hen Oris kick-started its Movement Creation Programme in the late 2000s, it revived a part of the brand’s culture that had been dormant since the quartz crisis of the 1970s: indeed, since 1904, Oris had created more than 270 unique calibres.

From the outset, the programme brief was clear. Oris movements had to be distinctly Oris. Which meant? Purely mechanical and Swiss Made, with unique functions and performance, and at prices that make sense to today’s world citizen. The brand’s vision remains to create beautiful mechanical watches and original, purpose-driven movements that bring joy to people who love mechanics.

It began in 2014 with Calibre 110, the first of the Calibre 100 Series of hand-wound movements. These beautiful calibres had 10-day power reserves from a single barrel, patented non-linear power reserve indicators, and often additional useful functions, such as a business calendar or a second time zone.

Oris followed these in 2020 with the Calibre 400 Series, its first in-house developed line of automatics in more than 40 years. These featured five-day power reserves, elevated levels of anti-magnetism, 10-year warranties and 10-year recommended service intervals: a new standard in Swiss Made automatics. The response has encouraged the brand to keep innovating. In the past nine years, they’ve introduced nine highly original, high- performance calibres, installing them in beautifully designed Swiss Made watches.

And now, in the tenth year of the revived Oris Movement Creation Programme, meet the Big Crown Calibre 473, a watch housing a new, highly innovative hand-wound mechanical movement designed from the ground up in-house by Oris watchmakers. No mistake, this is a special watch. Why? Because it breathes new life into the brand’s signature design, the iconic Big Crown Pointer Date, an Oris collection mainstay since 1938. For the first time in decades, it has a hand-wound in-house Oris calibre inside it, Calibre 473.

The story of Calibre 473 is that it’s built on the same base as the Oris Calibre 403 automatic. So it has hour, minute, small seconds and pointer date hands, and a five-day power reserve, now shown by a 120-hour power reserve indicator on the back of the movement. Calibre 473 took four years to develop and closes a circle for Oris.

Without a rotor, the power reserve indicator is visible through the watch’s sapphire case back. Oris watchmakers designed it to be simple to produce and assemble, and extremely durable, in line with the brand’s movement creation philosophy. As with Calibre 400 Series movements, Calibre 473 also has elevated levels of anti-magnetism, and each watch powered by it will come with a 10-year warranty and 10-year recommended service intervals.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Case: Multi-piece stainless steel case

• Size: 38.00 mm (1.496 inches)

• Dial: Blue

• Luminous material: Indices, numbers and hands printed with Super-LumiNova^®

• Top glass: Sapphire, domed on both sides, anti-reflective coating inside

• Case back: Stainless steel, screwed, see-through sapphire glass

• Operating devices: Stainless steel screw-in security crown

• Strap: Olive brown strap crafted from sustainably sourced deer leather produced by Oris’s Swiss partner Cervo Volante, premier of an Oris-developed stainless steel butterfly clasp with fine adjustment system

• Water resistance: 5 bar

• Movement: Oris Calibre 473

• Functions: Centre hands for hours, minutes and date, small seconds at 6 o’clock, 120-hour power reserve indicator on reverse, fine timing device and stop-second

• Accuracy: -3/+5 seconds a day (within COSC tolerances)

• Extra features: Highly anti-magnetic

• Winding: Hand-wound

• Power reserve: 120 hours

• Warranty: Extended to 10 years with MyOris sign-up. Applies to watch and movement. 10-year recommended service intervals, five- year recommended water-resistance check

• Swiss retail price: CHF 4,200