How One Of The Last Few Indie Swiss Watchmakers Stays True To Its Roots

In its 114 years of existence, Oris has weathered substantial troubles in the watchmaking industry and remained true to its nature. Find out how the company has managed to “go its own way”

To commemorate the release of the 2018 novelties and the launch of the new branding of Swiss watchmaker Oris, we sat down with the regional manager Michael Meier who explained what this new concept means for the company and just what mechanical watch enthusiasts can look forward to.

Above Michael Meier

Philippine Tatler: What is the motivation behind the rebranding and what does your tagline mean?

Michael Meier: What we have done is sharpen our message. We took a look at the brand and its entire heritage and asked ourselves ‘what is important here?’ The first is the name. For us, Oris is a strong and established name. We don’t expect everyone to know what ‘Holstein’ stands for, but it is actually the place where our factory is located. It is a small village that’s quite close to Basel. Finally, ‘1904’ was when the company started. These three in combination represent our roots.

There’s a lot of history to draw from, and there’s also not many brands that have been around for that long and have been producing watches without interruption for more than 100 years. Truly this is something we are proud of and it also gives us responsibility for the future.

The tagline ‘Go your own way’ shows what we are doing everyday. We’re a small, independent company that’s dedicated to what we do, and what we do is build mechanical watches. Customers know that we remain focused on what we do, and that we will keep developing watches that make sense. We will keep developing special complications that make sense and keep our watches at a price that also makes sense.

PT: What is special about the new collection?

MM: The ProPilot Calibre 114 employs an in-house movement based on our 10-day power reserve. On one side you have the10-day power reserve indicator. As you get closer to the last day of the reserve, you get a more accurate reading of how much time is left. Meanwhile, our GMT indication is special because it also measures half-hour differences.

Above Calibre 114

PT: How did you arrive with this mix of complications?

MM: This is an aviation watch, and when you talk about aviation watch with professional pilots, you find out that they have very clear needs. One thing is to be able to read the time very clearly and quickly. Also, when you ask what functionality they need, it’s GMT. When pilots fly, they record their time in UTC so they have to take the time differences out of the picture. The GMT complication is actually the most logical addition you can put into an aviation watch. When we were thinking about the next step for this movement, we thought about how to make it even more useful for pilots and travellers, so we came up with the half-hour time zone. This is a result of our conversations with pilots and our own experience travelling.

PT: How does your branding affect the kinds of watches you create?

MM: We have our four worlds: culture, diving, aviation, and motorsport. In all of these areas, we work with professional users to determine what’s important to them and how we can add value and useful functionalities to our watches. Our diving watches, for instance, has a depth gauge that measures how deep you’re diving in a simple way. So it’s always trying to figure out the next step and find out what is required in that field and finding a way to integrate them into our watches to further develop all these worlds.

We also draw from our own history and knowledge. Our aviation watch history dates back to the very early years of flying, back when they first attempted to fly over the Alps. Our direction comes from our roots.

Above ProPilot Calibre 114

PT: How is the fact that Oris is one of the last few independent Swiss watchmakers plays into managing the brand?

MM: It has given us great liberty and flexibility to think about the long-term development of the brand—to see how we can continue to build this brand and build the experience around the brand without getting distracted by corporate structures and such. We take our fate into our own hands.

PT: How would you summarise the brand’s values?

MM: Things must make sense. When we create a watch, we put in functionalities that make sense. We also try to maintain it at an affordable price, because there is no point in adding a GMT complication if nobody can pay for it. The same is true when we build a store. We want to make sure that it creates the right experience for the customer. Even in our office, the way we operate and do things—we ask ourselves if it makes sense. This way we stay true to our old values and we have a clear path going forward.

PT: What can we look forward to in the future?

MM: There’s always something new. We have a lot of ideas, whether it’s complications or a design decisions. There’s always a way to improve things. Not just the watches, but also the catalogues, the shops, and the Oris experience.

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How One Of The Last Few Indie Swiss Watchmakers Stays True To Its Roots