ORIS – Big Crown ProPilot X Calibre 115

Oris’s latest is a contemporary masterpiece and a symbol of the independent Swiss company’s watchmaking vision.

You all know the appreciation I have in quality timepieces and companies with historic watchmaking mastery that evolve through passion, autheniticity, vision, expertise and genuine personality.

The Big Crown ProPilot x Calibre 115 is the most Oris watch the company ever made while it explains Oris’ true personality and I am really excited to present it to you today, as it is a true masterpiece. A watch for all time. A pure Oris – as nature intented!

The Idea

Big Crown ProPilot x Calibre is inspired by nature, particularly by the Waldenburg Valley, which surrounds the village of Hölstein, where Oris has been based since it was founded in 1904. It’s a reflection of contemporary culture, too, and of our growing desire for authentic experiences. And it’s a watch that explains Oris’s true personality.

The idea started with the movement. Oris, an independent company, only makes mechanical watches. Everything in the watch stemmed from its mechanical heartbeat. For the 110th anniversary, the company introduced Oris Calibre 110, a limited edition watch with an in-house developed movement that carried a 10-day power reserve, a patented non-linear power reserve indicator and a small seconds.

This innovative, unique combination of complications became the base architecture for a suite of landmark calibres that followed, through to Calibre 114, launched last year. Together, these calibres have become the symbol of Oris the movement creator. Since the company was founded, it has introduced more than 270 in-house calibres, a proud legacy.

The Watch in detail

The Oris Big Crown ProPilot X Calibre 115 is a pure expression of Swiss mechanical watchmaking.

People are longing for the time when they could understand how things work.

For the Big Crown ProPilot X Calibre 115, Oris’s watchmakers took the spirit of Calibre 110 and imagined a fully skeletonised Oris movement. Traditionally, skeletonisation provided a window for a watchmaker’s talents, but this movement had higher ambitions. It had to reconnect people to how things work.

That’s what makes contemporary modernism so interesting. People are longing for the time when they could understand how things work.
The Big Crown ProPilot X Calibre 115 lays bare its inner workings. Nothing is hidden. Even the barrel at 12 o’clock is skeletonised so you can see the extended mainspring. Winding the crown, you watch on as the mainspring coils tighter… and tighter… until it’s fully wound and ready to deliver 10 days of uninterrupted power. Nothing deflects from this. There is no varnish, no unnecessary decoration. Calibre 115’s skeletonised bridges are matt grey, rather than polished or engraved. Look at the movement under a loupe and you will see the edges have not been chamfered or bevelled. Instead, they have been left in their natural state. There is nothing obscuring the essence of traditional Swiss watchmaking. It is, if you will, as nature intended.

Not that it’s old-fashioned. Inspired by the striking aesthetic of the movement, Oris’s designers created a bold, dynamic case that captured both the company’s pilot’s watch history – which began in the early 1910s and took off with a pilot’s wristwatch with a ‘big crown’ in 1917 – and the future relevance of mechanical watchmaking. It is not shy to tell its story.
The resulting brushed titanium case is equally honest. Fundamentally, its design is descended from that 1938 original, supplemented by the jet engine turbine blade motif introduced into the Big Crown ProPilot’s bezel only a few years ago.

It shows Oris’s competence and the long-term value of a beautifully designed and manufactured mechanical object.

It’s based on a traditional concept, but future-driven. It’s muscular and assured. It shows Oris’s watchmaking competence and its confidence as the Swiss watch industry prepares for a new decade.
It also explains the evolution of luxury. Luxury is no longer showy or indulgent. It’s now about appreciation of quality, time and space. At Oris, they call it casual luxury, which isn’t forced or inconsiderate. It’s measured and informed. It’s authentic.

That’s why there are no unnecessary details in the watch. No flashy colour palette. No pointless complications. It’s essential. It’s crafted. It’s alive.

The wearer is on an adventure of discovery.
They want a new level of understanding.
This defines Go Your Own Way.

Who is the Big Crown ProPilot X Calibre 115 for? The wearer of this watch is on an adventure of discovery. They want to learn more about the world and themselves. They want access to a new level of understanding. That’s what it means to Go Your Own Way.

And that’s why we say that the Oris Big Crown ProPilot X Calibre 115 is as nature intended.

It is pure Oris.