Photos by H. Seung

Here's a Vietnam-era Ollech & Wajs Early Bird 24 hour watch. It has a 17 jewels manual wind movement, signed Ollech and Wajs, with Incabloc shock protection. It is also antimagnetic and water resistant to 600 feet. Being a manual wind watch, the crown does not screw-down, so swimming with it is not recommended. The stainless case which has brushed finish all over is 38mm wide (excluding crown), and 47mm lug to lug. It takes a 19mm strap and I wear it on an 18mm gray G10 strap Tito kindly donated (thanks Tito). It's slight larger than Glycine Airman, which is 36mm wide, but the Early Bird is thinner and lighter. It was popular among US serviceman during the Vietnam war because you could get the watch through mail-order. 1968 catalog shows the list price of Early Bird to be $39.95, but Imai mentions that Early Birds were also available from PX at mere $25. Sort of a poor man's Glycine Airman, I'd say, not only because of the price but also because Early Bird lacks the date feature and that it has a manual wind movement instead of an automatic. You can purchase new old stock Early Bird from Mr. Wajs directly. The neat aspect of the watch is the luminescent markers on the dial. Not only do the hour markers glow, all the numbers glow as well. The bidirectional bezel is painted both blue and red on the top but the surface underneath the bezel is painted red throughout. Enjoy the photos!








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