Oris - My 1st Automatic

June 2009 - Having a Swiss made watch was always in my "wanted list". And finally, I decided to go for it this month. Although having an Oris watch was not my 1st choice, but it turns out to be my best one :).

Wondering around Sunway Pyramid, I was determined to get a TAG Heuer from Watatime. However, with my budget, I am only able to get a TAG Heuer Formula 1 Series Chronograph. It turned me down because it is running on quartz and the dial with huge numbering looks abit "toyish" (sorry if I had offended any TAG Heuer fans out there).

There is another shop call The Moment (part of City Chain) in Sunway Pyramid display a range of Swiss made watches as well as Seiko. I was spoilt between a wide ranges of Automatic watches with different brands. The more establish ones like Tissot, Longines, Seiko and Oris. As I was looking for a Swiss made watch, I narrowed down my options to Tissot and Oris. At last, my heart tells me to put my money on Oris Williams Formula One Day Date 2008.

Oris watches are pretty well known and its success comes from their strong branding and image that are often associated with Formula 1. Oris is also famous for being the watch manufacturer that ONLY produces Automatic (also known as Mechanical) watches.

The main difference between an Automatic watches and Quartz watches is that the former uses hairspring to provide the oscillation for the watch where the later uses Quartz crystal and electric field to move the hour, minute and second hands.

On top of that, Automatic watches have much more complex mechanism and movement which consist of springs, gears and jewels. Jewels such as Ruby are used as axial for gears to reduce friction.

My Oris Williams Formula One Day Date 2008

The watch has a simple facade. It comes in black dial with the usual hour, minute and second hands, plus day and date indicator. No complex Chronograph nor Tachymeter around the dial. The top glass is made of Sapphire (anti-scratch) with anti-reflective coating inside.

The black strap is made of black rubber. The pattern on the black strap was designed in such a way that looks like the groove tire on a Formula One car. Believe it or not, you can actually smell the Vanilla flavor on the strap, and the smell still last till today.

A stainless steel folding clasp is included. This kind of clasp is good to prevent the watch from slipping off your hand.

The RED rotor behind the watch is also another signature trademark for Oris. Oris had registered trademark for the red rotor as well as the wording around the rotor:" Swiss Made ORIS High Mech".

So, the next time when you see someone wearing an Oris, you know it is an Automatic watch :)

There is no battery needed for Automatic watches. The movement from one's hand rotates the rotor behind. The rotor will then convert the energy to mechanical energy which then store in a spring. Other energy generating method is by winding the crown 20 times each day to its maximum capacity. However, the energy stored is not sufficient to last for few days if the watch is being left aside, some only last for 2 days, some only 1. For this model, the power reserve duration is 38 hours.

Water Resistance up to 10 bars, in layman term - 100 meters or 328ft below water (However, NEVER NEVER NEVER bring it for a swim).

Oris uses number to represent the movement for each product. For this watch, the movement number is Oris 635 with 25 Jewels.

Another interesting feature about automatic watch is that the "second" needle movement is rather smooth as compared to quartz watches. The needle movement in quartz watches is discrete and moves once every second. The needle in automatic watches moves once in every 0.1 seconds, thus the movement seems like continuous with no pause in between. The "ticking" sound in automatic watch is rather subtle and quick since it is ticking every 0.1 second. Sometimes, I just adore listening to "heart beat" of my watch :).

Between quartz watches and automatic watches, sadly to say that automatic watches have the least persistency and accuracy as compare to quartz watches despite paying a couple of thousands more. It has proven that quartz watches have better resilient to temperature change and mechanical movement while automatic watches are easily influenced by these 2 properties. However, manufacturer had also given a guarantee of +5/-30 second of accuracy per-day.

Conclusion

After wearing it for the past 2 weeks, it seems no problem at all. Time keeping is still good, probably off by couple of seconds, but still toleratable. The facade is stylist and the black dial with black rubber strap suits the theme well for being luxury and sporty at the sametime. It has caught a couple of attention lately, mainly by those who are watch enthusiasts.

Oris Swiss Made Since 1904

http://www.oris.ch/