THE WORLD OF FINE WATCHES

SPOTLIGHT
www.watchtime.com

THE REBIRTH OF
THE BRAND
AND A TEST OF THE
ORIS AQUIS DEPTH
GAUGE
FROM THE PAGES
OF WATCHTIME
MAGAZINE

ORIS

MECHANICAL
At the nadir of the quartz crisis,
Ulrich Herzog became CEO of
moribund Oris and began steering
it to an all-mechanical future.
Heres his tale.
By Norma BuchaNaN

lrich Herzog, executive chairman

of Oris, remembers the day more
than 30 years ago, in the thick of
the quartz crisis, when Ernst Thomke
dropped by to see the Oris factory.
Herzog was the companys marketing
manager. Thomke, who, as general manager at Ebauches SA, then the parent
company of ETA, was one of the most
powerful men in the Swiss watch industry, was looking for a place to manufacture ETAs new Swatch Watch. Oris and
ETA were both part of the Swiss watch
holding company ASUAG. Why not shut
Oris down, or sell it off, and use the factory for Swatch, Thomke thought. After
all, Oris, like many other Swiss watch
brands at the time, made no money. The
brand was, literally, a waste of space.
As it happened, there was not enough
open space to accommodate Swatchs
automated production lines. Oris stayed
on in the building it had occupied for
some 75 years, surviving the quartz crisis,
if just barely, and all that followed. Now

an all-mechanical brand, making moderately priced watches, its headquartered

in the same building, in the town of
Hlstein, a few miles southeast of Basel.
Herzog, now 70, is still there, too: hes
been in charge of the companys day-today operations since 1982 and is its
largest shareholder. WatchTime visited
him to hear about his three decades at the
company.
HERZOG LANDED AT Oris by luck, if
you can call it that. The year was 1978.
His training was in banking, and after
school he had worked for a Basel-based
trading company and then for Chevron
Oil, at the companys Basel office. But
when his oil job required him to move to
Zurich, Herzog, who had spent most of
his life in or near Basel, decided to stay
put in his hometown. To do that, he needed
a job there. He found one at Oris, where
he took charge of marketing and sales.
The trouble was, Oris, like the rest of
the Swiss watch industry, was in dire

straits. The worlds first quartz watch,

from Seiko, had appeared on the market
nine years earlier. Swiss companies had
scrambled to convert to quartz, but the
process had been sclerotic. Between 1974
and 1978, Swiss watch production had
fallen from 87 million to 63 million
watches. As a result, hundreds of Swiss
watch companies had closed. (By 1980,
the figure would be over 1,000.) Swiss
watch industry employment was, of course,
also plummeting, and by 1980 would fall
to half its 1970 level. (It dropped even
more in the following years.)
Oris made some mechanical watches,
but mostly quartz ones. The quartz business was perilous, Herzog recalls. Quartz
watch prices were falling precipitously as
quartz-watch makers improved their
manufacturing technology and produced
higher volumes. Economies of scale came
into play. It was really a tough time. I
didnt know if I bought quartz movements at a certain price, could I sell them
at the price I paid or if it would be lower

PROFILE

Oris

still. You can imagine [what it is like] if

you buy something and you dont know if
it will be half price in another six
months, Herzog says.
The mechanical-watch business was,
for Oris at least, more stable. The company
had carved out a place for itself in certain
markets in Africa, mostly British Commonwealth countries including Kenya
and Nigeria, and in South America. In
1979, Oris even opened an assembly
plant in Nigeria, transferring eight Swiss
watchmakers to work there, because the
Nigerian government didnt allow the
import of finished watches.
The lifeline from Africa helped Oris for
a while. Then the crisis really started to
become nasty, Herzog says. The whole
[ASUAG] group was in jeopardy. Including, not surprisingly, Oris. They didnt
know what to do with us because we generated no profit. Do we close it down?
Oris headquarters in Hlstein, near Basel

