The New Oris Rectangular Collection

Perhaps not the best-known collection at Oris, the Rectangular is back with new proportions, colourful dials and straps. A classic dress watch with smooth Art Deco lines, the latest case size of the Oris Rectangular is designed to appeal to men and women alike.

If you go to the Oris website and browse the Rectangular collection, you will see four models pop up, the four new models we are covering in this article. However, if you do a generic search for the Oris Rectangular model, some links will take you back to an older Oris website displaying a host of Rectangular models ranging from date, chronograph, GMT and even women’s models. The point being that the Rectangular family is not new, although it is hard to establish the exact year of its debut. Be that as it may, the Rectangular is a stylish dress watch with some of the seriousness of classic rectangular watches (JLC Reverso, Cartier Tank) mitigated by its colourful dials and straps.

The new Rectangular watches come in brightly polished stainless steel cases with a width of 25.50mm and a length of 38mm, a good deal smaller than other time-date Rectangular models of the past with their 30mm x 44mm dimensions. Picking up on the elegant, streamlined design cues of Art Deco, the stepped case flanks accentuate its geometry and the gentle camber of the case ensures a snug fit on the wrist.

The two rectangular railway tracks on the dial echo the rectangular case and have clear, white markings on the three coloured dials – Bordeaux, blue and anthracite – and black markings on the white dial. Arabic numerals at 12, 3 and 9 o’clock are also printed in an Art Deco font consolidating the retro vibe of the watch, while the hour markers are angled to draw the eye out towards the case. The second rectangular track in the centre of the dial has 11 large dots corresponding to the hours, barring the 6 o’clock position where a discreet date window has been inserted. The luminous sword-shaped hour and minute hands and the stick seconds hand only reach the first rectangular track, which is odd given that there is a second peripheral track for the minutes/seconds.

Inside the new Rectangular models is Oris calibre 561, a Swiss-made automatic time-and-date movement with an ETA 2671 base, a power reserve of 38 hours, instantaneous date and stop-seconds. The mineral glass caseback allows a view of the movement.

Three of the four references are accompanied by matching colour straps, although the white dial model comes on a yellow strap. All four come with a quick-change strap system. The Rectangular watch collection is available now, and the watches retail for CHF 1,800.

For more information, please visit Oris.