Oris Divers Sixty-Five

A touch of bronze

Oris adds a bi-colour model to its iconic Divers Sixty-Five collection – but with a twist.

Oris’s Divers Sixty-Five, the Swiss watch company’s retro diver’s watch, has won legion admirers since its launch three years ago. It’s now set to attract a new wave of followers with the introduction of one of the most intriguing materials in contemporary watchmaking – bronze.

The Divers Sixty-Five collection is one of Oris’s most recognisable designs. The aesthetic is lifted from an Oris diver’s watch first introduced in 1965. More than half a century on from the original, the Divers Sixty-Five now benefits from the latest Swiss watchmaking technology and comes with a number of quality signifiers, such as a domed, scratch-resistant sapphire crystal and a corrosion-resistant stainless steel case. It serves as a reminder of Oris’s long association with the world of diving and of the independent company’s rich history of innovation.

Oris has worked with bronze before in two limited edition models made in honour of Carl Brashear, the US Navy’s first African-American and first amputee master diver. Both watches are based on Oris’s Divers Sixty-Five, but this is the first time bronze has been incorporated into the main collection.

Oris has introduced it subtly – and unconventionally. The watch has a bronze outer ring around the edge of its unidirectional rotating bezel. When combined with rose gold PVD-plated hands and hour markers, this gives the watch its warmth and vintage charm.

Bronze is a natural material. Depending on factors such as the pH levels of your skin and atmospheric moisture, it develops a patina over time, a quirk that means that no two of the new watches entering the line will look alike – instead they will take on a finish unique to their owner.

Oris is introducing two case sizes with the bi-colour bronze finish, one 40mm and one 36mm, the latter a new size introduced to the Divers Sixty-Five family this year to cater for smaller wrists. Both versions are powered by mechanical movements that give the 40mm version a date at 6 o’clock and the 36mm version a date at 3 o’clock. Oris only makes mechanical watches – there is no quartz in the collection.

Both models are water-resistant to 100 metres, carry Oris’s historic crest on a stainless steel case back, and come on either leather, NATO textile or rubber straps, or on a stainless steel bracelet.

With its bronze twist, the new Oris Divers Sixty-Five marks a milestone in the life of one of the company’s most successful designs.