Hands-On: the ochs und junior Settimana Seasons “Autumn”

There are relatively few brands out there that don’t need a name on the dial. Sure, you can tell apart a Submariner, Seamaster, and Aquis with all branding removed. But how about recognizing a whole brand rather than a single model? One brand that doesn’t need a name or logo on their watches, yet still remain distinctive and recognizable to many enthusiasts is ochs und junior.

From displaying the date through a series of holes around the dial, through to a moon phase complication accurate to 1 day every 122 years, the brand has continued to push ingenuity in function and display while keeping steadfastly true to its design ethos. Like many others, my admiration for the brand and designs have continued to grow, yet this is the first time I’ve held one in my hands.

The watch I’m looking at today forms part of ochs und junior’s more affordable (and non-customizable) collections. What you see offered is what you can get. There is no choice of case material. No long list of dial, hand, disc and marker combinations. For some customers this probably doesn’t represent the full ochs und junior experience. For others, like me, restricting the choices to a small selection of pre-defined dials colors and sizes is actually helpful.

The Settimana line has a limited number of variants, and the particular sub-line “Settimana Seasons” has only four color options, each available in two sizes. The color palette of this Autumn version is described as light orange, but is more yellow than anything. It is quite special, but still not my favorite element of the watch.

As a little background, Settimana is the Italian word for “week”, and displaying the day of the week is exactly what the Settimana does. We have become so accustomed to having the date displayed prominently on many of our watches, but I need reminding what day of the week it is far more frequently than I need to know the date. Obviously, you can point to many day/date watches which will achieve that, but most feel clumsily implemented or throw the symmetry off too much for my taste.

In familiar ochs und junior fashion, the Settimana displays the day of the week by way of a series of holes in the dial beneath which a contrasting disc passes. You’ll also note the larger curved aperture sitting beyond the seven holes. As the day moves from Sunday back through to Monday, the dot travels through that elongated window as the fresh week starts. You will only ever see it for a couple of minutes a week, and to be quite honest I’ve only ever seen it happen when I’ve purposely moved the time to just before midnight on Sunday. It’s a little secret between the watch and the wearer.

As complications go, there’s no real purpose to it and it’s rarely seen in action. I like that.

The weekday function is built by ochs und junior on top of a Sellita SW-200 automatic movement, with just 4 additional components to make it all work. The 7 dots are useful, even if it takes a few seconds to register the start point and count up to the current day. Similarly, time telling is an approximate task. 11:17 is a rough guess as much as anything. Yet, in this digital age, with so much information at hand, being approximate feels like it’s enough. Most importantly though, the dial makes me smile.

ochs und junior dials are often a mixture of complexity and simplicity. Aside from the characteristic dial cutouts, the watch is simple but warm. The white hour and minute hands are similar in width with rounded tips, and the orange seconds hand matches the day or the week indicator in color and, at its base, in shape. There are no indices or other dial markings, which will understandably be a deal-breaker for many. Yellow has long been underused in watches, but always looks good. Breitling and Doxa are two of only a small number of brands who have been using the color successfully for some time, and it’s only in the last few years that Rolex and a clutch of microbrands who can afford to be a little braver with their color palettes have also jumped on board. That said, the paler shade of yellow seen here is still uncommon and immediately drew me towards the watch.

Like the majority of ochs und junior watches, the case is made from grade 5 titanium, making it very lightweight. The finish is best described as “machine raw”, which I quite like – especially on the case back. The dull grey and soft, rounded lines let the sparse yellow dial and quirky complication shine. Despite being unexciting in many ways, there are a couple of notable aspects to it. Firstly, the very straight, but very short, lugs give a lug-to-lug length that is only just bigger than the case diameter so that any strap is actually going to sit beneath the outer edges of the case. This eliminates any gap between watch and strap, but does mean that not all straps will fit without rubbing against the case. Secondly, the simple case design does little to hide the height of the watch.

At 13mm in thickness to the top of the slightly domed sapphire, the Settimana can’t claim to be thin. Many watches might try to disguise the height with a combination of different surfaces, angles and finishes, but ochs und junior does not. Additionally, the lugs are at the very bottom of the case, so almost all of the height of the watch is sitting above the strap. As you might expect, it looks and feels tall on the wrist. This is of course part of the ochs und junior aesthetic, but it is probably the only part of it where I might have preferred to see a different approach.

Each of the Settimana Seasons models is available with either a plain black leather, or plain black textile strap. These simple colors and finishes are presumably intended to let the eye focus on the dial as far as possible, but I have veered towards other strap options for a couple of reasons. For a 40mm watch, the 22mm lug width is unusual. That alone is not a bad thing, and works well as a design choice. From a comfort perspective, however, I found both the non-tapering strap and squared off buckle a little cumbersome.

I have mostly been wearing the Settimana Seasons “Autumn” on an orange/yellow two-piece nato strap which contrasts nicely against the yellow of the dial and the bright orange accents, without lifting the watch any higher off the wrist. The 40mm size and titanium construction make for a comfortable and fun experience. I keep coming back to the watch being a strange set of compromises though, and ultimately perhaps that’s why I rarely see the models from ochs und junior in the wild, despite widespread appreciation from watch nerds around the world. The case height, lack of dial markings, awkward strap sizing, unusual colorway, and uncommon complication are all things which could each turn a watch from being a “maybe” into a “no”. For an individual to match with all of those design choices is a tough ask, but one that is made easier through ochs und junior’s customizable collections. And yet, despite those compromises, I am really enjoying the Settimana Seasons. ochs und junior