ULTIMATELY, ASUAG decided instead

to sell it. In 1982, longtime Oris chief
Rolf Portmann led a management buyout
of the company. (He had joined Oris as a
young lawyer in 1956; now in his 80s, he
is the companys honorary chairman.) He
asked Herzog, who also took a stake in
Oris, to become CEO. Oris was one of
several brands ASUAG sold between
1982 and 1984. Others included Arsa,
Atlantic, Edox, Rotary, and Technos. (In
1983, ASUAG merged with Switzerlands
other watch group, SSIH, to form SMH,
now known as the Swatch Group.)
By the time of the buyout, Oris was a
shadow of its former self. From 1978 to
82, about 150 Oris employees had been
laid off; some 200 remained at the time of
the sale. Just 12 years earlier, in 1970,
Oris had been one of the 10 largest watch
companies in the world, employing 800
people and making 1.2 million watches
and clocks per year. It had had some 10
factories in Switzerland, including a dial
factory in Bienne and a decolletage facility
in Malleray. By 1982, though, it had just
three or four factories, Herzog recalls.
The Oris workforce soon shrank further. Herzog discontinued the companys
manufacturing operations and laid off
another 160 or so employees, leaving 35
or 40, enough to handle marketing, sales,

Ulrich Herzog and Rolf Portmann in 1982, the year they bought Oris

after-sales service, and some assembly.

From that point on, Oris had its watches
made by subcontractors.
The new owners immediate and
urgent task was selling their inventory of
200,000 to 300,000 watches, including
many mechanicals. We knew the first
thing we had to do was to reduce that
heavy stock and turn it into cash; thats
how we can build the future. We really
had to get it moving, Herzog says.
Unloading the watches was a struggle,
but Oris soon faced an even bigger one:
figuring out what to do next. The Swiss
watch industry was in chaos. It was being
restructured from top to bottom; movement production was being shifted to a
single central producer, ETA; mechanical
watches were dying but Swiss companies
lagged far behind the Japanese in making
quartz ones. For a time, Herzog says, the
company had no clear strategy. The Swiss
watch industry, Oris included, faced the
same dilemma all industries face in times
of unexpected, sudden upheavals. You
dont know where to go; you just have to
survive, Herzog says.

THEN HE HAD a brainstorm. In 1985, he

traveled to Japan and made a gamechanging discovery. In that birthplace of
quartz watches, young people were,
against all odds, falling in love with
mechanical ones. People between 20
and 25 wanted to have something they
could listen to, they could wind, Herzog
says. At the time, Japan was a technological and economic superpower, poised, it
seemed, to dictate consumer trends all
over the world. As with Walkmans, so
with watches, Herzog concluded: the
mechanical would come back.
He jumped on the idea, taking
mechanical movements from the old
stock he and Portmann had bought,
equipping them with additional functions
such as a moon-phase display and putting
them in new cases designed to appeal to
young urban sophisticates. One popular
design featured a center-mounted pointer
calendar, inspired by an Oris watch from
1938. (The pointer calendar became a kind
of Oris hallmark and is used in the line to
this day.) He shifted his focus from thirdworld markets to wealthy, industrialized

Oris at a Glance
Headquarters: Hlstein, switzerland,
about 20 miles southeast of Basel
OwnersHip: shareholders include executive Chairman ulrich Herzog (he holds
the largest, but not a majority, share),
Honorary Chairman rolf portmann and
members of his family
COMpanY CHieF: ulrich Herzog, in
charge of operations for 31 years
prOduCts: Mechanical watches priced
from $1,000 to $5,000, containing eta
movements assembled by sellita or
sellita-made movements. there are four
product groups: Culture (dress watches,
including those in the Jazz series),
diving, aviation and Motor sport
sales BY Market: asia, 48%; americas,
12%, europe, 35%; others, 5%
eMplOYees: 60 at facility in Hlstein, 70
more in Oris subsidiaries in the u.s.,
europe and asia

The center-mounted
pointer calendar,
which debuted in
1938, is one of the
brands signature
features.

