Oris x BWD Limited Edition

Oris x Bamford ProPilot Altimeter ‘Mission Control’

To infinity Oris x Bamford Watch Department

Oris and Bamford Watch Department collaborate to send the ProPilot Altimeter on a space odyssey

This is a collaboration that’s been waiting to happen. Meet the Oris x Bamford Watch Department ProPilot Altimeter ‘Mission Control’, a watch that takes Oris’s innovative altimeter flight watch beyond boundaries and to infinity, fuelled by the boundless creative spirit of London’s Bamford Watch Department.

The base watch is the Oris ProPilot Altimeter, the only watch in the world to house a Swiss Made automatic mechanical movement alongside a mechanical altimeter. The watch can relay altitude readings up to 19,700 feet, via one of the most intriguing complications in Swiss watchmaking. Its case is special, too. It’s made from carbon fibre using an additive manufacturing and moulding technique developed by one of Oris’s Swiss partners (see page 12). The material is as light as plastic and yet stronger than most metals.

“The ProPilot Altimeter is one of our proudest achievements and a symbol of just how much we love mechanical watchmaking,” says Rolf Studer, Oris Co-CEO. “When George approached us and said he’d always wanted to collaborate around the ProPilot Altimeter and that he had a vision for it, it was an easy decision for us. We just said: ‘Go for it!’ Oris and Bamford Watch Department share the same zest for life and the same ambitions to spread joy through watches and to make people smile. We gave him the freedom to express his ideas through the watch and the result is everything we expected and more. We love the storytelling, we love the detailing and we love the energy in it.”

George Bamford, founder of Bamford Watch Department says: “I’ve always loved the ProPilot Altimeter.

What a crazy complication to put into a mechanical watch. Who else would do such a thing, but Oris? For me, the spark was in the altimeter. I wanted to make a watch that celebrated it, and that observed Oris’s creative spirit and fierce technical ambitions. So we’re taking it on a space odyssey with Lieutenant Audley, Kubrick-style. Why? Because we thought it would be cool. That’s always the reason.”

Of the bright colours, George says: “I wanted an 80s sneaker vibe with colours that really pop. The side effect is that the watch becomes super legible, too. People will recognise this watch from space.”

The watch will be launched during Geneva Watch Days, limited to 250 pieces and available immediately.

kift-off ProPilot Altimeter ‘Mission Control’

Tradition and innovation collide as Oris’s Swiss Made mechanics blast into the future with Bamford

In a peaceful, forested valley some 30km inside Switzerland’s northern border, lies the unassuming village of Hölstein. At one end of the village, a peach rose building that can be seen for miles around. To local people, the building is a proud landmark, and a signpost for visitors, too. On its roof, a sign made up of just four letter: ORIS.

This, of course, is home to the much- loved independent Swiss watchmaker. Oris has been on the site since it was founded in 1904, and in the 121 years between then and now, it has created almost 300 bespoke mechanical calibres and countless iconic watches, among them the Big Crown, one of the earlier pilot’s watches and given its name on account of its oversized crown, designed for ease-of-use by gloved airmen.

Through such watches, Oris has become a Swiss watchmaking icon, winning a hard-earned reputation along the way for innovation, and for watches with thoughtful functions that deliver real-world value. Oris watches always make sense.

In 2014, it extended this reputation with the first Big Crown ProPilot Altimeter. This watch became the world’s first watch to feature both an automatic mechanical movement and a mechanical altimeter. Others had tried, but always failed to account for the automatic’s spinning rotor. Free to explore mechanics thanks to its independence, Oris found a solution.

Then, two years ago and after three years’ development, the watch was reborn with an even higher degree of innovation. Not only did Oris increase the measurement range of the watch’s signature function and up the power reserve to 56 hours, it also cased it in a carbon-fibre composite case made using a revolutionary additive manufacturing and moulding technique that had never been used in watchmaking before (see page 12).

