Oris Ocean Trilogy
The independent Swiss watch company Oris has been supporting and championing ocean conservation programmes for years, most recently through The Oceans Project, which raises awareness and funds for pioneering agencies with game-changing visions. The latest expression of Oris’s mission is the Blue Whale Limited Edition, the third and final piece in the Oris Ocean Trilogy, a trio of watches based on the Oris Aquis diver’s watch.
The new watch is limited to 200 pieces and will only be available as part of a set delivered in a unique presentation case made of recycled PET plastic bottles.
The first two pieces in the trilogy were announced at Baselworld this year. The Great Barrier Reef Limited Edition III and the Clean Ocean Limited Edition have been made in partnership with the Reef Restoration Foundation and Pacific Garbage Screening respectively. While those watches focused on restoring coral reefs and cleaning the world’s waters, the Blue Whale Limited Edition turns to the plight of whales, and in particular to protecting the world’s largest animal.
The blue whale is the largest animal on the planet. But after centuries of poor treatment, the species is currently listed as endangered. Oris’s new partner, the charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), has been funding vital research and conservation projects for 30 years. It calculates there were once around 350,000 blue whales in our oceans, but pre-industrial hunting decimated the population, and it’s thought there are now only between 10,000 and 25,000 left.
While blue whales are no longer threatened by commercial whaling, other threats such as fishing nets, environmental changes that lead to habitat loss, and the noise created by anthropogenic activities are all threats to their survival. WDC is working to conserve the blue whale by creating healthy seas and preventing deaths in nets.
WDC is involved in projects all over the world looking to combat these threats. The charity works with local authorities and tour operators off the coast of Sri Lanka where whales are at risk of vessel strikes. It also contributes to a research project on blue whales by the International Whaling Commission in the Antarctic Peninsula. WDC scientists are part of a team there collecting vital information through visual surveys – photo IDs, video tracking – and passive acoustic monitoring.
The Oris Blue Whale Limited Edition supports WDC’s work. Based on the Oris Aquis diver’s watch, it has a 45.50 mm stainless steel case water-resistant to 50 bar (500 metres), an aqua blue ceramic bezel and a graduated aqua blue dial. Inside it is an automatic Swiss Made chronograph movement, powering the first ever Aquis 3, 6 and 9 chronograph dial layout.
The case back carries an embossed blue whale and the limited edition number. Only 200 pieces will be made, and the watch is only available as part of the Oris Ocean Trilogy set, which comes in a special presentation box made of recycled PET plastic.
The Oris Ocean Trilogy is made up of three limited edition watches, each created to shine a light on a pioneering organization and the vital work it’s doing to either clean, protect or restore the world’s oceans and the source of all life – water.
The newly launched Blue Whale Limited Edition follows two watches already released: the Oris Great Barrier Reef Limited Edition III and the Clean Ocean Limited Edition. All three are based on the high performance Oris Aquis diver’s watch.
The Oris Great Barrier Reef Limited Edition III is the third watch made in support of work to conserve the world’s largest reef system. The Great Barrier Reef has been badly affected by two coral bleaching events in recent years, caused by hot summers that warm the ocean waters to levels that mean corals expel the algae inside them that provides them with food and colour. Unless water temperatures cool, the coral will die.
Through the Great Barrier Reef Limited Edition III, Oris supports the Reef Restoration Foundation, a non-profit running coral planting programmes using coral that has survived the bleaching events.
The third Oris watch named after the Great Barrier Reef supports the Reef Restoration Foundation. It has a 43.50 mm stainless steel case, a gradient aqua blue dial, a uni-directional rotating bezel, water resistance to 30 bar (300 metres) and a circular date window with a coral yellow indicator. It’s limited to 2,000 pieces.
The Oris Clean Ocean Limited Edition marks a partnership with Pacific Garbage Screening, which is working on a concept to capture plastic waste in rivers and estuaries before it reaches the ocean and turn it into energy using a spectacular floating platform.
The watch supporting Pacifc Garbage Screening is a 39.50 mm time and date version of the stainless steel Aquis, and limited to 2,000 pieces. It has a gradient aqua blue dial, a uni-directional rotating bezel, water resistance to 30 bar (300 metres) and a medallion made of recycled PET plastic set into the case back.
The Oris Ocean Trilogy supports a trio of projects vital to the health of our oceans. It’s limited to 200 pieces and is presented in a special box made using recycled PET plastic.
Technical details
Oris Ocean Trilogy: Blue Whale Limited Edition
Case
Multi-piece stainless steel case, uni-directional rotating bezel with aqua blue ceramic insert
Case size: 45.50 mm (1.791 inches)
Top glass: Sapphire, domed on both sides, anti-reflective coating inside
Case back: Stainless steel, screwed, embossed with blue whale
Operating devices: Stainless steel screw-in security crown and pushers
Water resistance: 50 bar (500 m)
Movement
Number Oris 771
Power reserve: 48 hours
Functions
Centre hands for hours, minutes and chronograph 1/4 seconds, three subsidiary dials for continuous seconds, 30-minute and 12-hour counters, date window between 4 and 5 o’clock, instantaneous date, date corrector, fine timing device and stop-second
Winding Automatic
Dial
Aqua blue
Luminous material Hands and indices printed with Super-LumiNova®
Bracelet
Multi-piece stainless steel bracelet with stainless steel security folding clasp with extension
Edition
Limited edition of 200 pieces, each presented alongside the Oris Great Barrier Reef Limited Edition III and the Oris Clean Ocean Limited Edition in a box with an outer shell made of recycled PET plastic bottles
Swiss retail price
CHF 9,600
Available
From June 2019
