Oris is reaching a huge milestone, and that’s the 60th anniversary of their renowned Divers Sixty-Five, a watch collection that’s always been imbued in 1960’s nostalgia. Today they’re updating the Divers Date, a collection that on first glance may look quite familiar to you, but upon closer inspection reveals an entirely new concept.
Apart from the obvious changes such as the new dial options, which have now moved from the previous more outgoing array, to what can now be perceived as a more subdued industrial chic black, blue, and beige – the watch has gone through a substantial technical upgrade in both its aesthetic and its functionality.
Oris has always catered to a loyal base of watch enthusiasts, ensuring they only produce high value mechanical watches with meaningful heritage behind them. The new Divers Date really follows along this line of thinking, but augments the owners experience with this new release. Some of the notable aesthetic changes include a slight thickening and increased weight to the case, to create a touch more presence and more compact feeling on the wrist, as explained by their designer Lukas Bühlmann. The side profile of the case has also been reshaped, giving it a more mature and substantial style.
The most impressive material upgrade has to be the new ceramic bezel insert, which was previously aluminum. This was a much-anticipated upgrade for the collection, seeing that most other watch brands have moved to ceramic in the past few years, even in heritage inspired collections. Ceramic is technically superior and will provide a higher level of scratch resistance, as well as an increased sheen, although some purists could still prefer the more vintage feel of a classic aluminum insert.
If you look even closer at this new collection, the hour markers now have bevelled edges, nearly imperceptible if viewed on its own but it should provide readability improvement if compared directly to its predecessor. Oris also seems to have dropped the faux patina Super-Luminova on the indices and hands, giving the watch a more raw original appearance. The bracelet has also been refined to include a quick strap change system, but what has really caught my attention on this release is the increased water resistance rating from the previous 100 meters, to the now doubled 200 meters. The Oris Calibre 733 that powers the new collection remains the same, although it recently went through some refinements allowing it to hold 41 hours of power reserve – and despite the increased water resistance it’s now offered with an exhibition caseback.
This is an exciting new collection that retains what enthusiasts love about Oris, but it also brings some much needed upgrades making the watch much more capable from a usability standpoint, as well as modernizing its appearance to bring it up to speed with the rest of the market. The case size of the watch has been adjusted to the goldilocks size of 39mm, which really seems on-trend this year for brands that are implementing size changes. The retail price is set at $2,700. Oris
