thus, I would suggest purchasing the watch on rice bead bracelet if I were purchasing.

The lume is a mixture of green lumed hands and orange lumed indices. While I am not opposed to the mixing of lume colors, only the 12, 3, 6 and 9 hour markers are lumed. It gives a clean look, but part of me wishes all the hour markers were lumed. Of note, there is also no lume on the bezel.

Other vintage aspects of the watch I liked were the holes in the lugs and the big crown. In addition to liking the aesthetics of a big crown, I like them from a utility standpoint. They are easier to set and wind and the crown on the Ocean Graph is of incredibly high quality. It is clear that the team at Ollech & Wajs was paying close attention to detail when designing the Ocean Graph.

Overall, the Ollech & Wajs is a really nice piece. The light blue dial makes it an ideal summer watch that you can wear every day. And while it might be a little thick for some, there are tradeoffs when producing a watch that has 1000 meters of water resistance. While Ollech & Wajs is operating in a niche within the watch industry with a lot of competition (the vintage dive watch niche). It is nice to see that they are setting themselves apart from their competition with fresh and unique designs, many of which are actually heritage to the brand itself. If you are interested in purchasing the Ocean Graph, you can find it for $1,851.46 USD on NATO and $2,007.98 USD on stainless steel bracelet.