This material delivered a number of performance advantages, chiefly in that while being two thirds lighter than titanium, it was also stronger than many metals. On top of that, each case took on a unique, graphic finish, almost like tree rings. Combined, the watch’s form and function made it a glorious outlier – a watch without boundaries, a watch without competition.

So what does it do? Essentially, it does what an altimeter does: measure air pressure and gauge altitude. A pilot, a hiker, a mountaineer – there are numerous use cases for the device – relies on an altimeter to record changes in altitude during an ascent or descent. In an aircraft, this would typically appear in an instrument cluster.

But what if this could be displayed on the wrist? The Oris ProPilot Altimeter does just that. Once calibrated to local air pressure, as indicated on a sunken gauge and read off via a red arrow at 6 o’clock, it can measure altitude up to 19,700 feet, indicated by a scale running around the outer ring dial. All this is marked clearly and legibly, and in harmony with the watch’s time and date functions. It’s a complex function, and yet Oris has made it simple (see right). The secret to making the watch automatic lay in another innovation. Oris developed a second dial under the movement, which meant the altimeter became separate from the mechanical automatic movement.

If Oris’s innovation reached for the skies, Bamford Watch Department’s (BWD) spin on it takes it on a voyage beyond boundaries and into infinity. Playing with a base palette that’s as black as space, BWD added splashes of bright, high-contrast colours that give the ProPilot Altimeter ‘Mission Control’ even greater legibility, as well as its fresh personality.

Now, it’s a watch Lieutenant Audley, BWD’s fearless astronaut, would boldly wear to go where no watchmaker has gone before.

“IT’S A WATCH LIEUTENANT AUDLEY WOULD BOLDLY WEAR TO GO WHERE NO WATCHMAKER HAS GONE BEFORE”

Beyond boundaries Lighter than titanium, stronger than steel

The carbon-fibre composite case of the ProPilot Altimeter ‘Mission Control’ delivers exceptional strength and lightness

The Oris ProPilot Altimeter ‘Mission Control’ measures 47mm across. It’s a sizeable watch – as it has to be to display air pressure and altitude on a scale of 0 to 19,700 feet, as well as the time, without compromising legibility. But that doesn’t mean it has to be heavy or cumbersome. For the second generation of its high-functioning watch, Oris set itself some ambitious goals. As well as going higher, the watch also had to be lighter and slimmer. Slimness was taken care of by upgrading the movement to Oris Calibre 793, which also offers an elevated 56-hour power reserve.

Lightness would require a more evolved approach, though. Oris turned to the high-tech engineering company 9T Labs, a spin-off of Switzerland’s prestigious ETH Zurich university (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). 9T Labs specialises in what it calls “climate neutral mobility of the future.” Its low-impact materials are used in airplanes, satellites, cars, motorbikes, bikes and surgical instruments; but until Oris approached the company, never in watchmaking.

For the case, Oris leant on 9T Labs’ “additive manufacturing and moulding” technique, a process not to be confused with 3D-printing, which is used mainly in prototyping. Instead, this process is industrialised, meaning it can produce structural end-use parts at high volumes.

The material created is a composite of carbon fibre and a polymer called PEKK that’s as light as plastic and stronger than some metals. It has high mechanical, heat and chemical resistance, and also offers low weight, high stiffness and high strength.

One of the benefits of the process is that it creates a unique aesthetic that 9T Labs says cannot be achieved by any other technology. Viewed from the side or above, the case has a tree- ring effect, almost as if it has been cut from wood and carbonised.

Part of the incentive to create this case was environmental. As a sustainable watchmaker, Oris recognised that most carbon fibres are expensive to produce and have a disproportionately high impact on the environment. Many involve high levels of waste, too. 9T Labs’ processes are industrialised, low impact and highly sustainable, delivering a watch case that takes Swiss watchmaking into new territories. “This is pure watch geekery,” says George Bamford. “Wild innovation, high function and playful design in a single watch. I love it.”