Why is Oris celebrating its 120th anniversary relatively discreetly?
We’re actually focusing on the 120th anniversary itself, but that's not stopping us from reminding people of our values and our rich history throughout the year, especially during Geneva Watch Days.
What's the next major milestone for the brand?
I can safely say we are operating at a good cruising speed. Even though the market is rather tense at the moment, our production pipeline is full, our growth is pursuing its upward trend and we are working on new partnerships as well as future technical developments aligned with our DNA. Our well-established distribution network of 2,100 points of sale requires few adjustments. Many brands are back-tracking on their monobrand boutique policy and multi-brand retailers will be expanding again, which I think is good for end customers.
You are personally about to enter your 20th year with Oris. What has fundamentally changed there since you started in 2006?
Back then there were a lot of distributors in the markets, whereas now we mainly sell our watches through our subsidiaries. This represents a shift in both the business model and our ability to better adapt locally and learn from each situation. What sets us apart is people and the enthusiasm that drives us to take Oris higher and further. In 2014, for example, we decided to relaunch the creation of in-house movements that had been dropped in the 1970s, with our Caliber 110. These two major evolutions are accompanying our smooth development.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of having your Manufacture in a relatively remote location in Hölstein?
There are two sides to the same coin. On the one hand, you're free to think and you're alone in your own valley, where the brand's founders settled after leaving Geneva during the economic crisis in the late 19th century. It's an advantage not to be influenced. The other side of the coin is the lack of interaction with others, the fact of sharing less with the watchmaking community.
What proportion of your watches are equipped with your own movements?
Around 20% of our watches are powered by our own movements and this figure is rising slightly every year, especially since the launch of our self-winding Caliber 400 with a five-day power reserve and ten-year warranty. However, we also want to be able to continue offering very affordable models featuring tried and tested affordable movements such as those from Sellita. Having both gives us greater flexibility.
Which in-house caliber are you most proud of?
My favorite is Caliber 115, our skeletonized movement, designed in-house with a ten-day power reserve readable on a patented non-linear indicator. It defined the concept of the ProPilot X it equips, our bestseller in value terms since 2019, in its titanium version. I also have a penchant for hand-wound Caliber 473 with a date display and five-day power-reserve indicator on the back, designed in our characteristic purist spirit and requiring very little maintenance.
Color plays an important role at Oris. How do you explain this?
A watch as we see it should put a smile on people's faces. We want to instill emotion and joie de vivre into our products and color brings us closer to this goal. We want people to be happy when they see our dials, and still want to wear our watches. Sometimes, I draw inspiration from good memories to define these colors.
Oris has seven product families. Have you ever been tempted to move upmarket?
We pay a lot of attention to our customers and want to offer watches for all types of clientele who have been with us for a long time, in the price segments where we are known. We have nonetheless moved somewhat upmarket with our in-house calibers. We want to offer more content, while respecting our DNA – with which a tourbillon would for example not be compatible. A function must add value – such as the power-reserve display or a five-day power reserve that is very useful for collectors. Many Oris watches do indeed feature a wide range of useful complications – alarm, tide or regulator-type display – and I’d like to offer our customers a GMT model with alarm. At the same time, we're trying to design watches that are more timeless and less vintage.
