Big Crown ProPilot Altimeter with Meter Scale
Oris before Baselworld 2015: cloud nine and altitude
The independent brand Oris chose to express its Swiss belonging in the open air by releasing its new 2015 pieces on the highest skiing tracks of St Moritz. When we got back, I borrowed their Big Crown ProPilot Altimeter. I am currently on cloud nine.
By Joel Grandjean
Editor-in-Chief
This purely mechanical brand deserves to be better known both in Switzerland and in other French-speaking areas. Based in the Basel area, in Hölstein, we unfortunately relegate it as second choice by putting some more media-covered watchmaking story or more famous marketing reflex first. In other words, Oris unjustly comes second much too often.
Subtle and determined: a booming brand
Yet, the history of this historical watchmaking brand, which incidentally has more than sixty points of sale in Switzerland, is filled with anecdotes and feats of arms that are nothing less than those of the big names of all industries put together. After 111 years of existence it is not among the niche brands that rival against each other at the top of the luxury brand pyramid. This proves the industrial excellence of an accessible Swiss-Made label that is legitimate, systematically reliable and offers good quality.
There is not one part of the world where there is no promise for the development of the segment the brand belongs to. Indeed, it will always count on either middle classes earning more money or on the damage crises cause to the richest people.
The example of the recently voted anticorruption law in China illustrates this point well. On the one hand, it nips in the bud buying pulses without a price limit –– those that used to symbolize success. On the other hand, the new law eases reasonable purchases. That being the case, Oris, who are always dedicated to their products, valiantly decided to cut back. Try as I may, they won’t give away their statistics. The only economic information that I was invariably given was that the brand registered a two-digit increase in profit for several years in a row.
Jazz culture and automobile history
The brand has dabbled in almost all types of universe in its years of existence. In the case of jazz, Oris did not wait for the sponsoring of famous festivals and supported the greatest international musicians, especially Louis Armstrong, with special dedicated editions.
This year, in a premiere on the snow-capped peaks of the Engadin, Oris revealed its Theolonious Monk Limited Edition. The piece is a tribute to the renowned pianist and jazz composer, one of the greatest in America. As an allusion to his style that blends melodies and dissonance, the watch’s smoky blue sunburst dial is sprinkled by tiny polished points as means of hour indexes and it has only 11 markers between 10 and 12 o’clock.
Owing to an old tradition, the brand is also affiliated to the automobile universe. On the one hand, it is present at the Formula 1 circuits through its partnership with the Williams team that started in 2003 and through the Artix GT Chronograph that the driver Valtteri Bottas wears. On the other hand, it is also present on international mainstream roads where Audi cars drive. Suddenly, it dawns upon me why the brand chose to celebrate the creation of its new pre-BaselWorld pieces on the highest tracks in front of a few journalists who specially came to the resorts. Here, we are perched at more than 2,400 meters above sea level in a space that the brand designed with interlinked rings and called the Audi Quattro Bar. It turns out that Oris signed a contract with Audi Sport in 2014 and that it will release an innovating watch in 2015, a version of the revolutionary Audi R18 e-tron Quattro. That’s all we know for now because the piece is still under embargo until the event starts and it is thus impossible to reveal more information.
Smart complication: the mechanical altimeter
Since it would be impossible to describe each and every universe in which Oris has left its imprints, we will have to focus on its two major areas of work: aeronautics and pilots. Even if Oris is releasing a new dive watch this year, even if the new pieces that I see are full of interest and precision, awed as I am by the stark whiteness of the surroundings, the piece that struck me the most was the one worn by Rico Steiner, market manager of the company. Ever the perfect host down to the smallest details, he did not hesitate to hand me the piece. After having heard about it for so long, I was finally going to test it! This moment was as good as was my trips to and from St Moritz, which I took by helicopter up to Blécherette airport, on the Lausanne heights. It was a way to transform the discouraging 7-hour driving time into an unforgettable 1.5-hour flight above the Alps thanks to Yoan Trolliet, pilot of “Héli Lausanne”. Oris really went out of its way for this.
While the engine was preparing for take-off, I programmed the altimeter and attached its camouflage and khaki-colored fabric strap to my wrist.
An interesting point: over 75 years after Oris created its first pilot-oriented model, the brand stated that the Oris Big Crown ProPilot Altimeter with its deep-rooted connection to aeronautics was its most innovating piece. It is also the world’s first self-winding mechanical watch to be equipped with a mechanical altimeter. Yes, we were truly flying 3,200 meters above ground as my watch displayed and we sometimes even approached the unending reliefs of the Alps, their peaks and crests visible as far as the eye can see. It was very difficult for me to take this piece off my wrist both during the trip and the days that followed. I personally have a version of this watch graduated in metric units. I did not acquire it because of its ingenious buckling system that looks like a jammed plane seat belt – something that never happens – but because it was very appealing.
On my return trip, I realized that the self-winding and consistently open big crown on the right side were the watch’s two additional visual delights. It was ingenious to place a kind of air-filled double depth in such a small space whose variation menus transmit precious altimeter indications to a hand that is technologically so thin that I am sure it could fly. Excellent indeed.
All those who saw and examined the watch were of the same opinion as me and would have loved to take it with them.