ones. From that point on, we didnt sell

any mechanicals cheap, Herzog says.
He tackled the Japanese market first,
then moved on to Europe, where Oris had
been doing almost no business. It was
really tough to get the distribution, he
recalls. Traditional jewelry stores, even in
Japan, at first wanted nothing to do with
mechanical watches which, in their eyes,
were outmoded nuisances. You couldnt
go into a jewelry store: they would say
you are crazy. What are you doing with
these mechanical watches? We want
quartz. Herzog had to turn instead to

upmarket specialty stores that attracted

fashion-conscious customers, like the
British clothing retailer Paul Smith, which
was one of the first stores to sell the new
Oris mechanicals. Herzog set up a training program to teach store salespeople,
many of whom had grown up in a quartzdominated world, how a mechanical
watch works. Oris, Herzog notes with
some pride, was among the first watch
brands to make a push for mechanical
watches. We were pioneers, he says.
As the decade progressed, mechanical
watches gained traction. Year by year

PROFILE

Oris

An Oris Timeline
1904 Oris is founded in Hlstein, switzerland, by paul Cattin and Georges Christian, both from le locle. they name the
company after a nearby brook.

1939 to 1945 during world war ii, Oris is

better known for its alarm clocks than its
wristwatches.

An Oris alarm clock from the 1940s

Oris founders Cattin and Christian

1906 to 1925 the company opens ve

additional factories in switzerland.

A painting from 1929 shows Oris factories in

six Swiss towns.

1910 Oris, with 300 workers, is the

largest employer in Hlstein.
1927 when Georges Christian dies, Oris is
bought by a group of his familys friends.
the watchmaker Jacques-david leCoultre,
grandson of the famed
antoine
leCoultre, becomes president. He is also
managing director of
leCoultre and, after that company merges with edmond
Jaeger in 1937, of Jaeger- leCoultre.
1928 Oscar Herzog, brother-in-law of
Georges Christian (and not related to
Oriss current executive chairman, ulrich
Herzog) becomes managing director.

1952 Oris launches its rst automatic

watch.

1969 Oris reaches the peak of its

production, making 1.2 million watches.
the company employs 800 people and is
one of the 10 largest watch companies in
the world.
1970 the company is sold to the swiss
holding company asuaG (later to merge
with another holding company, ssiH, to
form what is now the swatch Group). that
same year, Oris introduces its rst
chronograph, the Chronoris, which is also
the rst auto-racing-related Oris watch.
later, auto-themed watches would become a pillar of the brand.

1988 Oris launches alarm wristwatches

incorporating old a. schild movements
that Herzog has bought.

1997 the company launches the worldtimer, containing Caliber 690, which lets
the wearer adjust the time forward or
backward in one-hour jumps using pushers
on the side of the case. the watch also has
a patented system in which the date jumps
backward if the local time is moved back
over midnight.

Alarm watch from 1988

1992 the company shifts its production

entirely to mechanical watches.

The first Oris

automatic

1956 Oscar Herzog hires rolf portmann

and assigns him the task of working to
overturn a swiss law that is preventing Oris
from switching from making pin-lever
escapements to making more expensive
swiss lever ones. the law, called the watch
statute, passed in 1934, says no watch
company can make such a change without
the governments permission. Oris has
been denied permission repeatedly.

The Chronoris, Oriss first chronograph

1996 Oris launches a watch in conjunction

with saxophonist andy sheppard. it is the
rst watch in the brands series of jazz
watches. in subsequent years, the company would introduce watches bearing the
names of jazz greats louis armstrong,
Miles davis, duke ellington, Charlie parker
and others.

2002 the red winding rotor, used on most

of the brands automatic watches, becomes a trademarked symbol of Oris.

1982 rolf portmann and ulrich Herzog buy

Oris.
1984 the company introduces a watch
with center-mounted calendar pointer,
based on an Oris watch from 1938. the
calendar pointer would become one of the
brands best-known features.

The red winding rotor is an Oris hallmark.

2006 a watch bearing the name of freediver Carlos Coste is introduced. Called the
Carlos Coste limited edition Chronograph,
its the rst watch in Oriss divers collection.

Mid-80s Herzog starts shifting Oriss

production away from quartz watches and
back to mechanical ones.

1966 after a decade of campaigning to

have the watch statute reversed, portmann succeeds, and Oris is allowed to
make swiss lever escapement watches. its
rst is the automatic Caliber 645.
1968 Oris is awarded its rst chronometer
certicate, by the Observatoire
astronomique et Chronomtrique in
neuchtel, for Caliber 652.

