Celebrating World Cleanup Day With The Oris Aquis Date Upcycle

With an estimated 13 million tons of plastic permeating the world’s oceans every year, eco-concerned watchmaker, Oris, is taking action with a watch dedicated to ocean conservation, the Aquis Date Upcycle.
 

Oris’ Aquis Date Upcycle is not their first timepiece dedicated to ocean conservation. Oris previously released the Aquis Clean Ocean Limited Edition, created in partnership with Everwave, a European conservation organization promoting unique floating platforms designed to prevent plastic waste from reaching the oceans.
 

The Aquis Date Upcycle, a special version of Oris’ professional-grade dive watch, features unique, colorful dials, made of recycled PET plastic recovered from the Earth’s waters. Not one of these dials is exactly like another. Unlike the Aquis Clean Ocean Limited Edition watches, Oris vows to continue producing the Aquis Date Upcycle timepieces, available in 36.5mm and 41.5mm case sizes, so long as demand exists.
 

In addition, the watches come in special presentation boxes made by Swiss recovered ocean materials fabricator #tide Ocean Material, whose upcycled plastic products can be found in coffee cups, jewelry, and even flooring.
 

Both case sizes of the Aquis Date Upcycle share the capabilities and architecture of the popular Aquis Date dive watch line, with all the solid stats of a rugged, workhorse submersible watch: Oris 733 movement with a 38 hour power reserve, stainless steel case, extendable bracelet to fit over a wetsuit, screw-down security crown, 1,000 feet of water resistance, date window at six o’clock, lumed hands and indices, and a unidirectional rotating bezel for tracking dive time.
 

However, it is the light, appealing nature of the bezel, with its grey ceramic gauge insert, working in tandem with the no-two-alike recovered plastics dial, that makes the Aquis Date Upcycle so appealing. As a serious fan of dive watches, I know oftentimes divers own more than one timepiece to service our passion. Why wouldn’t your next watch be one that helps purify and protect the playground you love so much?
 

Oris’ designers tend to ride ahead of the curve in general. The watchmaker was one of the first to create green-dialed timepieces, which are now all the rage. Let’s hope cutting-edge initiatives like this continue to spread and gain momentum throughout the watch industry.
 

Both the 36.5mm and 41.5mm versions of the Oris Aquis Date Upcycle are currently available at Oris retailers for $2,300. You can learn more at Oris’ website.
 

(Photography by Liam O'Donnell)