ochs und junior

We do all we can to ensure you can enjoy your personal ochs und junior timepiece everyday – and for life. Contact cofounder and managing director Beat Weinmann if you have any queries or work that needs doing on your watch. This includes the regular servicing interventions it needs about every five years, as well as any urgent repairs – or you might like it to have a new look: we’ll do all that for you, personally, expertly and quickly.

Please contact us here in Lucerne if your ochs und junior develops a problem either in the movement or the modular function.

We’ll do all that we can to turn the watch around within three weeks. Ask us about the best way of sending it to us – or bring it to us personally. We’ll keep in touch regarding the repair and the expected time it will take.

A mechanical watch movement is one of the smallest machines we use in our daily lives, and it goes wherever we go. The movement needs servicing every four to six years. Over time, the very advanced synthetic oils lose their efficiency.

Here’s what we do to your watch during one of the regular service interventions:

• Dismantle all the components
• Clean all the components
• Overhaul or replace mechanical parts
• Re-assemble the movement
• Lubricate
• Regulate the mechanism in 5 steps
• Replacement of gaskets: case back, crystal and crown
• Check the function and the power reserve
• Duration: 3 weeks
• 1 year guarantee on all work done
• Price: CHF 400 (incl. 8% VAT / shipping extra)

Marion Müller takes personal charge of the servicing. We’ll do all we can to complete the service and checks within three weeks.

If sending us your watch from abroad, it’s best to use FedEx. Contact us first so that we can prepare any necessary customs formalities and discuss with you the most efficient way of sending us your watch.

Your tastes can change over time. So can your personalized ochs und junior: fancy a new dial or hand color? Contact us! If we have what you need in stock, the work won’t take long. If not, we’ll take your order and ask you to send us your watch as soon as we receive the dial from Cador or hands from Peter Cantieni. That way, your ochs und junior will soon be back on your wrist – with its new look, of course.

Here, too: contact us. We’re with you all the way!

• Re-colored or exchange dial: CHF 250.-
• New hands: CHF 100.-
• Work to exchange dial: CHF 250.-
• Work to exchange hands: CHF 100.- (this item can be ignored if the dial is being exchanged at the same time)

• Leather strap: CHF 200.-
• Caoutchouc strap: CHF 60.-
• Buckle (short, titanium): CHF 250.-
• Buckle (long, titanium): CHF 300.-
• Buckle (short, silver): CHF 350.-
• Buckle (long, silver): CHF 400.-
• Hands: CHF 100.-
• Re-colored dial (existing dial in exchange): CHF 250.-
• Other parts on request

The mechanical watch on your wrist goes through a lot. So that it can carry on serving you faithfully through the years, here is some useful advice.

If the watch is not moved, it will stop after 38 to 40 hours. In this event, leave the crown in position 0 and give it around 30 turns until it is fully wound. Although a gentle shake of the watch will get it going, your movements during the day are not enough to wind it up fully. That is why you should wind it up first. If you take it off for the night, although the power reserve will go down, it soon builds up again the next day as it is not too unwound. A safety mechanism prevents the movement from being over-wound.

When setting the calendar mechanism (this does not include the moon phase or weekday indications), care must be taken that the calendar is not in a switch-over phase. If it is, the activity of setting could damage the hour rod finger or one of the wheels.

In the case of the selene and mese: do not change any settings between 8 in the evening and 2 in the morning.

In the case of the anno, changes to its date and month settings should be undertaken only between 6 in the morning and 12 midday.

Major shocks are the enemy of any mechanical watch. A mechanical watch is deemed shockproof if it survives being dropped one meter onto a wooden surface without deviating by more than a certain number of seconds either way. If the watch falls at an unfortunate angle, however, a repair may be needed.

It’s best not to wear your watch when playing golf or when mountain biking, boxing, chopping wood or similar. We don’t want to be killjoys – feel free to wear it if you really want to. If, however, something happens and you tell us what you were doing at the time, both you and we will learn by the experience. Either way, we will fix the problem.

Water attacks metal parts, which includes the movement. It therefore needs to be kept well away from the watch interior.

ochs und junior watches are water resistant. You can go swimming with them and give them an occasional clean under lukewarm water using a soft brush (especially after swimming in salt water). However, you should be aware that, despite everyone’s best efforts, water might enter a watch: sealing a watch is a real challenge and cannot be 100% guaranteed against all eventualities. If this happens, please contact us immediately.

Problems with ingress of water tend to occur in the summer months. When the ambient temperature is high, the inside of a watch left in direct sunlight can quickly reach 70 degrees Celsius, which causes materials to expand. The wearer then goes for a swim to cool off. The different materials respond to the sudden drop in temperature by contracting at different speeds. If the seals cannot cope with the stress, water can get in. That’s when the watch must be handed in for service.

A similar thing can happen when the wearer takes a shower or cleans the watch: the soap used can alter the surface tension of the water. This can cause the water to enter via the seal.

Testing for watertightness really only paints a momentary picture. A shock can alter that picture. For that reason, we recommend having the watch tested for watertightness every year if it is in contact with water. This can be done by any reputable watch dealer, or by us.

If you intend to keep the watch on when swimming, etc., we recommend you use our caotchouc strap.

If worn on a daily basis, we recommend a leather strap be changed annually for reasons of hygiene.

People sweat more in the summer months, so you might consider swapping to our caoutchouc strap during the warmer months.

Leather straps should not be subjected to water in the form of showering or swimming.

The leather straps supplied by ochs und junior are eco-tanned using plants and are thus free from heavy metals. We know of no allergic reactions caused by our Ecopell leather.

Magnets in recent years have increasingly caused problems with watches. If you find your watch going unusually fast, this could well be due to its having been in contact with a strong magnet. Watches should be kept well away from loudspeakers, chargers or other sources of magnetic fields. To date, there is no clear evidence of adverse effects from mobile phones on watches.

If a watch has become magnetized, this can be corrected without much trouble or expense by a reputable watch dealer.

High temperatures and direct sunlight can cause the lubricants in the mechanism to evaporate. UV radiation can affect the color of dials and hands. Here, too: avoid leaving the watch in direct sunlight; the effects of heat and UV can be corrected, but it’s best if they don’t happen in the first place.

Unless something really serious happens, a mechanical watch can always be repaired – even decades later!

The watch industry usually offers two years’ guarantee against manufacturing defects. That’s also the case here at ochs und junior.

The following timepieces also benefit from the ochs und junior long-term guarantee: selene, anno, due ore, mese. These watches come with a lifelong guarantee against manufacturing defects affecting the following parts made for ochs und junior by Peter Cantieni:

selene

• Case (not including the seal)
• Buckle (not including the pin)
• Dial
• Moon phase function, i.e. all the planetary gearing

mese

• Case (not including the seal)
• Buckle (not including the pin)
• Dial
• Date disk

anno

• Case (not including the seal)
• Buckle (not including the pin)
• Dial
• Entire annual calendar function

due ore

• Case (not including the seal)
• Buckle (not including the pin)
• Dial
• Time disk

The watches are functionally extremely reliable thanks to Ludwig Oechslin’s reductionist approach to components. During the periodic service interventions (or during a repair intervention if needed) we can see how the internal works are doing in terms of service life. If our appraisals indicate possible issues, we can immediately revise the parts in question for new batches of watches and, if necessary, replace them in existing watches.

This guarantee also applies retrospectively to all watches in the above series that have already been bought.