The WorldTimer, with Caliber 690

2008 the company launches its BC4 Flight

timer, which tells the time in three time
zones, one of which is adjusted using a
vertical crown at 2 oclock.
The Andy Sheppard watch, the first of the
Oris jazz watches

2013 Oris introduces the aquis depth

Gauge, which indicates depth by means of
a circular channel surrounding the dial.
Oris holds a patent on the device: it is the
rst time such a gauge has been used in a
wristwatch.

Oris shifted more of its production out of

quartz and into mechanicals. In 1992,
Herzog says, Oris stopped making quartz
watches altogether.
In the meantime, Herzog had made
another important decision: unlike most
other mechanical-watch brands, which
focused on the top tier of the market, Oris
was going to be a value-oriented brand
aimed at everyday people. We wanted to
produce watches for you and me, and not
just for some high-end people who have
more money than they know what to do
with. That is our mission: to make watches
for people who work and want to have a
nice product. Today, most Oris watches
are between $1,000 and $5,000, with the
heaviest concentration between $2,000
and $3,000.
As the mechanical-watch revival
gained force, Herzog looked for ways to
distinguish his models from the growing
competition. He began embellishing the
ETA movements he was buying they
were assembled by Sellita, with whom
ETA contracted to do assembly with
various complications to give his watches
a distinctive look. We really started to
become a mechanical company with our
own faces. Just to take standard movements from ETA wouldnt have been
enough, he says.
TODAY HERZOG FOLLOWS the same
principle; he has vowed to put technical
innovations on the front burner. This
years introduction of the Aquis Depth
Gauge is a good example of the path hes
pursuing. The watch measures water
depth by allowing water to flow into a
circular channel on the perimeter of the
dial. The watch has a patent: a depth
gauge of this type has never been used on
a watch before. Another such technical
milestone was the Rotation Safety System, which prevents the rotating bezel
from being knocked off position accidentally during a dive. The device, launched
in 2009, is used on watches in the ProDiver collection. Herzog says he will pick
up the pace in launching technical innovations and aims to bring out one new
patented device every year from now on.
Whatever new doodads his research
and development team comes up with,

PROFILE

Oris

theyll need to adhere to Herzogs golden

rule: keep costs, and hence prices, down.
When we start to develop a product, we
say this product must be in this price
range. The designers have to work within
those limits, he says. With the new
depth gauge, for instance, it was very
important to keep the price low. At first
we thought it was such a clever idea that
maybe we should make the price higher,
but then decided at the end that the price
determines if someone can buy it. The
watch sells for $3,500.
Low prices, of course, require high
volumes. If you start making small
quantities per model, youre not able to
keep the prices down. That is key to our
strategy. We must have volume. Herzog
wont say how many watches he makes,
but sources put the figure at nearly
100,000 pieces per year.
The brands cost restrictions mean
Oris will never make its own movements,
Herzog says. Right now he buys ETA
movements, assembled by Sellita, and
Sellita clones of ETA movements. If he
didnt have access to large numbers of
movements at moderate prices, hed have
to raise his own prices and the brand
would lose its raison dtre, he says.
His stance has put him at odds with
the Swatch Group in its current drive to
force watch brands to make their own
movements. He finds the Swatch Groups
campaign ironic. After all, in the early
80s, he recalls, ASUAG and the banks
that bailed it out wanted Oris and other
brands to shut down their movement factories and buy from ETA. That arrangement became the basis of the industrys
life-saving restructuring: production was
streamlined and duplicative labor elimi-

nated. Now the Swatch Group wants to

curtail ETAs movement sales to outside
brands, forcing the brands to become
movement makers once again, three
decades after they shuttered their factories at ASUAGs request. Companies like
his cant afford to do that, he says.
Herzog voiced his objections to the
Swatch Groups efforts in Bern in June.
There, at a hearing held by COMCO, the
Swiss Competition Commission, he and
many other Swiss watch executives laid
out their case that the Swatch Group was
being unfair. More than unfair, actually:
I told them this was ridiculous. They
told us to close down the factory [in
the early 1980s], and now they tell us
were stupid not to build our own movement factory, he says with a laugh, not
entirely amused.
Whatever COMCOs ruling about the
long-term future (the commission is
allowing some additional cuts next year,
but has said nothing about the years after
that), Oris will be able to get enough
movements, he says. The brand has been
a big Sellita customer for more than 40
years, and hence gets priority for the ETA
movements it assembles. Plus, Sellita is
building up its capacity to make more
movements in house. In short, Oris
should be set for a long time, ETA cutbacks or no, Herzog says.

