Ollech & Wajs M-52B AF

In 1966, the Swiss watchmaker Ollech & Wajs produced the B-905, a run of custom watches bearing the silhouette of a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker. These watches were sold exclusively to U.S. Air Force personnel serving in Vietnam If you would like to buy one today, I wish you good luck. On the other hand, if you would like a modern watch that carries the same design and spirit, I invite you to check out the 2024 Ollech & Wajs M-52B AF, available now for $1,396 US.

I can’t call the new watch a reissue because there are significant differences between the two watches in terms of size, shape, and materials. That should come as no surprise; fifty years is a long time, and today’s buyers have markedly different standards. Still, the OW M-52B AF is a worthy spiritual successor.

The M-52B uses Ollech & Wajs’s M-type case, which I had on my wrist just two short months ago in M-110 AS guise. Like its stablemate, the M-52B’s brushed stainless steel case measures 39.5mm wide, 12.5mm thick, and 47.5mm long with a screw-in backplate and crown, sealing it for an impressive 300m water resistance. It also employs the same styling tricks (pronounced arch, sloping top surface, deep backside undercut) to make this otherwise burly tool look and feel slimmer on your wrist.

The Jura-made case is impeccably finished with crisp edges and clean transitions. A PVD black, bidirectional friction bezel sits atop, marked with an engraved and painted 60-minute index. Unlike some I’ve sampled, this one is reassuringly tight and will not wander while in use. According to the website, the bezel was modeled after the B-52’s nose cone. I have to say, that’s a bit of a stretch. Still, it looks sharp and makes the watch appear slightly larger by bringing the dial’s color to the edges of the case.

A domed, AR-coated, sapphire box crystal finishes it off. I do love a big lens as it is both aesthetically satisfying and reassuringly retro. This one isn’t quite the bubble of the original watch, but it does the trick.

As befits a pilot’s watch, the signed crown is large and easy to operate. Interestingly, the head contains the watch’s serial number, in this case #40 of 56.

Like its ancestor, an aircraft silhouette dominates the M-52B AF’s dial. In this case, it is a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, the longest-serving warplane in history. Is there a good reason to put a design element of this type on a watch dial? No. That white image on the black background is large enough that you can easily confuse the swept wings pointing to 4 and 8 with the blocky, brushed hands. That is precisely the sort of impediment to split-second time-telling that most pilots’ watches strive to avoid. Does this ergonomic hiccup matter? No, it does not. It’s a watch with an airplane on it, originally designed for the people who literally lived and worked and died for that bird. If they could read it for combat missions, then you can certainly time your sortie on the grocery store.

Comparing the new to the old, the M-52B AF’s larger dial allows more room between the markers and the image. The new dial keeps the text in the quadrants, and I much prefer the way it is angled so the words now radiate outward. They replaced the oversized triangle with a simple bar marker (applied and brushed) and moved the red date to 6 o’clock. Taken together, these changes open up the dial, making the M-52B AF far more legible and, to my eye, more attractive than the small 1966 model.

Ollech & Wajs utilized multi-tone Super-LumiNova, which is the source of my one real criticism. It functions as it should, shining perfectly brightly on the hands and markers, but you really only see the color difference in the dark. In daylight, they all look pretty white. The slightly warmer color on the three bar markers is barely perceptible. While it’s hardly bothersome, it makes me wonder why they bothered at all. Perhaps the difference will become more apparent over time, but I would have preferred something closer to Old Radium to create an appreciable contrast.