Holepunched for your pleasure
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My first car was a brown Alfa Romeo. Not military camouflage brown, no more of an excrement colour which nobody could ever love. Except me. Anyway, my friend and I were always thinking of ways to go faster and get more performance. My friend, in particular, with his Audi seemed to be always drilling holes into various parts to lighten the car and make it go faster.
Sometimes when you see a watch, you are attracted to something immediately and perhaps even without understanding why. I came across Ollech & Wajs when the C-1000 did the rounds which is an absolutely beautiful dive watch. I loved it at the time, but rightly or wrongly, 15.8mm thick put me off and I never did anything about it. About a year later, there was some more attention drawn to the brand so I had another proper look and came across the P-104. I loved it immediately and I think I know why now. The holes in the minute hand, the orange & chrome details on black, it is a 1980’s Audi 100 all over. |
Ok, so that’s enough to get my attention. Researching the brand a bit more and they have a really interesting history going back to the 1950’s. A lot of early watches were sold to the American military during the Vietnam war. Eventually, an enthusiast purchased the brand in 2016 and started drawing on the rich history of great looking designs.
It seems to me that the P-104 is particularly overlooked since it’s such a great looking design. Is that since it has a slide rule, with the font size only an ant could appreciate, rather than the usual timing bezel? Is it because it’s named after the Lockheed F-104 which had a rather poor safety record? I’m not sure but I just intend to use it for telling the time and I think it looks awesome, so on to the review. |
My impressions owning & wearing the watch.
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One thing I love about ordering from this company (and the excellent website), the price you see includes everything. That is, freight AND whatever local tax you have to pay. No luck of the draw at the border or customs delays, this is such an awesome service and I wish everyone would do this. That is an actual fantastic first impression, which is good since the packaging is nothing to get excited about.
I received the standard FedEx box and inside a branded envelope which seemed suspiciously thin. All good, it’s just that the box is rather small but at least it has some cool print on it so I won’t complain. Inside is a leather watch roll containing the watch. This is all adequate rather than particularly exciting. But that’s ok, my first impression started before unboxing and I’m already happy. |
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Next, the watch itself and it’s gorgeous. If anything, it looks even better in person than on images and this is a rare thing. It has an awesome 70’s go-fast-vibe and again, I feel this belongs more in the car racing corner than the stated influence of aircrafts. The holes in the minute hand again feel to me like what racing drivers used to get up to back in the day.
The dial has a matte black finish with the logo, model name and Automatic 300m printed on the dial. Note that this is not a thick watch nor does it feel heavy at all, yet it still has that impressive 30ATM rating. The outer edges of the dial have the static, non-moving parts of the slide rule slightly grey to differentiate from the minute markers, broken up by the set orange markers. |
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On the logo, it’s a great looking logo and is supposed to look like a propeller. To me they look like lungs and I can’t get the propeller reference at all. Regardless, it looks great on the dial. The indices at 12,3 & 9 are all applied and pained orange. Interestingly, the framed date window at 6 also has an applied metal frame and a very slim orange stripe around it. I’ve never seen this before, particularly since these are the only details on the dial that have lume applied, but more on that later.
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I think my absolute favourite part(s) of the watch are the hands. Taste is subjective, but to me they just ooze cool. The hour hand is a square affair with the painted orange again in the centre and a great brushed finish.
The minute hand has 7 square holes that alternate between hole and orange paint. This is probably the first thing you notice on the watch since it’s so prominent. Finally, the seconds hand has the same brushed finish with a needled triangle at the end. The needle follows the outline of the dial exactly and compliments all the other details perfectly. The hands stand out with their brushed finish in low light, but in bright daylight they become almost white. It’s an interesting and useful feature. Again, all the orange bits are lumed. |
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The dial is protected by a box sapphire crystal. A curved edge of the crystal is soft to the touch and feels solid. There is no distortion from the side, the curve is very subtle. We have a good AR coating that’s effective enough, I've had no problems with glare during my time with the watch, inside or out.
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The bezel is eye catching with its white on black details for the slide rule. There are some interesting applications for slide rules but really, it’d be a challenge using this since the text is just too small. This makes it primarily an ornamental function to me and that’s just fine.
It’s a friction dial so it rotates freely with no clicks at all. For someone that constantly fiddles with the bezel watching TV this is a little dull, not an issue to a normal person though. |
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Good news for fidgeters though, the coin edge crown is extremely satisfying to unscrew. It’s large, easy to grip and it’s one of the most solid feeling actions I’ve experienced. To the point when it comes to tightening the crown again, it’s almost so solid that you feel like you might be forcing it. You get used to it but I feel one should take care not to be too forceful here, like any crown really. It’s signed with the OW logo which fits this round surface area perfectly.
To the all brushed case. Small wrists? Warning. I have a thing for long lugs, I absolutely love the contrast between long slender lugs and whatever strap is attached but the length of these is no joke. It fits me perfectly and it does not overhang on the wrist but anything smaller than my 19cm wrist and I feel it would be borderline. There are two holes in the case to help with this. The outer ones that are drilled and also another pair of holes that are closer to the case that are not drilled but only accessible from the inside. Attaching a strap to the inner holes should help bring the case a bit closer to the wrist. Either way, I love the look and it’s another reason I bought the watch. |
Movement
Strap & Bracelet
Case
miscellaneous
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Turning the watch over and we have the usual engravings. A large logo in the middle and one small exception to the usual with the world ‘pilot’ engraved. Apparently if you remove the case back of the customised ETA movement it has a custom rotor with the logo. Whether you’ll ever get to see it or not it's nice to know that it's there.
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When it comes to bracelet and strap options. I bought this on the OW nato strap since I’m not really a bracelet person. I like the look of the beads of rice but I just know I’d remove it anyway. I don’t mind the colour matching nato strap provided but with its very bright colours, to me it distracts from the dial rather than add to it.
I immediately put the watch on a black Erika MN strap, customised with grey threads. This strap to me is perfection. The Erika straps are solid enough to hold a large watch and they are some of the most comfortable straps around. The fact that you can customise them to not have the typical middle strip too is why I come back to these straps again and again. |
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Finally, the lume. Firstly, I’ve never seen yellow lume before. It’s really quite spectacular when fully charged. But perhaps the reason I’ve never seen it before is because it seems to last for 12 seconds. Ok that’s exaggerating…but you get the drift. The photo here ia long exposure and it's still fairly subtle. The 12,3,9 have lume as well as the frame around the date windows, but definitely the longest lasting is the hands and ‘long lasting’ here is relative. If I could change one thing about the watch, it would be better lume.
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Final Words
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This is a great Swiss brand that offers so much value for money. The watch is very well made, it’s stylish and looks like no other watch. It does seem to invite questions and glances even from non-watch people. I’m a very happy owner of this watch and if I was only able to try on the diver options, I would probably consider one of them also.
Does that back story of the unusual aircraft explain why this one might be the lesser loved model (based on prevalence across the web)? It so reminds me of motorsport and would sit very nicely on a F1 driver’s wrist. It's all car to me. But then again, do watch buyers care about that or are they more likely to just like a brand for various other reasons? Ie. some memory of an Audi100 from the 80s? Hopefully the latter. I seriously can’t wait to see what they will release over the next few years. Prepare thyself, wallet. Cheers, Esbjorn |
19 cm wrist
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