Time+Tide
The Oak & Oscar Atwood brings old-school American chronograph charm with a flyback kick
The Oak & Oscar Atwood is the retro-Americana inspired chronograph we've been waiting for, vintage touches with all the modern details
839 articles · 114 videos found · page 1 of 32
Time+Tide
The Oak & Oscar Atwood is the retro-Americana inspired chronograph we've been waiting for, vintage touches with all the modern details
Worn & Wound
One trend in the microbrand/small independent category that I’m glad to see more of already in these early days of 2026 is brands doing more on their own, in-house. Those words, “in-house,” have developed an almost toxic reputation in some circles as they’ve been used liberally to imply a level of craft or development that is not really there when you strip away all the marketing talk. But a handful of brands are taking it back, using it to designate certain manufacturing processes that they’ve taken ownership of over overseas factories. Oak & Oscar has just announced a new watch, the Humboldt ExP-02 that reflects some of the ten year old brand’s new manufacturing capabilities in an exciting and unique way. At a glance, you could be forgiven for thinking this is an ordinary version of the Humboldt, Oak & Oscar’s “classic adventure watch.” Subtly, however, it shows off real watchmaking skill and a willingness on the brand’s part to experiment with new techniques. The centerpiece of the ExP-02 is the dial, which keeps the familiar sandwich style construction that Oak & Oscar is so well known for, but refines it and personalizes it for this piece. Every aspect of the dial manufacturing is done to a very high level in the Oak & Oscar workshop, using new watchmaking equipment that the brand has invested in specifically to create unique components for watches like the ExP-02. According to Oak & Oscar, the rehaut and main dial plate are both cut from alu...
Fratello
It’s been nearly a year since we’ve heard from Chase Fancher and the team at Oak & Oscar. Here we are, though, in late January with an exciting, albeit highly limited, new release. Hopefully, the Humboldt ExP-02 foreshadows an increased level of in-house production capability. For now, let’s take a look at the watch! I […] Visit Introducing: The Oak & Oscar Humboldt ExP-02 to read the full article.
Fratello
Today, almost a year after its introduction, we’re taking the Oak & Oscar Atwood flyback chronograph for a spin. Unlike my colleague Mike, I’m not very familiar with the Chicago-based brand, which has been in the watch business for 10 years. Next to the Atwood, the brand currently also offers the Humboldt GMT and the […] Visit Hands-On With The Oak & Oscar Atwood Flyback Chronograph to read the full article.
Worn & Wound
One of the things that all great micro and independent watch brands have in common is that they lean into exactly who they are. The brands that attempt to cater to changing tastes and trends never seem to last, or if they do they seem to just kind of languish and not really grow or do anything all that noteworthy. Another way to say this is that brands who are authentically themselves, and a reflection of the point of view of those in charge, and their clients, are almost always going to be the most interesting. Oak & Oscar, I think, neatly falls into that category. Whether the designs are your cup of tea or not, there’s no denying that the brand, their aesthetic, and the choices they make line up precisely with the ideas that founder Chase Fancher and his colleagues are trying to bring to the larger watch community. That was apparent in their recent Humboldt GMT SAR limited edition, which helped to underline the brand’s general love of the outdoors, and it’s built into their latest release, a limited edition version of the Atwood chronograph, in an entirely different way. The new version of the Atwood is a collaboration with Wind Vintage, the well known vintage retailer founded by Eric Wind in 2017. The Atwood Wind Vintage Edition is simply a product of two friends coming together to work on a cool product, which Oak & Oscar describes as a tenet of what they’re all about. Eric and Chase go way back, having met in New York just after the release of the Burnham, O...
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Fratello
When two of the most likable people in the watch industry collaborate on a watch, only good things can happen, right? With collaborations, success is never a guarantee, but the new Oak & Oscar Atwood Wind Vintage Edition is an absolute winner. The only complaint is that so few will be made. Here at Fratello, […] Visit Introducing: The Oak & Oscar Atwood Wind Vintage Edition to read the full article.
Fratello
Seven months have passed since Oak & Oscar released its Atwood hand-wound chronograph. However, it seems that founder Chase Fancher and the team were already plotting the next model, the Humboldt GMT SAR Edition. To be fair, this is a limited offering designed with a search and rescue team in mind. However, it deserves attention […] Visit The New Oak & Oscar Humboldt GMT SAR Edition to read the full article.
