Clockwork Orange: Five Watches With Orange Dials, Details, and Straps

As watches continue to embrace a wider range of color options for their dial, straps, and other details, orange remains relatively scarce in the expanding spectrum, though undeniably appealing to a core of loyal fans. Here are five timepieces where orange tones dominate.   

HUBLOT BIG BANG TOURBILLON AUTOMATIC ORANGE SAPPHIRE

Hublot takes pride in being the first watch manufacturer to make sapphire cases on an industrialized scale and even greater pride in its leading role in creating new color variations in that difficult-to-machine material — most recently, orange. The translucent 45-mm case of the Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Orange Sapphire is achieved through a process that incorporates titanium and chromium. It attaches to a matching orange, structured rubber strap with a lined relief pattern, equipped with Hublot’s patented One Click interchangeability system. Inside the world’s-first case is a world’s-first movement, Hublot’s Caliber MHUB6035, a skeletonized, self-winding tourbillon movement that amasses its three days of running autonomy by means of a 22k gold micro-rotor placed unconventionally at 12 o’clock on the dial side. Price: $169,000, limited to 50 pieces. Read more about it here.

BREITLING ENDURANCE PRO

Taking inspiration from a 1970s sport-oriented model called the Breitling Sprint, and echoing that decade’s bold, bright colors, the recently released Endurance Pro contains Breitling’s thermocompensated SuperQuartz movement, which offers 10 times the accuracy of traditional quartz and a three-to-four-year battery life. The 44-mm cases are made of Breitlight, a proprietary polymer material that is antimagnetic, non-allergenic, lighter than titanium, and exceptionally resistant to scratches, traction, and corrosion. Aimed at athletes and outdoorsmen, the watch’s mutlifunctions include a bidirectional rotating bezel with compass points (N, S, E, and W), an inner bezel marked with a pulsometer scale, and a 1/10th-second chronograph. The “Diver Pro” rubber straps match the coloring of the dial details and crown. Price: $3,000. Click here to read more about the Endurance Pro collection.

ROLEX OYSTER PERPETUAL 36

Rolex expanded its already impressive palette in 2020, adding several models to its base three-handed Oyster Perpetual 36 series with vibrant lacquer dials in five new colorways: candy pink, turquoise blue, yellow, green, and an orange variant that Rolex dubs “coral red.” The waterproof case measures a modest 36 mm in diameter and is made of 904L stainless steel, whose in-house designation at Rolex is “Oystersteel.” The dial’s hour markers are treated with Chromalight, a proprietary luminous substance that emits a long-lasting blue glow in the dark. The case features a secure Twinlock winding crown and a screwed caseback that locks in place with a special tool and allows only Rolex watchmakers access to the movement, Rolex’s manufacture Caliber 3230. The self-winding movement is fitted with a blue Parachrom hairspring, a Paraflex shock absorber, and a “perpetual” rotor that amasses a power reserve of 70 hours. Price: $5,600. Check out more of the 2020 collection here.

BELL & ROSS BR 03-92 DIVER ORANGE

The BR 03-92 Diver, developed with the input of divers and other underwater experts, meets the ISO 6425 standards for diving watches — including a minimum water resistance of 100 meters, a calibrated rotating bezel for setting dive times, and indexes legible underwater. Its squared ergonomic case, made of satin-polished steel, is 42 mm in diameter and water-resistant to 300 meters. Its “circle-in-a-square” design features a 60-minute unidirectional bezel with a luminescent dot at 12 o’clock for orientation. The color orange, used here for the first time on a BR 03-02 dial, is the color of maritime safety, used for the suits of rescue divers. Contrasting with the painted orange surface are white applied hour indexes and black skeleton hands. Inside the case is an inner cage made of soft iron, which protects the movement — the BR-Cal.302, based on the Sellita SW 300.1 — from the effects of magnetic fields. Price: $3,900. More details and photos here.

PATEK PHILIPPE AQUANAUT REF. 5968A

Patek added a chronograph to its sportiest and most accessible family, the Aquanaut, in 2018. The watch’s 42-mm steel case, with its gently-rounded octagonal bezel, has a screw-down crown embedded between the shoulders of a curving crown protector, bordered on each side by two elongated chronograph pushers. The gradated light-to-dark gray dial sports the familiar embossed pattern of the Aquanaut range, with applied Arabic numerals and indices in white gold. The chronograph indications are in high-contrast, bright orange, including the central seconds hand, the 1/4-second hashmarks in the peripheral railway track scale, and the hand and indices of the 60-minute subdial. Patek Philippe’s manufacture Caliber CH 28-520 C beats inside, with an integrated flyback chronograph function that combines a classic column-wheel control with a modern vertical disk clutch. The dial’s embossed pattern continues on the orange rubber strap. Price: $43,770. We renew the Aquanaut Chronograph here.