Every year, we look to the most novel novelties to steal the headlines. Entirely new model lines. Reborn collections that haven’t seen the light of day in decades. Brands themselves resurrected from the dead. Even new and inventive colourways that no one saw coming. Those are the things we imagine making the most noise as the busiest week of the watchmaking calendar rolls by. But sometimes, just sometimes, it is the quietest news that makes the most difference. Sometimes, it’s the little things that end up having the biggest impact…
On the surface, the new line of Oris Aquis pieces looks very similar to the old line of Oris Aquis pieces. Except, it isn’t. In fact, it’s not just that one or two new interpretations of an existing design have been released without upending the apple cart, but rather that the existing design itself has been discarded in favour of a ground-up revision of this, one of Oris’s most fabled families.
Oris Aquis Blue Date - Credit WatchGecko
Yes, what you’re looking at here is a pair of representatives from Oris’s new and improved Aquis collection. The new line now boasts models powered by the Oris 733 movement (a reworked version of the Sellita SW 200-1) in 36.5 mm, 41.5 mm, and 43.5 mm, and the option of a few Oris 400-driven models in 43.5 mm also.
While that in itself isn’t ground-breaking news, Oris tells us (via a press release that does its futile best to convince us that some of the features listed are “bespoke” — ignore that, it distracts from what the brand is trying to say) that many aspects of the design have been revisited.
Oris Aquis Date Upcycled - Credit WatchGecko
The cases are now slimmer. We don’t know by exactly how much yet, but slimmer they are. The lugs and the crown have also been softened somewhat. While hard specs aren’t provided, I’ve studied the old and the new side-by-side and it does seem fair to say the newer models have more fluidic elegance about them (which is not something I knew I needed from an Oris Aquis, but something I’m surprisingly glad to have at my disposal).
The thing I love about this “release” is that it’s barely a release at all. Strangely, it is exactly what my colleagues and I at The Real Time Show have been discussing recently as we attempt to identify what it is brands need to do in an evermore competitive market.
Oris Aquis Date Upcycled - Credit WatchGecko
We came down on a couple of points of which Oris seems to be keenly aware.
Right now, pricing matters more today than it did 12 and especially 24 months ago. Products need to be better value tangibly. That means if you want to do something new (like an entirely new model, for example) you’d better make sure it’s packed full of features or fancy new materials or a story so good it could be told until the sun expands and consumes the Earth without getting old and then charge only a small premium for it so that it seems like the bargain of the century.
Or you decide not to do anything new but rather continue to do what you have been doing only better. Does that come with a price increase? Well, in an ideal world, no, it wouldn’t. That would have made the ultimate statement of customer-first strategy: improve the product tangibly (even if it costs less for you to produce because you’ve figured out the dark arts of the economy of scale) and charge the customer exactly the same.
Oris Aquis Date Upcycled - Credit WatchGecko
Oris fell short of that last wish list item, but only just. The new Oris Aquis Caliber 400 will retail for CHF 3,700 on the bracelet, just CHF 200 more than the version it will replace. The 43.5 mm date models receive an even smaller price hike of just CHF 100, taking their new RRP to 2,400 Swiss Francs. The price increase for the 41.5 mm versions is identical, which lands them at CHF 2,400 for the new models, while the expanded 36.5 mm line (which has seen the most aesthetic additions this time round with black mother of pearl and cream mother of pearl dials joining the lineup) increases just CHF 50 to €2,400, bringing it in line with all other Oris 733-powered models, irrespective of size.
Isn’t that cool? I really like that. More brands should be aware of how much it shows you value your customer by making all sizes the same price, even though logic would suggest the more material needed to make something, the more expensive it should be. Then again, if that were true and the fine machining needed for ultra-slim wristwatches would be irrelevant and a solid 1 kg lump of brass would cost more than a Breguet…
Oris Aquis Date Upcycled - Credit WatchGecko
Every size of Aquis will also include new entrants in the Upcycled PET dial range. As one of Oris’s most popular and visible releases of recent years, the totally random and totally unique PET dials continue to split aesthetic opinion while receiving almost universal praise for their principles. Sure, not everyone wants a chromatically chaotic slice of sea trash masquerading as a legible background for the display of their luxury watch, but for those who do, no one does it better than Oris. For me, my favourite use of the PET material was on the case back of the Clean Ocean Limited Edition from 2019. That, in my opinion, was a beautiful and thoughtful way to utilise a material that should have more of a presence in our industry.
Oris has not stopped with the materials of its watches! This year, the brand is announcing its new sustainable packaging. Oris’s new watch boxes are made entirely from cardboard and paper, of which more than 50% is recycled with the rest coming from FSC-approved sources. This will reduce the brand’s plastic usage by 1.5 tonnes per year, which equates to a year-on-year weight reduction of 65%. And proving that the key to protecting the planet’s future can be found in smart design, the boxes are modular so they can be quickly and cheaply adapted to different models.
Oris Aquis Date Upcycled - Credit WatchGecko
It is nice to see brands long-established Swiss brands like Oris and Fortis leading the charge with these sustainable packaging efforts. While these areas of concern are more commonly the preserve of younger brands, who make aggressive conservationism a central tenet of their existence (such as the inspirational ID Genève), it is good to see that old dogs (or should that be “bears”?) can learn new tricks after all!