Worn & Wound
On a new release calendar that’s full of limited edition collaborations that don’t always make a ton of logical sense, it’s refreshing to see one come across our desks that feels like a genuine meeting of the minds. Oak & Oscar is a longtime fixture in the micro/independent brand space, and at this point it’s fair to say that they’ve carved out a pretty recognizable niche for themselves. When you think of Oak & Oscar, you probably immediately think of the brand’s midwest roots, a love of the outdoors, and, of course, bourbon. Their latest release, a 50 piece limited collaboration with the St. Louis County Rescue Squad, combines at least two of these ideas, and the result is a handsome, sporty GMT that first right in Oak & Oscar’s wheelhouse. For context, the St. Louis County Rescue Squad is made up of volunteers who provide lifesaving services to outdoor enthusiasts visiting northern Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA). As Oak & Oscar explains, the BWCA is an “outdoor-lover’s dream,” featuring hiking trails, camping, canoeing, and more. Oak & Oscar became a member of the Boundary Waters Business Coalition in 2021, a sign of their commitment to the preservation of the BWCA. To that end, the new Humboldt GMT SAR Edition serves as a reminder of that commitment, as well as a means to help fund the efforts of the St. Louis County Rescue Squad (a portion of the proceeds from the sale of these watches will be donated to the Squad). This new lim...
Fratello
It’s time to chime in on the best watches under €2,500. It’s a tough subject for a couple of reasons. First, many of my colleagues have already opined and used up some great picks. Second, this price level now feels like a no man’s land because most brands prefer to play above or below it. […] Visit Fratello Favorites: The Best Watches Under €2,500 - Mike’s Picks From Seiko, Ming, Oak & Oscar, And Longines to read the full article.
Worn & Wound
For nearly a decade, Chase Fancher and his team at Oak & Oscar, along with their partners, have not only been creating great and sporty timepieces, but they have also been creating a community. To them, the people that purchase their watches are not customers, they are owners. As such, the community has been asking for a new Oak & Oscar chronograph for quite some time. Especially since their Jackson Big-Eye was discontinued. The Jackson, you’ll recall, was a 40mm x 14mm 30-minute chronograph, with flyback function, and it housed a manual wind Eterna Caliber 39 movement. The community’s prayers have now been answered with the new Oak & Oscar Atwood. Just like its predecessor, it is also a proper Flyback chronograph, but this one can time intervals up to 12-hours. Instead of the Eterna caliber 39, it houses an AMT5100M caliber, which is a product of Sellita’s high-end skunkworks AMT division. It is a 23 jeweled, manually wound chronograph with a 58-hour power-reserve, and with the crisp, tactile satisfaction of its blued column wheel you’ll find excuses to time anything. You will also find all the usual Oak & Oscar refinements, including a sandwich dial, a signature high-contrast extra-long chrono seconds hand, and each subdial features subtle yet bright hints of orange that increase the legibility of the timing function. There is also a subtle nod to their first chronograph, which includes a wrapped tachymeter scale along the rehaut that goes to 54 units. As they li...
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ARD/NDR TV Documentary and Article about me and my workshop:
SJX Watches
Oak & Oscar has just launched its second chronograph, the Atwood, a modern take on vintage racing chronographs that’s powered by a manually wound Sellita AMT5100M. The movement is a derivative of the Valjoux 7750 that has a few tricks up its sleeve, namely a column wheel and flyback functionality. Chicago-based Oak & Oscar was founded in 2015, making it part of the early wave of ‘micro brands.’ Over the past nine years, the brand has managed to develop its own recognisable minimalist aesthetic across a range of versatile go-anywhere, do-anything sports watches. Initial Thoughts I tend to be fond of Oak & Oscar’s designs, and a lot of that has to do with the expert use of colour. The Atwood is offered in three colourways that are each appealing in their own right, and will feel familiar to fans of the brand. The brand’s signature orange seconds hand is complemented by matching accents on the sub-dials, a stylistic choice that evokes sporty ’70s chronographs like the Tudor Monte Carlo. But the design still manages to feel fresh, thanks in part to the brand’s own strikingly modern typeface. The Atwood is the brand’s second chronograph, after the Jackson which debuted in 2017. The Atwood addresses one of the few shortcomings of the Jackson, which is the latter’s 14.5 mm case thickness. The 39 mm Atwood is comparatively slim at just 12.9 mm, a figure that includes the domed sapphire crystal, meaning that visually it will appear even thinner. While the dimensio...
Fratello
Chicago-based Oak & Oscar has been in business since 2015. Over the last nine years, the brand has assembled a back catalog of attractive, ruggedly built watches that pay tribute to the Windy City. Furthermore, the timepieces display a design consistency normally reserved for larger, historic brands. Today’s Oak & Oscar Atwood chronograph continues this […] Visit Introducing: The Oak & Oscar Atwood Hand-Wound Chronograph to read the full article.
Worn & Wound
This month I had the pleasure of speaking with Nathan Bobinchak, Head of Watchmaking for the independent brand Oak & Oscar. Nathan is a former journalist and TV news writer turned watchmaker, with an obsession for finding the best way to experience sound through home audio setups. Watches “I had my midlife crisis at 26.” Nathan delivers a dry joke as he recounts his career shift from local TV news, to his decision to go to watchmaking school. Specifically, Nathan attended The Litiz Watch Technicum, a watchmaking school outside Lancaster, PA that was founded in 2001 by Rolex. After graduating from Litiz, Nathan worked for a shop in Connecticut, eventually moving to Chicago at the beginning of 2020 and landing the job at Oak & Oscar. “I first got into Oak & Oscar with the Jackson. The Jackson is a very cool chronograph with the Eterna 3916 movement in it. It’s a very neat, super complicated, pretty movement. It has a column wheel and flyback chrono…just very cool.” Nathan explained to me that in modern watchmaking you do a lot of the same things, but said he was fortunately certified to work on watches like the Rolex Daytona, as he has a lot of fun servicing chronographs. “I can go on all day about the art of lubricating a chronograph. That is some nerdy stuff. It’s like paint drying.” I was interested, so I asked him to expound. “The only thing that makes watches hard to work on is the user. We knock them, move them around, a movement will run grea...
