Q&AOris Chief On The Artelier’s Return, A New Dive Becnhmark, Baseball Editions And More

Could you talk about the AquisPro, and how the water resistance was developed?

At 4,000m, the AquisPro from the Aquis line, it is the deepest diving watch that we have ever made. It carries all the features of the AquisPro with a helium escape valve and rotation-lock system for safety. What’s interesting about this watch is that it is such a tool such an instrument but it has a baby blue colour. Developing such depth resistance was quite the process. We destroyed a lot of prototypes while testing we even destroyed the testing machine, but finally we arrived at it resisting water up to 4,000m.

How long did it take to develop this kind of water resistance?

It took about one and a half years to develop the water resistance of this Aquis watch.

And what was the greatest water resistance before this at Oris?

The previous greatest water resistance was 2,000m.

Talk about the new Artelier S of 2023. What went behind the decision to bring back this line? I was under the impression that the Artelier line was being discontinued.

Artelier has very much been part of our range. Lately we’ve been focusing more on the sportier parts of our collections. But we wanted to bring something back, something minimalistic, something silent. We’ve used this case structure before this new model, but now the integration of the sapphire crystal gives it a very nice look. Sized at 38mm, it’s a very new and elegant take on the line.

With the Bracenet—the dials of which are only made from recycled fishing nets—what were the challenges that were faced as opposed to working on the Upcycle watches that use general recycled plastic?

There were definitely some challenges working with the fishing nets. They are made from plastic that nothing sticks to. We had to work with this non-adhesive material to put it all together and make watch dials out of. And that was the main challenge of working on the Bracenet, as opposed to the Aquis Upcycle.

How do your collaborations come about such as that with Bracenet? Do organisations reach out to you, or do you reach out to organisations?

It’s a mix of both. We have made quite a mark in the environmentalist community, and some people reach out to us to work with us.

You’ve also had a couple of baseball editions, including those that pay tribute to late baseball players Roberto Clemente and Hank Aaron. Why baseball? Is it because of the American market?

This is because baseball it’s a community sport and it’s a sport about traditions and it has a loyal following. That’s basically our customers. There are similarities between Oris and the people who follow baseball. And the sportspersons we have paid tribute to—Roberto Clemente and Hank Aaron—share a lot of common values of dedication and passion. They are all role models who have changed things for the better quite like other personalities we have paid tribute to in the past, such as Carl Brashear. These people represent what it means to face challenges and overcome them. We are not only about showing the beautiful side of things, but to show what people can achieve.

"There are similarities between Oris and the people who follow baseball. And the sportspersons we have paid tribute to—Roberto Clemente and Hank Aaron—share a lot of common values of dedication and passion." This is the Hank Aaron edition

How was the ProPilot Kermit edition received? What was the response like? Has the success prompted you to get into other collaborations and create other such special editions?

That was a big success we’ve sold out all the watches. We are very happy with the way people received it. We keep thinking about what can be done next but for now, it’s the Kermit at least in terms of our communication.

"That was a big success we’ve sold out all the watches. We are very happy with the way people received it. We keep thinking about what can be done next but for now, it’s the Kermit at least in terms of our communication." This Kermit edition has been a huge success

Last year you mentioned that calibre 402 was on paper. Has there been any progress in developing the calibre?

Calibre 402 is still on paper, but there will be other releases in the calibre 400 series. For the 402, we’ll still have to wait and see when it might materialise.