Pre-Baselworld 2015 – Oris Divers Sixty-Five – Specs and Price

Oris is known for creating interesting, solid, affordable but classical tool watches, including a bunch a very good dive timepieces, such as the recently revealed Oris Aquis Depth Gauge. However, for this edition of Baselworld, the brand will strike hard and as they are about to introduce a very cool watch, inspired by a practically unknown (and it’s a shame) vintage diving tool. It is called the Oris Divers Sixty-Five and it could easily change your opinion about Oris.

The watch you can see here is the one that inspired the new Oris Divers Sixty-Five. It was introduced in 1965 and came with a 36mm chromium-plated brass case with a domed plexi-crystal, a bi-directional rotating bezel painted in black, and a black plastic ‘tropic design’ strap. It was water-resistant to 100m and featured a date window. Now that you have the ancestor, let’s have a look at the 2015 Oris Divers Sixty-Five.

Clearly, we’re really impressed by the faithfulness of this reissue. Not only Oris used a vintage watch to inspired them but they totally recreated it with modern materials and nearly no changes, except using modern materials and 21st century watchmaking techniques. The case is now measuring 40mm – a reasonable choice for a modern diver that we appreciate – and is made in anti-corrosive stainless steel (instead of chromium-plated brass). The look however is extremely similar and Oris even brings back the domed crystal, this time made in sapphire. This is a really qualitative choice considering the high price of such crystals – and a very good looking one too.

The bezel, the dial, the indexes and the hands are also 100% faithful to the vintage edition and we have to admit, the result works perfectly. The 4 main indices are using this same squared font and are painted with a faux-patina colour (as well as the hands). The dial is also domed just like the old edition. The unidirectional bezel also resembles the vintage one with a black aluminum insert with 60-minute timer and triangular zero marker. Finally, the strap reissues the ‘tropic‘ shape of the 1960s but it is now made in modern and comfortable rubber (Also available with a black textile NATO strap with stainless steel folding clasp).

The attention to details is really impressive. Oris is not just applying a creamy color to a modern looking watch to say ‘vintage reissue’. They’ve done a complete job with this dial, case, strap, markers and crystal. They even improved the watch a bit by displaying the date more discreetly – it is printed on a black disc in a small window at 6. The only competitor we can find – with this same level of details and in the same price range – is the Longines Legend Diver, another extremely faithful re-edition of a 1960s vintage dive watch. The only default we’ve found yet is the water resistance limited to 100m (like the old one) that could have been better. However, who really uses its diving watches to such depth.

The Oris Divers Sixty-Five comes with a simple but robust movement, the Automatic Oris Cal. 733, based on Sellita SW200 (an ETA clone). All of this comes for a very reasonable price – it will retail for 1.600 Euros.