Anyone ever heard of "Owen" lenses?

Today I was browsing through the "old junk" cabinets at the photo store
where I work part time and I came across an intriguing item: It's a
40-85 f/3.5 zoom labeled "Owen Auto MC 40-85/3.5" Made in Japan. Manual
focus, probably of 1980's vintage. I have no idea what the optical
performance might be like, though zooms of that area weren't often great
and good third-party zooms were even less common. Since it's in Minolta
MD mount I'm not going to find out any time in the foreseeable future
What impressed me is the construction - it's just magnificent. Solid,
beautifully crafted metalwork. Wonderfully smooth focus and zoom.
Anyone ever heard of anything like this?

--
Mark Roberts
Photography and writing
www.robertstech.com