The ProDiver
Pointer Moon and
Aquis DepthGauge, examples
of Oriss technical
innovations

TACTICS
We strapped the Oris Aquis Depth Gauge
to the wrist of a diver to see how it, and its
depth gauge, performed under the pressure
of a deep-sea submersion.
By JENS Koch
PhoToS By oK-PhoToGraPhy aND FrEDErIK FraNKE

TEST

Oris Aquis Depth Gauge

ens Kppe squints in the

bright sunlight and inhales deeply. Then he
gasps a few times like a
fish out of water to force
a bit more air into the
outermost corners of his
lungs. Kppe, a free diver,
acts as if he is breathing
his last breath. And so
he is, for awhile: during
the brief, subaqueous
eternity hes about to
experience, these lastminute gulps are all the
air he will get.
Kppe slowly submerges into the
depths, descending hand under hand
along a vertical cable. He pauses every
few meters, squeezes his nostrils shut and
presses air into his ears to prevent his
eardrums from rupturing. He glides farther downward, passing first the cables
10-meter mark, then its 20-meter mark.
He can hold his breath for more than six
minutes, thanks to the intensive training
hes undergone. Expanding the lungs is
half the trick; the other half is to expel as
much air as possible so that he can inhale
fresh, oxygen-rich air.

Were here with him on Tenerife in the

Canary Islands to test the Oris Aquis
Depth Gauge. Its strapped to Kppes
wrist as he descends to 30 meters, then
turns around and begins the strong, regular, pulling motions that propel him
toward the surface.
The watchs depth gauge is based on
an appealingly simple principle: the
Boyle-Mariotte law, which states that the
volume of a gas is inversely proportional
to the pressure exerted on it. For example, doubling the pressure on a given volume of air will halve that volume. Depth
gauges based on this principle arent new:
they consist of a nearly circular tubule
thats closed on one end and marked with
a calibrated scale. The depth is read at the
position on the scale where compressed
air meets penetrating water. Watches
with this type of depth gauge arent new,
either. The first was probably the FavreLeuba Bathy 50, which debuted in 1966.
Other manufacturers followed. But
watches of this sort always had a separate
tubule, positioned either above or around
the crystal, which made them somewhat
unwieldy. Oris is the first manufacturer
to integrate the depth gauge into the
watchs crystal. To achieve this, the engi-

We tested the Oris during a free dive, in which the diver

descends as far as possible on just one breath.

TEST

Oris Aquis Depth Gauge

The watch is very large (46 mm wide and 15 mm thick)

but nonetheless comfortable to wear.

neers milled a uniform groove and an

exterior opening at 12 oclock to allow
water to penetrate into the crystal.
Together with the crystals insulation, this
creates a channel that can hold water.
Oris prints the gauges scale in yellow on
the underside of the crystal and directly
alongside the pressurized tubule, where
its readily legible. The company chose
yellow because tests show that yellow
calibrations are easiest to read.
A SPECIAL FEATURE of this type of
diving scale is that the values increase
exponentially. This means that depths
from zero to 10 meters are most accurately displayed; those between 10 and
20 meters are legible only to the nearest
meter; and at depths below 30 meters, the
scale is accurate only to the nearest 10
meters. Of course, this is fine in shallow
water, but its a disadvantage at greater
depths. Then again, an amateur diver
shouldnt descend below 30 meters, and
the scale is accurate enough to that depth.
One advantage of this type of gauge is
that its display is instantaneous. Because
of its construction, there is no friction to

