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.
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.