Introducing: The Oak & Oscar Atwood Wind Vintage Edition
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, we’ve covered almost every release from Oak & Oscar, the Chicago-based independent brand celebrating its 10th anniversary. We’ve known Chase Fancher, the founder, since day one and have always been impressed with his passion for creating high-quality watches that exhibit design continuity. When you see an Oak & Oscar, you know it’s an Oak & Oscar. Eric Wind founded Wind Vintage, a Florida-based vintage watch retailer and an establishment that has repeatedly bruised my bank account. Eric, along with his aide-de-camp Charlie Dunne, offers the most honestly detailed vintage watches on the planet, and we’re happy to call him a friend of the site. Now the two parties have come together to create the Oak & Oscar Atwood Wind Vintage Edition.
The Oak & Oscar Atwood Wind Vintage Edition
It turns out that Eric and Chase have known each other since the first Oak & Oscar watch, the Burnham. Since then, Eric has visited the Chicago HQ on more than one occasion and even appeared on an episode of The Watch Table, Chase’s ongoing series featuring collectors. Finally, the two decided to come together on a collaboration watch, the Atwood Wind Vintage Edition.
In May 2024, Oak & Oscar released the Atwood. The stainless steel chronograph has a 39mm diameter, 46mm length, and a mere 12.9mm thickness including the domed sapphire crystal. It’s a clean, classically styled watch with a 50m depth rating and a choice of three colorways. My favorite detail is the hand-winding flyback movement.
Unique details
With Eric’s involvement, the Atwood Wind Vintage Edition fuses personal and old-school details. A stone-gray sandwich dial with Super-LumiNova works well with Oak & Oscar’s traditional orange hue. The bright color is used for the central chronograph hand and various dial details. A rich blue tone, inspired by Georgetown University, Eric’s alma mater, also appears. The white, gray, blue, and orange work perfectly against the brushed steel bezel and case.
Zooming in on the dial reveals differences compared to the standard Atwood. Normally, the watch has an internal tachymeter scale. On the Atwood Wind Vintage Edition, the rehaut is a pulsation scale. This is used to track a person’s heartbeat and was commonly seen on doctor’s watches. Call it an endearing vintage touch. Then, note the semi-circular “Wind Vintage” text above the 12-hour sub-dial. This is a playful nod to the Rolex Daytona “Big Red” models with a similar script.
Available on a bracelet with micro-adjust
I always brag about the quality of the Oak & Oscar three-row stainless steel bracelet. It articulates beautifully and feels as good or better than most bracelets on big-name-brand watches that cost far more. This bracelet, which has a 20–16mm taper, now features a toolless micro-adjustment system and a safety clasp. For those who like to switch it up, the Atwood Wind Vintage also comes with a nylon strap.
Showing off the Sellita AMT5100M inside the Atwood Wind Vintage
A screw-in stainless steel case back contains a sapphire display that shows off the Sellita AMT5100M. This top-of-the-line 23-jewel flyback caliber is decorated and has a blued column wheel. It also offers a 4Hz (28,800vph) frequency and 58 hours of power reserve. Sellita doesn’t publish accuracy specs, but users have reported impressive figures, including gains of three seconds per day. Functionally, aside from the flyback complication, the movement shows running seconds and has 30-minute and 12-hour totalizers.
Final thoughts and availability
Often, limited-edition watches “jump off the page” with dazzling looks but lack long-term staying power. The Atwood Wind Vintage Edition is seriously attractive, but it isn’t trendy. It looks like a piece that could join the regular catalog, and I consider that a compliment. Unfortunately, Oak & Oscar and Wind Vintage have limited production to 25 pieces. At US$2,950, it is $300 more than the serial-production model but still an attractive value from a brand known for durable, well-made watches. Congrats to Chase and Eric for a job well done, and to paraphrase a quote from Eric on the watch, I “could rock that!”