overcome, so it immediately registers

each vertical motion in the water. This is
not always the case with mechanical
depth gauges that indicate depth using
hands. In a hand-type depth gauge, the
pressure of the water compresses a membrane, spring or similar component. This
motion is then conveyed to a hand that
sweeps along a calibrated scale. Gauges
with hands often respond only to big
changes in depth because they need a lot
of energy to prevail over friction.
Our test showed that Oriss depth
gauge is remarkably accurate. When our
diving computer indicated 24.7 meters,
the watch showed approximately 25
meters: a difference of just 1.2 percent.
(According to the diving computers manufacturer, its readings differ by less than 1
percent from the actual depth.) Due to
the construction of a Boyle-Mariotte
depth gauge, differences between air and
water temperature can sometimes cause
imprecise readings: if the air temperature
is 40 degrees C in the sun, for instance,
and the water is 20 degrees C, the volume
of air in the gauge will shrink by about 5
percent when the watch is submerged,

The watch contains the

Sellita SW 200, a clone
of the ETA 2824.

SPECS
ORIS AQUIS DEPTH GAUGE
Jens Kppe (right) is a free diver and diving instructor and proprietor of the
Scubamarine diving school in Ulm, Germany.

Manufacturer: Oris SA, Ribigasse 1,

CH-4434 Hlstein, Switzerland
Reference number: 733 7675 4154 Set
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, date,
depth gauge, stop-seconds function
Movement: Sellita SW 200, automatic,
28,800 vph, 26 jewels, Incabloc shock
absorption, Etachron ne adjustment
with eccentric screw, 38-hour power
reserve, diameter = 25.6 mm, height =
4.6 mm

The Oris depth gauge shows about 25 meters and our diving computer
reads 24.7 meters a very small difference.

due to cooling. However, the effect will

usually be less than that because most
divers spend some time floating on the
waters surface before diving, so the air in
the watch has time to cool, thus lessening
the temperature difference between it and
the water.
IT ISNT JUST THE DEPTH gauge that
deserves praise: the watch has other
impressive features. Kppe liked its easy-tograsp, fluted bezel, although it requires a
fair amount of force to rotate. It clicks
neatly into place in half-minute increments. The black satin-finished ceramic
inlays on the bezel not only look good,
they also prevent scratches on the exposed upper surface. Our test left obvious

traces on the partially polished clasp, but

no scratches could be seen on the case.
The watch is also easy to read, Kppe
said: the luminous markings on the bezel
glow clearly in the dark, as do the hands
and indices. The dive time and the time of
day can be quickly read by daylight, too.
Another advantage of Oriss depth scale:
no additional hands clutter the tidy dial.
The crown screws into the case and is
easy to use. The crown protector, which is
screwed on, offers extra security in case
of a sharp blow. The crown, along with
the fully threaded, screw-in back and
thick crystal, provides water resistance of
500 meters despite the channel for the
depth gauge. This offers a sufficient margin of safety for diving and also ensures

Case: Stainless steel, unidirectional

rotating bezel with ceramic inlays, domed
sapphire crystal is nonreective on the
inside, screwed crown; fully threaded,
screw-in back made of stainless steel;
water resistant to 500 m
Strap and clasp: Rubber strap, stainlesssteel folding clasp that enables strap
to be lengthened in steps, additional
stainless-steel bracelet
Rate results:
Deviations in seconds per 24 hours
Dial up

+2

Dial down

+3

Crown up

+5

Crown down

+1

Crown left

+1

Crown right

+3

Greatest deviation of rate

Average deviation

4
+2.5

Average amplitude:
Flat positions

300

Hanging positions

281

Dimensions: Diameter = 46 mm,

height = 15 mm, weight = 181 g
Price: $3,500

that the watch can withstand a sudden

increase in pressure caused by, for
instance, a jump off a high diving board.
The strap, made of rubber, can be
adjusted: another useful feature. The
clasp has two buttons you can use to
lengthen the strap. You do so in four
increments, which provide a total of 16
additional millimeters of length. You can
make the strap another four centimeters
longer using the holes in the strap, which
are like those in a conventional, prongbuckle strap. Because you can lengthen
the strap so much, you can wear the
watch over the sleeve of even the thickest
wetsuit. This is an important plus that
many divers watches lack, Kppe said.
The straps end is shaped like an
anchor to ensure that it cant slide
through its clasp. Only after you compress its end can it be threaded through
the buckle. This guarantees that your
watch wont fall off, even in the unlikely
event that the doubly pronged clasp
releases by accident. The watch comes
with a metal bracelet and a screwdriver to
use when switching from one strap to the
other. (Tools for cleaning the depth gauge
are also included.)

