As reported by WatchPro’s editor-in-chief Rob Corder in September 2022, when Oris introduces a timepiece housing one of its manufacture calibres, sales spike.
This is even more noticeable when the calibre itself is a novelty. So the market is looking with deep interest to the new in-house, manual-wind Big Crown Calibre 473, which debuted earlier this week in Switzerland.
A watch that doesn’t need to try too hard to succeed in being eye-catching, the steel case is a neat and on-trend 38mm, waterproof to 50 metres, with brushed-steel sloping lugs and a smooth bezel.
Dial-side, the piece has a comforting, familiar feel. The Big Crown, first introduced in 1938, has become a staple in the Oris collection, the red date pointer being a much-loved signature function.
The powder-blue face takes on a number of shades from misty heather to steely grey depending on the light. A hue rarely seen in watchmaking, it provides the perfect backdrop for the clear, white Arabic numerals and small seconds sub-dial at 6 o’clock. Indices, numerals and sword-shaped hands are all coated with Super-LumiNova.
Following Oris’s drive towards corporate sustainability it features an interesting strap collaboration — a partnership that began last year. Cervo Volante is a leather company established in 2016 by two friends who, shocked by the wastage of hides after ecological red deer culls in Switzerland, set out to turn the situation around. Today they produce shoes, bags and other small leather goods.
Impressed by Oris’s eco goals, Cervo Volante decided to partner with the brand on straps. Being sourced from wild animals, the leather often bears the battle scars of the deer. Dyed using only natural colours and processes, the straps patinate with age turning from a light tan to a deep chestnut over time. And, in another brand first, the Big Crown Calibre 473 boasts a steel butterfly clasp with fine adjustment system.
But it is inside the case that the biggest development is found. The manual-wind Calibre 473 represents the latest development in the Oris Movement Creation Program that began in 2014 — Oris’s 110-year anniversary — with the aim of bringing in-house watchmaking back to the brand for the first time since the 1970s quartz crisis.
The Program has so far seen the hand-wound Calibre 110, the first in the 100 Series. This set the standard for what was to follow and included 10 days autonomy and a power-reserve indicator.
Various complications followed, culminating with the skeletonised Calibre 115. In 2020, the brand’s first 21st-century self-winding calibres debuted in the 400 Series with five-day power reserves, improved anti-magnetism and a recommended 10-year service interval.
Now, with the Big Crown Calibre 473, Oris has brought new life to one of its signature models. Inspired by the self-winding Calibre 400, the manual-wind, double-barrelled movement has 120 hours of power reserve with an indicator on the reverse of the movement, improved anti-magnetism and, demonstrating the brand’s confidence in it, a 10-year warranty.
Four years in development, the calibre is simple to assemble and maintain, aligning it with Oris’s aim of producing robust, wearable timepieces. According to Oris chairman Ulrich W. Herzog, bringing movement creation back in-house was a major goal for the brand.
“Oris had created more than 270 calibres before 1980. It’s part of our story… so it was a natural step,” he says. “[The] know-how is in-house, manufacturing is by third parties, and we share assembly.”
Writer, photographer and Denmark’s leading watch specialist Kristian Haagen was at the launch of the Calibre 473. A collector of the highest horology, what did he think of the new watch?
“The Big Crown is a cornerstone of sorts and with this new calibre it is really interesting,” he says. “When you see the 473 through the caseback it’s like a three-quarter plate. It’s very much the Saxon way of making a movement, very industrialised, without superfluous decoration.
“And putting the power-reserve on the back is genius — instead of cluttering the dial with an extra indicator. Usually you don’t turn your Oris around to admire the movement, this one is the first.
“It’s a classic, and everything comes together. The powder blue is beautiful, 38mm is a really, really good size and then there is the strap — it’s so very Swiss-made and tells such a great story.”
But the final word belongs to co-CEO Rolf Studer. Justifiably proud of the new watch, he says, “It brings back the original Oris complication — a date pointer with small seconds and a hand-winding movement.
“The size is perfect for a contemporary and almost dressy watch and the powder blue is a gorgeous colour. I really believe that this is the next level.”
The Oris Big Crown Calibre 473 is in store now, priced £3,700.
Cervo Volante: sustainable, traceable, natural leather
When two women met and connected while climbing in the mountains around Zurich, the idea for a new sustainable venture was born.
Dr Kadri Vunder Fontana, a businesswoman and chemist, and Dr Conny Thiel-Egenter, a biologist and a keen hunter would discuss work, values and life in general as they hiked. One recurring topic was the amount of raw material that was wasted through legal hunting. This was in 2016.
“Being responsible people, who respect animals and care about our planet and its future, making use of such waste was a topic very close to our hearts,” says Dr Vunder Fontana. Increasingly the duo questioned whether “it would it be possible to produce some “natural luxury” out of that wild, valuable but wasted raw material.
The next two years saw hides being collected, makers being sourced and investors coming on board, before the Cervo Volante flagship store was opened in Zurich on 20 April 2018. Despite the boutique closing, each year since then sales have doubled and Cervo Volante now consists of a core team of seven.
The company name, translating as ‘stag beetle’, is a symbol of recycling, rebirth and regeneration. Feeding on rotting material, processing it before returning it back to the earth to provide nutrients for new life, the beetle lives for up to six years as a larva in the soil before it pupates and flies.
“Hence, the stag beetle motif on the inside of the Oris deerskin watch strap is a physical reminder of the Cervo Volante philosophy that turn scrap hides into beautiful products.
The co-owners use the term “consciously wild” to describe their USP. “Both in terms of raw material (wild animals) and the look and feel of the products as they show the uniqueness of nature through scars, scratches and imperfections,” explains Dr Vunder Fontana.
“Leather from wild red deer is not a mass product. It reflects the free life in the wilderness. Every leather and, therefore, every product is unique and tells its own story. Scratches, scrapes, stiches and bumps give our products this exciting imperfection.
“In the sense of the Japanese aesthetic concept wabi-sabi, we believe in the artistic beauty that is hidden, raw and simple.”
Furthermore, Dr Vunder Fontana and Dr Thiel-Egenter say that their product is truly one of the most sustainable leathers on the market — a local by-product that involves no animal farming, is upcycled using no harmful chemicals and requires no resources for feed production.
Cervo Volante’s commitment to sustainability ranges from minimal transport to the development of natural tanning and colouring processes at partner tanneries, minimal use of harmful chemicals and heavy metals and the selection of materials based on sustainability — wood instead of metal, no glue, leather reinforcements instead of composite textile and ecologically certified alternate materials.
The idea of making watch straps grew from the symbolism of time running out. “A watch is a symbol of time that at the moment ticks against us, unless we all take urgent action,” says Dr Vunder Fontana.
From this starting point, the partnership with Oris happened organically. “We loved the design and the colours of Oris products. And we appreciate that they have cared for decades already about sustainability.”
By continuing to work with luxury brands (Dr Vunder Fontana and Dr Thiel-Egenter have also partnered with furniture-maker Vitra among other high-end names), Cervo Volante hopes to bring about change for the better.
“We are paving the way to make natural imperfections in products mainstream so that the whole fashion and furniture industries can change and start using more raw materials that are not so perfect and produce less waste as a result,” says Dr Vunder Fontana.
“We are also paving the way to use waste as a raw material and minimise the use of chemicals or other harmful substances in our products and we hope that more companies will follow suit.”
