On the Waterfront: Oris and the Billion Oyster Project Double Down on Aquatic Conservation

I am not embarrassed to confess that I am someone who admires an oyster, and not just for the bivalve’s succulent, briney flavor.

A single mature oyster can filter as much as 50 gallons of water each day. More importantly, a healthy, thriving aquatic environment is directly tied to healthy, thriving oyster beds in temperate biospheres. Oysters literally provide the organic “bedrock” foundation for abundant water and sea life.

Before European colonization, what became known as New York Harbor and the tidal estuaries of the Hudson and East Rivers were teeming with life that surrounded the island of Manhattan and coastal Brooklyn and New Jersey.

Sadly, over the centuries, the detrimental byproducts of progress, commerce, industrialization, overharvesting, pollution, and a population boom turned New York Harbor’s 220,000 acres of oyster reefs into a virtual aquatic “dead zone.”

The Billion Oyster Project intends to turn the tide on that situation, with the impressive goal of creating new oyster beds in the area’s waterways to the tune of reintroducing one billion healthy oysters by the year 2035. And Holstein-based watchmaker Oris, which arguably creates some of the watch industry’s most compelling ecological initiatives (the company itself was certified as climate-neutral in 2021), is helping the effort.

That is why I was delighted to join representatives of the project and the watchmaker on a recent pleasure cruise around New York Harbor to fete the debut of Oris’ New York Harbor Limited Edition II timepiece.
 

The next step in a partnership that began three years ago, the unveiling presented not just an opportunity to peruse a terrific, meaningful timepiece, but also to get an update on the Billion Oyster Project’s efforts and witness a floating view of New York’s ongoing waterfront rebirth.
 

“The ecological challenge can feel overwhelming,” Oris Co-CEO Rolf Studer said during the cruise. “But when we work together, it gets easier. We’re proud to collaborate again with Billion Oyster Project and to witness first-hand the change we’re bringing together. Our mission continues.”

Limited to 2,000 editions, the 43.5mm steel Oris New York Harbor Limited Edition II carries a profoundly more aqua-tinged color way than the original sea-foam green of the first limited edition collaborative timepiece. (In an onboard conversation with the CEO of Oris Americas, VJ Geronimo, we both noted how amazing it would be if these joint efforts eventually produced a harbor-water color that matched.)
 

A light steel unidirectional diving bezel and protected screw-in crown frame the vivid dial, which subtly lays translucent mother-of-pearl over the aqua-colored dial plate. You can opt to continue the watery hue on your wrist with the provided color-matched aqua rubber strap or lean into the timepiece’s inherent diving intent with a classic, three-link steel bracelet (both are supplied to buyers).
 

Oris’ Calibre 733 automatic movement not only drives the hands, the tell-tale dive-inspired “bubble”-sporting seconds hand, and understated date window at 6 o’clock, but it also provides 41 hours of power reserve. The Oris New York Harbor Limited Edition II is rated to an impressive 300 meters of water resistance, to boot.