The Oris Calibre 400

It is an understatement to say that the entry level luxury watch market is crowded. The segment has multiple players, right from the old established ones to the new crop of microbrands. Staying afloat of the competition can be quite tough. The manufacturers have to balance between quality and cost, but isn’t that same for everyone irrespective of the segment? Well not quite so, brands like rolex, Patek Phillipe can sell their products at a premium which can be way above the maximum suggested retail price because the demands are high and the supply tends to be low. In such a scenario the company can ignore the costs as the markup covers up everything and leaves behind substantial profit.

The segment below is dominated by players with mass production capabilities. The watches tend to be comparatively cheaper comes with either quartz mechanism or are of inferior quality. This makes the entry level luxury market quite unique, the companies know that they have to give an offering that is superior in quality. Customers in this segment give more importance to quality controls and look for value additions like in house movements.

The fact that majority of the companies operating in this space are part of some of the biggest conglomerates gives us a fair idea that it is the stepping stone of the big boys league. The upcoming microbrand source their movement from swatch or seiko and do their own modification whereas some brands like Longines which forms part of the swatch group can look upto the parent company and work with their resources when it comes to developing movements.

That puts Oris is a tight spot, a company that is an year older than Rolex and more importantly still independent. Just to give some peek into the history of the brand. It was the year 1904 when the company took advantage of the incentive provided by the swiss government and set up its manufacturing division at Hölstein. Hölstein, a quint swiss village was an important stop onthe route between Basel and Bern. However the advent of railroad changed the dynamics of this small place and the rest as they say is history. To this day, Oris is still headquartered at Hölstein and they even came up with a limited edition watch to celebrate the heritage.

last week Oris announced their new movement namely the Oris calibre 400. Although most of the watches are still powered by movement sourced from outside but the manufacturer is yet to highlight the watches that will have this newly developed movement. The all new in-house Oris Calibre 400 movement not only brings a manufacture option to the brand’s stable, but also substantially raises the bar for modern movements in its price range.

The manufacture Oris Calibre 400 automatic movement is fully designed and developed by the brand, with a concept focused on catering to the modern mechanical watch owner’s greatest concerns. Aesthetically, it’s simple and minimalist for a mechanical movement, with undecorated full bridges interrupted only by the prominent balance wheel and symmetrical twin mainspring barrels. These twin barrels are the first clue to one of the Calibre 400’s biggest selling points – its massive 120 hour power reserve. The brand also claims to have conducted an intensive study into mechanical movement breakdowns, and found the most common failure point for automatic movements to be the ball bearing system that allows the winding rotor to spin. With this in mind, Oris have ditched the traditional ball bearing track entirely for the Calibre 400’s winding rotor, replacing it with a far simpler and more durable slide bearing system with a metal stud inside a lubricated track.

Other concepts introduced in the name of reliability include an antimagnetic system with over 30 components including a silicon escape wheel and silicon anchor that allow the Calibre 400 to perform within one third of the allowed deviation after being exposed to 11 times the magnetism required for the ISO 764 standard for antimagnetic timepieces. These more durable components allow Oris to grant the Calibre 400 a nearly unheard of 10 year warranty and 10 year recommended service interval. Raw accuracy is robust as well. While Oris has declined to submit the Calibre 400 to COSC for official chronometer certification, the brand claims accuracy figures well within COSC requirements at -3/+5 seconds per day. The lack of decoration or visual detail on the movement may prove to be a turn off to some enthusiasts.

We are looking forward to the new line of watches that will have this movement. The announcement is likely to be made by the end of this year. Till then just hold the breathe and drool.