Introducing the O.G Deep Space, the First Watch from a New Brand Promising Small Batch, Themed Watches

O.G Watches is a new brand that has recently come to our attention, helmed by Oliver Gallaugher, a Bristol, England based watch lover and self-taught designer. Oliver has worked with watch brands in the past during the design stage, helping them to, as he puts it, conceptualize their watch ideas. Now, he’s started his own brand, under his own name, and it launches with a project called Deep Space that is actually quite ambitious. It also makes good use of his worldwide industry connections to create a final product that seems to combine many of Oliver’s own wide ranging interests. For O.G, Oliver promises a brand that will produce watches in small runs, each with their own unique themes. The Deep Space caught our attention as a first effort that’s remarkably polished, and has us interested in what might come next. 

The star of the show is certainly the dial, which is said to be inspired by the flicker of stars in the night sky. This is, of course, fertile ground for watch designers, who have been making dials that incorporate nighttime scenes or star inspired motifs for almost as long as watchmaking has existed. What Oliver has done with the Deep Space is craft a dial that evokes the night sky almost completely through texture. The “stars” are hand engraved on the dial’s surface, and the entire dial has been brushed diagonally and given a coating that is meant to reflect the maximum amount of light when the dial is tilted, creating a “flashing” effect between light and dark tones. The dial is nearly sterile, with a simple pad printed logo at 12:00, and a minutes track that is applied to the underside of the sapphire crystal. 

The case is a simple 41mm steel affair, with contrasting brushed and polished surfaces. The crown is oversized in a nod to vintage watch design, and also to more fully engage with the hand wound movement, which O.G is calling GUY-1 caliber. It uses a classic Unitas 6498 as a base, but has been heavily modified to O.G’s specifications, which include a redesigned mainplate and bridges, decoration in gold perlage, polished chamfers, and jewel countersinks. The assembly and the decoration of each watch takes place in Glashütte, and is done by DK Precision Mechanics. 

One of the refreshing aspects of this release, beyond the creativity and apparent quality of the watch itself, is that O.G is uncommonly transparent about where just about everything they use to make the Deep Space is sourced from. The case is made in Hong Kong and Moscow, the dial and hands in Moscow and Glashütte, and the movement in Switzerland and Glashütte. Employing manufacturing from multiple countries seems to be a point of pride for O.G, which is a stark contrast to most brands that are laser focused on vertical integration. 

The Deep Space is being produced in a run of just ten watches, at a retail price of £7800. That might seem like a high asking price for a watch with a movement based on hand wound Unitas caliber, but it appears that there has been a fair amount of additional finishing applied to both the movement and the dial, which one hopes would justify the cost. We hope to be able to go hands-on with a Deep Space at some point in the future, and look forward to seeing what O.G has in store next. O.G