Oris Honors Lou Gehrig with a Limited Edition Big Crown Pointer Date

Today, June 2, known in the US as Lou Gehrig Day, Oris is honoring one of baseball’s most defining figures with a new limited edition watch created in support of The Lou and Eleanor Gehrig Family Foundation. Based on the brand’s signature Big Crown Pointer Date, the new Lou Gehrig Limited Edition uses one of the watchmaker’s most recognizable designs as the foundation for a thoughtful tribute to the New York Yankees legend.

Gehrig’s story is one of the most powerful in American sports. A first baseman for the New York Yankees, he played 2,130 consecutive games across 15 seasons, a record that helped earn him the nickname “The Iron Horse.” His career ended in 1939 following his diagnosis with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS, the progressive neurodegenerative disease often referred to in the United States as Lou Gehrig’s disease. On July 4 of that year, Gehrig addressed a sold-out Yankee Stadium with a farewell speech that remains among the most famous moments in baseball history, declaring himself “the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.” He died on June 2, 1941, at the age of 37.

That legacy continues in part through The Lou and Eleanor Gehrig Family Foundation, which supports high-impact, non-partisan causes connected to the interests and values of Lou and Eleanor Gehrig, including work related to ALS and public health. For Oris, the new limited edition is intended not only as a tribute to Gehrig’s career, but also as a means of raising awareness around the disease and supporting the foundation’s work.

The watch itself begins with the Big Crown Pointer Date, the design serving as a natural canvas for a project rooted in the early decades of the 20th century. The model’s fluted bezel, oversized crown, pointer-date display, and vintage-inspired proportions have long made it one of Oris’ most historically minded designs. Here, the watch is executed in a 40mm multi-piece steel case measuring 12.20mm thick and 48.20mm lug-to-lug, with a domed sapphire crystal, screw-in crown, engraved stainless steel caseback, and 50 meters of water resistance.

Most of the watch’s novelty appears on the dial. The silver surface has a vertical brushed finish, chosen to evoke Gehrig’s famous nickname, “The Iron Horse.” Against it, Oris adds black details and blue accents that nod to both the Yankees and Gehrig himself. The minute track is rendered in blue, while the hour markers and numerals are outlined in the same color, creating a contrast with the white Super-LumiNova-filled details. The most direct reference appears on the date track, where the number 4 is highlighted in blue in honor of Gehrig’s Yankees uniform number, which was retired by the team in 1940.

The dial notably draws from the visual language of the 1920s and 1930s, the era in which Gehrig played. Rather than using the full set of Arabic numerals found on many standard Big Crown Pointer Date models, the Lou Gehrig Limited Edition combines numerals and stick indices for a more period-leaning look. The white-on-black date ring and railroad-style minute track reinforce the vintage impression, while keeping the overall execution clean and tastefully restrained.

Inside is the Oris Calibre 754, a familiar automatic movement based on the Sellita SW200-1. The mechanism powers the hours, minutes, seconds, and of course the model’s signature pointer-date display; it offers hacking seconds and a 41-hour power reserve.

The caseback continues the tribute details with an engraving of Gehrig delivering his farewell speech at Yankee Stadium, along with the watch’s individual limited edition number. The edition size is limited to 2,130 pieces, directly referencing Gehrig’s record-setting consecutive-games streak with the Yankees.

Across its case, dial, and movement, the watch keeps itself understated throughout. In place of obvious baseball graphics on the dial, Oris keeps the references relatively subtle: the blue number 4, the Yankees-influenced color palette, the brushed silver dial, and the period-style details. The result is a watch that reads first as a classic Big Crown Pointer Date, and then, on closer inspection, as a considered tribute to one of the sport’s defining figures.

The Oris Lou Gehrig Limited Edition is delivered on a brown leather strap with white double stitching, designed to recall the look of a baseball glove. It is also supplied with a blue, white, and grey NATO fabric strap in Yankees colors, along with a strap-change tool. Each watch comes in a special presentation box with a specially stamped baseball card.

Limited to 2,130 numbered pieces, the Oris Lou Gehrig Limited Edition is priced at CHF 2,400, or approximately $3,050 USD, and will be available this month. At a launch event at Yankee Stadium, Oris also confirmed that edition number 4 of the 2,130 piece series will be reserved for a future charity auction, with details to be announced, while number 17 was gifted to Yankees' Manager Aaron Boone.

The Lou and Eleanor Gehrig Family Foundation supports a number of organizations and initiatives connected to ALS research, care, and public health, including the Rip Van Winkle Foundation’s Lou Gehrig initiatives, Live Like Lou, and the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig ALS Center at Columbia University.

To learn more, visit Oris, here.