Every year, around 15,000 wild red deer are culled in Switzerland in a highly regulated process that protects the countryside by limiting population numbers.
This has created an opportunity for a company of conservationists, Cervo Volante, to create hand-crafted products from deer hides that would otherwise have been burned.
Oris, which has its own sustainability mission dubbed Change for the Better, has teamed up with Cervo Valante to make a range of deer leather straps that are seen for the first time in three Big Crown Pointer Date watches.
The Oris x Cervo Volante watches come in three colours with gradient dials inspired by Alpine scenes where the deer roam.
“Right from the start, it was such a natural fit,” says Cervo Volante co-founder Dr Kadri Vunder Fontana.
“Together, we’ve developed the Big Crown X Cervo Volante collection, three watches with straps made of Cervo Volante deer leather. We’ve also developed some complementary accessories, with more to come. And this is the beginning of a long-term partnership, not a one-off,” she adds.
The grey, blue or green Oris x Cervo Volante watches come in 38mm steel cases housing an Oris 754 automatic movement powering hours, minutes, seconds and a central hand showing the date on a track at the edge of the dial.
They come with complementary deer leather straps in dark brown, oak brown or cognac.
Each watch is delivered with a leather travel pouch and card holder crafted in Cervo Volante deer leather.
They are on sale from this month priced at CHF 1,850.
Shouldn’t that read, “where the deer roamED”?