Mustaches, Baseball, And Watches: Oris Teams Up With The New York Yankees And Th

Mustaches, Baseball, And Watches: Oris Teams Up With The New York Yankees And The Movember Foundation

In the midst of their playoff run, the New York Yankees and Oris team up for men's health. Today, Watchonsita sits down with Oris' CEO of North America, V.J. Geronimo.

By Thomas Hendricks
Contributor

Mustaches, baseball, and watches - three awesome things that have more in common than you might think. For 2019, Oris is teaming up with the New York Yankees and The Movember Foundation.

For those unfamiliar with The Movember Foundation, they are a global charity behind “Movember” where men around the world collect donations for men’s health issues by growing mustaches throughout the month of November - their slogan: “Grow a Mo, save a Bro.”
 

Oris’ Joint Executive Officer, Rolf Studer, discusses the partnership by saying, “As an independent Swiss watch company, Oris has the freedom to go its own way and to choose projects we consider not just important, but urgent. One of those is men’s health, which is why we’re working with Movember, a charity working to stop men dying too young.”

Through their partnership, Oris is helping to tackle three key health issues for men: prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and suicide. Now let’s put some numbers behind this. Testicular cancer rates have doubled in the last 50 years. Prostate cancer rates are expected to double within the next 15 years. And over 500,000 men die by suicide each year.
 

Each of these issues is preventable and in the words of The Movember Foundation’s Executive Director, “Oris has become a significant partner in spreading awareness and raising vital funds” to help reach the foundation's goal of reducing the number of men dying prematurely by 25 percent by 2030.

The Special Movember Edition Oris Chronoris

To celebrate Movember in 2019, Oris is releasing a special edition Chronoris Movember Edition with a special color motif that mirrors last year's watch (read HERE). The piece is sized at 39mm and features Oris’ 733 movement. The watch comes complete with a custom Movember engraving on the screw-down caseback and a brown leather pouch to carry the watch and its accessories.
 

The Oris Chronoris Movember edition is priced at $2,000 on a leather strap and $2,200 on a stainless steel bracelet. Watchonista will soon publish a full, hands-on review of the watch, so stay tuned!
 

V.J. Geronimo, CEO of Oris North America, talks mustaches and Yankees

To help provide some color and context behind this global initiative, we spoke with the CEO of Oris North America, V.J. Geronimo, a Movember supporter and lifelong Yankees fan.

Thomas Hendricks: V.J! thank you for taking the time to speak with Watchonista. Have you been a Yankees fan for a while?

V.J. Geronimo: I am a lifelong Yankee fan. I grew up in suburban NYC and have always been a Yankee fan from a Yankee family. My parents both grew up in the Bronx, and my dad went to his first Yankee game in 1946. I remember going to opening day in 1978. We got out of school early to go to the game. It was the day they gave out Reggie bars (Reggie was the hero of the 1977 World Series). They made a candy bar that all ended up on the field that day. They had to stop the game to pick them up. Guidry pitched and he was 25-3 that season. Awesome game!
 

TH: And who is your favorite player to don the pinstripes?

VG: My favorite Yankee during my lifetime is Derek Jeter. He was a ballplayer through and through, competitor but a true class act on the field and off. I was at Game Four of the 2001 World Series when he hit a walk-off homer. He epitomizes to me all that the Yankees stand for.

TH: In your own words, can you tell me how important Movember is to Oris?

VG: Movember is important to Oris because of what it stands for. Yes, we have made a beautiful series of watches surrounding it, but it’s not about that. It’s about spreading awareness about the issues surrounding men’s health: prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental illness. It’s about giving back to the community that you serve. It is a very Oris thing to do. We have a long history of giving back to grassroots organizations who make a difference as evidenced by our many ocean conservation projects. We like to think we did these things before it was “in style” to do them. They always came from a place of substance for us. Movember fits very much into that tradition.
 

Oris and the world’s most famous baseball team

The New York Yankees are once again in the playoffs. This year, Oris became a partner of the Yankees and to celebrate, the brand recently sat down with New York Yankees Manager Aaron Boone to discuss the ways in which the Yankees support each other and build community in New York and beyond. Highlights from that interview are included below:

Oris: Does your approach to management include a core mantra?

Boone: “In a sport in which you play 162 games, one of the biggest challenges is having that consistent mindset, effort level, focus level and work ethic on a daily basis. You’ve got to be able to compartmentalize every day. No matter what happened yesterday, good or bad, you’ve got to be able to lock in and turn the page. I feel like our guys do a great job and that’s something we try to drive home all the time – today is the most important day. It’s served us well so far.”
 

Oris: How does the team come together to support players who are struggling?

Boone: Struggles are part of Major League Baseball. Success, failure, adversity – they’re all inevitable in our game, and I think one of the prerequisites to being successful as a Major Leaguer is you’ve got to be able to deal with those things.

Oris: What does being part of the New York Yankees mean to you and your players?

Boone: One of the things you think of with the Yankees is the hat. Wherever you are, here in New York or anywhere around the world, chances are you’re going to come across someone wearing this iconic hat. That gives us a sense of pride and a sense of responsibility. We understand the responsibility that it is to wear this hat. To be a part of that and to be in the community, it makes you proud.
 

(Images provided by Oris)

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