Is the Oris Star Edition the Best Retro Reissue of Watches & Wonders?

The retro reissue wave might have peaked but it’s not yet receding. Will people still get excited about a dressy 35mm watch that looks like it time-warped here straight from the ‘60s? When it's as attractive as the new Oris Star Edition, we’re guessing: Yes. New for Watches and Wonders 2026, it’s the kind of captivating vintage look that’s hard to find in many other modern-made watches, but it’s also justified by highlighting a chapter of Oris history.

Where have you seen something like this before? Perhaps not only in the Oris archives, as there were other watches from the era with a similar look. Timex reissued one in its Q collection a few years ago. But such a basic, affordable execution probably only made you want the real thing more. It did for me, anyway. The Oris Star Edition will serve as such: that frankly beautiful look in a much more refined and robust package.

Oris surely recognized the appetite for such style today. But with a history full of cool vintage watches, you often need something a bit more to merit a reissue: purpose. The specific model the Star Edition is based on came out in 1966, and it was the first Oris watch to feature a lever escapement. How big of a deal is that? It sounds like a mere technical feature, the kind that's always been part of horological development.

Its significance, however, is for the brand and industry more so than the incremental evolution of timekeeping technology. Along with other companies, Oris had been restricted by a 1930s Swiss law from implementing new technologies. After lobbying for a decade, it finally succeeded in overturning the law, introduced the Caliber 645 automatic movement in the Star watch with an in-house lever escapement. It helped the brand to ascend to a higher tier in the industry, and they’ve luckily got a great-looking watch to mark the milestone.

Inside the modern Oris Star Edition is also a lever escapement, but it’s a feature of the sourced Sellita SW200 automatic movement, renamed the Oris Calibre 733. These Oris movements often feature a striking red rotor, but here you won’t see it as the caseback remains closed in proper vintage fashion. The Star Edition goes even further than many modern reissues to maintain vintage features. 

With a case shape and design that don’t belong to any existing Oris collection, it’s refreshing and a pleasant surprise for Watches and Wonders. When we see it in person, we’ll be paying close attention to elements like sizing. Its dimensions of 35mm wide by 41.5mm long and 11.1mm thick might be right on the money for recent tastes, but one can also imagine it wearing small. It’ll take getting it on the wrist to judge, and we’ll have pictures for you when we do.

Confession: There was a pang of disappointment when I got to the specs’ line “Top glass: Plexi-crystal.” Maybe I’m old-fashioned. This choice of materials used to be associated with cost-cutting. But now even the most affordable watches are able to offer sapphire, and do so in ways that mimic old plastic crystals with the likes of tall domed shapes. Thus the choice must be seen as deliberate, especially from a brand like Oris. It’s intended as a more authentically vintage feature and one that some collectors indeed are known to prefer. 

The best part is that it’s positioned at Oris’s basic entry point with a list price of CHF 1,800 or around $2,200 at time of writing.

Learn more on Oris’s website, here.