For the last two editions of Baselworld, Oris Watches Vancouver Bc Replica has taken mighty swings at their mid-century heritage, delivering the Diver Sixty-Five in 2015, and then a slew of vintage re-editions in the seasons that followed. For 2017, the independent Swiss watchmaker is ushering in a new generation with its core sports watch collection, the Aquis, and doing so with a series of subtle case and dial updates that should please both present and future Aquis fans. Spearheading the Gen 2 Aquis collection is the new Oris Hammerhead Limited Edition watch, a special release on a mission to help stave off the extinction of one of the ocean’s most misunderstood creatures.
From funding marine life and reef conservation projects to providing benefits for various international oceanography institutions, Oris’ contributions to the ocean and its safekeeping through various special edition Aquis watches are pretty well documented. The Oris Trio Watch Replica Hammerhead Limited Edition was born from that same commitment, this time to drive awareness to the plight of the ocean’s dwindling shark population, specifically the endangered Scalloped Hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini). Limited to 2,000 pieces, sales of the watch will help raise funds for a 2017 hammerhead conservation project run by the non-profit organization Pelagios Kakunjá – an endeavor championed by professional diver and Oris ambassador Jérôme Delafosse.
Since the crux of the project will involve getting up close and personal with these unique predators and tagging them for long-term tracking and study, a performance-forward dive watch with a grey sunburst dial inspired by said predators makes plenty of sense. Longtime fans of the Oris Aquis should recognize all its design signatures of the Gen 1 Aquis; from its depth rating measured in “pressure resistance,” luminous applied indices, and the unidirectional ceramic bezel, to the chunky screwed-on crown guards and the integrated lug design.
This Oris Aquis we’ve come to know and love is a distinctive, yet classic and ultra-capable modern diver that we have put to the test on more than one real-world occasion. The Oris Hammerhead – and by extension, the rest of the Gen 2 Aquis – follows those initial cues, while mixing in a few other new notes that might go easily missed at first glance, but help bring a sleeker, more upmarket feel to an already stylish and rugged sports watch.
Each 3 decades or so ORIS does, or at least used to produce, tribute watches to legendary musical artists. 1 such tribute was to some fairly well known Hoboken crooner by the title of Frank Sinatra. You wont find this watch still being offered by ORIS since it had been released in 2012, which is several lifetimes past in the fast-moving universe of watch versions, but you can still find it on Ebay for #1750. There is no question that Bob Dylan was and still is an original, however the watch that serves as a tribute to him isn’t. It is predicated on an ORIS Rectangular Date. This view was released in 2009, and runs on a Caliber 733 (Sellita SW 200-1) movement. The caseback comes with an outline of the singer in addition to a small window to observe the ORIS red rotor. You can still pick one of these watches up on Jomashop for $1440. Using the movement of 2015’s Oris Watches Ebay Replica Big Crown 111 and sharing the case and visual cues with the Artelier line, such as the Oris Artelier Calibre 113 released back in February, Oris has retained in line with the blue dial tendency — and it matches the set well.Ironically, I wrote about the Oris Big Crown D.26 being a refreshing breath of air using its green dial — after the “seemingly endless” variety of blue dial versions being released in the past couple of years. When this came across my desk that the very next day, I felt like I needed to eat my own words. But I can not complain, as the Oris Artelier Calibre 111 follows that gloomy trend but simply looks good by itself and functions within this collection, and I am really amazed it wasn’t included earlier.
To accomplish this, Oris designers put the Aquis lug horns on a diet to accommodate a thinner, slimmed-down bracelet. On the dial, a bolder, more angular sword-style handset provides a better stylistic match to the applied indices – which are now beveled at one end. A bold typography refresh accentuates the text, with the “Aquis” name joining the depth rating at 6:00 – in this case, a generous 500 meters (200 greater than the standard Aquis offerings), which is perhaps a nod to the studied habitat depths of the Scalloped Hammerhead sharks, known to dive just as deep. The end result is a new generation of Aquis that’s visually lighter than its predecessor, and one that should carry a broader appeal due to a more cohesive balance of style and substance.
Par for the Aquis course, the Oris Hammerhead Limited Edition is powered by an automatic Sellita movement, though this edition is equipped with the SW220 characterized by its oversized day/date wheel. Rather than a display back, the solid stainless steel caseback is engraved with a hammerhead shark in motion and the watch’s unique number out of 2,000. Though official pricing has yet to be announced in US dollars, the current asking price in Swiss francs is 2,550 CHF, or around $2,500 USD for the variant fitted to a stainless steel bracelet. oris.ch