Into the depths with Oris ...
As early as the 1960s and 1970s, Oris was producing highly successful diving watches. Since around the year 2000 the company has once again been devoting particular attention to this field. The development of its diving watches is driven forward continuously and has made good progress over the past two decades. In 2009, for instance, the Rotation Safety System came onto the market. It allows you to lock the rotating bezel of your watch before a dive so that it cannot be shifted by unintentional contact underwater. Another practical patent found in Oris diving watches is the Aquis Depth Gauge, a mechanical depth gauge built into the watch.
... and above the clouds ...
The best-known Oris watch models are probably the pilot's watches of the Big Crown series. The first Big Crown was sold as long ago as 1938. It featured a particularly large crown – in English, a big crown – which was intended to allow pilots to set or wind their watch without having to take off their leather flying gloves. The success of this model was so great that the Big Crown is still produced in various versions to this day.
... or to the art exhibition
Customers less taken with sport, however, also greatly appreciate the luxury watches from Oris. For them there is a dedicated Culture collection, with the Oris Artelier and Oris Classic models. With these beautiful luxury watches, admirers of art and music can enjoy and own the exceptional works of traditional Swiss watchmaking as well. Formal and elegant, they are entirely appropriate at every private view and every premiere, and can nevertheless also be worn in everyday working life at the office.
A piece of Swiss watchmaking history
The history of Oris is closely bound up with the history of Swiss watchmaking. The company was founded in 1904 in the small village of Hölstein in northern Switzerland. It took the name Oris from a brook flowing nearby. At first the watchmaking company produced pocket watches, but in 1925 it moved on to making these wearable as wristwatches as well. In time it also extended its range to alarm clocks. In 1934 the company suffered a setback as a result of the Swiss Watch Statute and subsequently became a leading voice in the struggle for its liberalisation and eventual abolition in 1971. By that point, however, the quartz crisis already represented a new threat to Oris. After a brief attempt to move into the production of quartz watches, as many other companies did, Oris returned in 1982 to its true craft and has since then again produced exclusively mechanical masterpieces of watchmaking.