THE AQUIS DEPTH GAUGE is well

suited for diving. Its big, bold, nononsense appearance instantly identifies
it as a genuine divers watch. It also looks
very sporty thanks to the massive screwed
lugs; black, satin-finished ceramic scale
around the rotatable bezel; yellow dive
scale; and rubber strap. And it doesnt
look gigantic either, even though it has an
ample diameter of 46 mm.
Nor does it feel terribly large: it fits
surprisingly snugly thanks to its long,
deeply curved lugs and its flexible rubber
strap. The fact that the end of the strap
lies against the wrist, protecting the skin
from the clasp, makes the watch very
comfortable, as does the cases smooth
back. The workmanship is a sight for
sore eyes: everything is neatly crafted,
although we did find minor tool marks
on the inner side of the strap.
A table for converting from meters to
feet and vice versa is engraved on the
caseback. The watch contains a Sellita
movement, the automatic SW 200, a
clone of ETAs time-honored Caliber
2824. Oris adorned it with its signature
red rotor. Famed as a robust movement,
it is also a precise one, achieving good

TEST

Oris Aquis Depth Gauge

The clasp enables you to

lengthen the strap in
four increments, for a
total of 16 mm. The
holes in the strap let you
extend it another 4 cm.

SCORES
ORIS AQUIS DEPTH GAUGE
Strap and clasp (max. 10 points):
The strap can be lengthened as much as
needed to t over a wetsuit. Both strap
and clasp are sturdy and secure.
9
Operation (5): The screwed crown
and the divers bezel are easy to operate;
the watch also has a stop-seconds
function.
5
Case (10): The thick, domed sapphire
crystal is highly pressure-resistant; ceramic
in bezel resists scratches; craftsmanship is
good except for a few tiny tool marks. 8
Design (15): The watch is attractive,
sporty and distinctive and has appealing
details such as the screwed crown
protectors.
13
Legibility (5): The legibility is good in all
lighting conditions thanks to the very
high contrast between the hands and dial
and because luminous material is used
even on the seconds hand and bezel. 5
Wearing comfort (10): The supple
rubber strap and smooth caseback make
this big Oris comfortable to wear.
9
Movement (20): A clone of the reliable
and time-tested ETA 2824.
11
Rate results (10): This Oris impressed its
testers, who measured only slight
deviations among the several positions
and a small average gain; the amplitude
remained stable, too.
9
Overall value (15): Very good costbenet ratio; other mechanical watches
with depth gauges cost several times as
much as this one.
14
TOTAL:

83 POINTS

results on our timing machine. It gained

between one and five seconds per day in
the various positions. The average daily
gain was just 2.5 seconds per day. The
amplitude remained high and stable in all
positions.
The watchs rate is praiseworthy and
so, too, is its cost-benefit ratio. The Aquis
Depth Gauge is only $3,500 (theres also
a slightly smaller and less water-resistant
model with no depth gauge, the Aquis
Date, for just $1,650). The watchs
functions, craftsmanship and numerous
elaborate details would justify a higher
price. There are other watches with
mechanical depth gauges on the market

from Jaeger-LeCoultre, IWC and

Blancpain and they cost several times
more than Oriss watch. They have additional features the Oris does not have,
such as a second time zone, a helium
escape valve, and/or a split hand that
allows you to keep track of your maximum depth throughout the dive, all of
which contribute to the higher price.
Panerai has a watch with an electronic
depth gauge, and it is also much more
expensive than the Oris.
The Aquis Depth Gauge is a handsome, distinctive and sporty watch that
combines good craftsmanship, accurate
timekeeping and a low price.