Worn & Wound
If you’ve met Chase Fancher, founder of Oak & Oscar, you probably know that he’s something of a bourbon enthusiast. I’m not saying you’ll be plied with the stuff if you come hang out at his booth at a Windup, but I’m not saying that’s definitively off the table, either. So it wasn’t a huge surprise when news came across the transom that Oak & Oscar’s latest limited edition is a thoughtful collaboration with FEW Spirits, whose founder and master distiller Paul Hletko is a personal friend of Chase’s. The new watch, a variation on Oak & Oscar’s popular Olmsted, the brand’s 38mm field watch, has plenty of little Easter eggs for bourbon lovers, but is also just a great looking execution of what has become a signature referenced. Those Easter eggs are threefold. First, the dial the color of the Olmsted FEW is a dark salmon tone lifted directly from FEW’s own color palette. It should be immediately recognizable to fans of the FEW spirits, but is also an altogether appealing shade in its own right, and represents Oak & Oscar’s first attempt at a salmon dial, a color that has taken off in popularity (and proven to be highly versatile in a huge variety of watches) over the last few years. Second, and this is somewhat standard on these types of collaborations, the FEW logo is displayed near the 6:00 position. Besides the FEW and Oak & Oscar branding, the dial is quite clean, without any excess text, and lets the color shine (but, not literally, because it...
Worn & Wound
Windup NYC is a wrap, and the festivities saw the debut of many new watches from a huge variety of brands. Oak & Oscar is a Windup mainstay and a core part of the microbrand space (a term which admittedly seems less and less adequate as the years go by and these shows get bigger and bigger, but that’s a topic for another day), and they took the opportunity to debut a new flavor of an old favorite over the weekend, the Humboldt GMT in titanium. It’s immediately recognizable as an Oak & Oscar and will slot nicely into their existing catalog, but offers a handful of new details and innovations that show the Chicago based brand is still interested in moving forward and expanding the idea of what an Oak & Oscar watch should be. The big news here is the titanium case. The Humboldt GMT in titanium is made from the grade 5 variety, and comes in at a weight of just 74 grams when mounted on a leather strap. It comes in at 39.5mm (with a bezel overhang of 0.5mm) and is 46.8mm from lug to lug. According to the brand, it’s 20% lighter than the original Humboldt GMT in stainless steel, which equates to a difference you’ll really notice on the wrist. It immediately makes the watch sportier based on ease of wear alone. For the dial, we get a dark green shade, which is the same tone used on the green Olmsted. Like many other Oak & Oscar watches, this one has a sandwich dial construction, which allows for tons of contrast via lume that is present under the main dial layer. There...
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Hodinkee
Seven years after Chase Fancher started the brand, Oak & Oscar is just hitting its stride.
Time+Tide
Here at Time+Tide we have a soft spot for smaller brands that are built on passion. Oak & Oscar definitely fits that bill. Chase Fancher (the man behind the brand) has made a series of retro-ish classics with loads of thoughtful details - the sort of details appreciated by true believers. These details are still … ContinuedThe post INTRODUCING: The Oak & Oscar Humboldt appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Time+Tide
Watch brands and sporting tie-ins. It’s a combo as old as time(keeping). We see it all the time. But you know what we don’t see all the time? Curling. Funnily enough, the sport of sliding large granite stones across sheets of ice hasn’t made too much of an impact on our sun-drenched shores, so when … ContinuedThe post NEWS: Oak & Oscar’s one-of-a-kind Olympic watch appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Time+Tide
At Time+Tide we’ve been following the successes of Oak & Oscar’s founder Chase Fancher with interest. We’ve met him in Basel and New York, but most of the time we’ve been watching the evolution of his brand from afar. Overnight we saw the release of their third watch, the Jackson FlyBack Chronograph, which – if … ContinuedThe post INTRODUCING: The Oak & Oscar Jackson Flyback Chronograph appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Hodinkee
Using techniques new to the brand's in-house team, they're presenting something new to the public that helps them push their own brand limits.
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Hodinkee
At 39mm and under 13mm thick, a new and wearable chronograph from Chicago.
Hodinkee
I'm not sure what the rules are, either – but I'm here for the watch.
Hodinkee
A new and very limited edition, with a wink to the past.
Hodinkee
A stealthy steel field watch with matte ceramic coating and a legible luminous dial.
Hodinkee
These next classes will be hosted by Tiny Jewel Box, Atlanta Watch Society, and Oak & Oscar.
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