400 kicked off back in the autumn, it was housed in Oris’s most popular watch to date, the Aquis date 43.5mm. 400 pieces, which isn’t one I expected to see any time soon. Instead, however, we opted for the most recent Cal. In fact, that aforementioned pointer date, the Hölstein Edition 2021, is a fantastic watch, enough that if this weren’t our nautical issue it would likely be gracing the cover.

403 with the probably most iconic complication Oris ever did, small second, pointer date.” 400 last fall and already have brought to market two new Calibres – Cal. There are a lot of things in the pipeline! We just presented Cal. A single movement is ok a platform on which to build an entire family of movements is something else entirely.Īs Rolf explains, “We want to roll out Cal 400 into further collections, and we will add more complications in time. But there’s another that’s perhaps just as important – if not moreso: versatility. It’s an impressive movement for any watchmaker but for Oris, whose self-professed raison d’etre is accessible watchmaking, it’s incredible. Specs-wise, it’s a watch lovers wish list: a five-day power reserve thanks to twin extended mainsprings a more stable rotor system to charge that reserve up all the better and resistance to magnetic forces of 2,250 gauss thanks to silicon aplenty throughout the movement. Let’s forget for a moment that the movement is laid out like a teddy bear, even if it’s the only movement I’d call cute. I’m sure we can all agree, that’s a solid list of ingredients for a shiny new movement and it’s one that Oris have actually managed to pull off in quite spectacular fashion. So why this emphasis on an in-house designed movement? Why do it in the first place? Well, according to Oris CEO Rolf Studer, the answer’s simple “we wanted to make a movement that would do what we actually wanted in a mechanical watch: anti magnetic, long power reserve, little maintenance.” In fact, it’s what a lot of larger brands do on the regular. These days though, you can buy a third-party movement and modify it without too much outcry. They’re hard to build of course, taking years of R&D and prototyping to get anywhere, but it’s the kind of horological flex that shows just what a watchmaker can do. I don’t mean some new variation of a longstanding calibre or a stock piece with a shiny new custom rotor, I mean a proper, developed-from-the-ground-up movement.

Oris calibre 400 green