Oris is a brand that often catches attention even in a crowded field, and this past month at Watches & Wonders was no different. With releases like the Dat Watt LE and AquisPro Date Calibre 400, the Holstein-based brand once again proved its capability of producing particularly novel dive watches with unusual yet thoroughly useful integrated technologies. But Oris wasn’t quite done with dive watches in 2021, releasing on the heels of the aforementioned pair three new colorways within the vintage-inspired Divers Sixty-Five collection, nicknamed the “Cotton Candy” series.
The new series takes the original all-bronze Divers Sixty-Five look, introduced by the brand in mid-2020 for that year’s Hölstein edition, and updates it with three pastel-shaded dials in sky blue, wild green, and lipstick pink. Oris says the watches’ confection-esque, time-only dials are “designed to bring warmth and the optimism of better times,” as we head into the spring and eventually summer to emerge from the current “long, dark tunnel” which much of the world is currently passing through.
The three watches are apparently geared toward both feminine and masculine audiences, their 38-mm size described as “intentionally unisex,” albeit fairly hefty thanks to the bronze case. The option for an oyster-style, three-link bronze bracelet, which comes in addition to the standard, brown leather strap with bronze buckle, also adds some weight to the model. The watch appears to have a primarily brushed finish, though accents of polishing can be seen on the edge of the unidirectional diving bezel. The latter’s 60-minute scale is formed in positive relief, as it was on the previous bronze-cased Hölstein edition.
Each watch’s anti-reflective-coated, domed sapphire crystal covers one of three pastel dials. The dials’ surface configuration is similar to those of previous Sixty-Five divers offered by the brand, with applied hour markers, a small 6 o’clock date window, and an outer printed minute ring. Unlike most of its predecessors in the collection, however, this watch’s hour markers are produced in bronze rather than steel, although still filled with a bright Super-LumiNova. At the center of the dial are two pencil-style hands for the hour and minute and a lollipop-tipped hand for the seconds.
Inside the 100-meter water resistant case is the Oris Caliber 733, a brand-finished version of the ubiquitous Sellita SW200-1, complete with a red rotor, which is hidden behind a solid steel caseback. The automatic movement is capable of a 38-hour power reserve and beats at a frequency of 28,800 vph, overall serving as a cost-effective and standard mechanism within Oris’ lineup.
Oris’s pastel-dial watches appear to be the latest example of the growing trend of brightly colorful watch faces seen during Watches & Wonders, as evidenced by pieces like the new Cartier Tank Must watches and the Breitling Premier Heritage collection — all of which come one year after industry-leader Rolex unveiled its own pastel offerings in the 2020 Oyster Perpetual collection. Whether the rise of candy colors is a pandemic-inspired flash of brightness, a response to warm-weather optimism, or something else entirely remains to be seen, but it seems for now that watches with sweetly-shaded palettes are here to stay.
The Oris Divers Sixty-Five “Cotton Candy” series will be available starting in June 2021 in a standard production run. Each color option will retail for $2,450 on a leather strap, and for $2,750 on a bronze bracelet.
To learn more, visit Oris, here.
