There are some watches that you are told are tool watches by marketing materials, and others you know are tool watches because you pick them up and say ?oh, yeah, that?s a friggin? tool watch.? The Ollech & Wajs OW C-1000 is emphatically one of the latter. ?Solid as a rock? is an expression that gets thrown around with little to back it up, but it?s also the first thing that came to mind when taking the C-1000 out of the box. It?s small, hefty, sturdy, and nothing budges without some effort. In a literal sense, it?s solid as a rock. In a day when vintage divers are the watch-of-choice, this unabashedly over-built 1000m diver is a breath of fresh, albeit heavy air.

The Ollech & Wajs C-1000 on an Admiralty Gray ADPT Strap

To be clear, the C-1000 isn?t completely devoid of vintage influence, but it?s far enough away from the original to be dubbed a modern watch, at least in my book. Based on the Caribbean 1000 models from the mid-60s, the C-1000 is a modern reinterpretation, not a recreation. An iconic watch, if rare and cultish, the original O&W Caribbeans utilized the robust Jenny 702 1000m case that featured odd fang-like lugs that actually get farther apart away from the case. Regardless, at 40mm x 45mm x 16mm, these cases were engineering marvels that make many of today?s divers seem bloated at best (for more on the original, click here). 
an original from the 1960’s

Today?s Ollech & Wajs took inspiration from the best parts of the original w...