Introducing – Oris’ In-House 10-Day Artelier Calibre 111 Now with a Blue Dial

When Oris launched its own in-house developed and produced movement, back in 2014 (at that time the Calibre 110, without date), this sounded like an impressive step for the brand, more used to creating accessible sports watches and outsourced automatic movements. Indeed, with no-less than 10 days of power-reserve and some technically advanced features, it was quite an achievement. This hand-wound in-house Calibre is now fully integrated into the collections, and has seen several evolutions (calibre 111, 112 and 113). Today, the Oris Artelier Calibre 111 marks a change in style, by receiving a striking blue dial.

The in-house Oris Calibre 11x

Back in 2014, Oris launched its first modern in-house developed and produced movements… And modern is important here, as it has to be kept in mind that Oris had been, for a long period, one of the largest manufacturers of movements in Switzerland. Up until the end of the 1970s, Oris was producing its own calibres, however, when it was launched on the market for the 110th anniversary of the brand, the Calibre 110 was their first in-house developed movement in 35 years. Not an insignificant change of strategy, you’ll admit. But instead of developing another 3-hand automatic movement to replace ETA’s or Sellita’s offers – which are perfect movements in the price segment Oris usually plays – the Hölstein-based brand decided to go complex and to offer something different – yet even so, the idea of “accessibility” was still of key importance.

The first version of this movement, Calibre 110, defined the basics for later evolutions. This calibre was an in-house developed, hand-wound movement boasting no less than 10 days of power reserve, with a unique non-linear power reserve indication. Oris’ own team of watchmakers and designers worked with Swiss technical specialists and with L’École Téchnique Le Locle on this development for almost 10 years. The result, Oris first own movement in 35 years, was quite impressive. The 10 days of power reserve come from one large mainspring (1.8m long), the power reserve indicates the remaining energy in a non-linear way (with a more precise indication when close to the end of the power reserve), and the decoration of the movement was pretty satisfying.

The most impressive part was the price, as this Oris Calibre 110, when in a steel case, was offered at CHF 5,500, making this watch a real value proposition. In the years since, the movement has been updated in 3 other versions: Calibre 111 with date, Calibre 112 with dual-time indication and Calibre 113 with calendar indications (date, day of the week, month and week number).

The Oris Artelier Calibre 111 Blue Dial

While the Calibre 110 is not in the catalogue anymore – as it has only appeared twice, in 110-piece limited edition – the role of the standard offer (meaning without additional complications) in the Artelier Calibre 11x collection now goes to the Calibre 111. This watch has the exact same display, style, case and specifications as the 110, however with an additional date window, for practicality matters on a daily basis, placed at 9 on the dial. If the Oris Artelier Calibre 111 collection was already quite extensive, with 4 different dials available (Dark Grey, Silver, White and Brown) and 2 different materials for the case (stainless steel and 18k pink gold), 2017 marks the arrival of a new colour on the steel version: a striking blue dial.

For the latest addition to the Artelier Calibre 111 collection, Oris chose to go blue, a rather trendy colour that has been widely used recently. With contrasting silver hands and indexes, as well as white inscriptions, the blue tone chosen is quite bright and vivid and has been given a sun-ray brushing pattern, which will make it probably quite lively in the metal. 3 options will be available, combined to this blue dial: a blue alligator strap, a black alligator strap and a steel bracelet with a 7-link profile.

The rest of this Oris Artelier Calibre 111 remains equal to the existing versions: a 43mm case with thin bezel and large dial opening, a fully polished finish of the case, for an interesting mix between elegance and casualness, and the same layout for the dial. At 3 is a large power reserve indicator with, as you can see, a non-linear indication. While the remaining energy drops, the graduation becomes more and more precise, in order for the wearer to know when he should wind his watch. At 9 is a running second sub-dial with a date window (printed on a blue disc). Time is indicated by lance hands which point to applied silver baton indexes and large applied Arabic numerals at 12 and 6.

As with the rest of the collection, this Oris Artelier Calibre 111 Blue Dial comes for a quite impressive price, especially considering the movement that runs inside: CHF 5,500 / EUR 5,400 (whatever the choice of strap/bracelet). In short, it’s less than half the price of a certain other 7-day power reserve automatic watch with Portuguese roots… This should make you think twice before considering a long power-reserve, large and elegantly shaped watch. Available in December 2017. More details on Oris.ch.

Technical Specifications – Oris Artelier Calibre 111 Blue Dial

• Case: 43mm diameter – Stainless steel, polished – Sapphire crystal on both sides – 30m water resistant
• Dial: Blue sun-ray dial with applied indices and numerals, and polished nickel hour and minute hands
• Movement: Oris Calibre 111, in-house – hand-wound – 10-day power reserve – 4Hz frequency – hours, minutes, small second, date, non-linear power reserve indicator
• Strap/bracelet: Blue or Black alligator strap on folding clasp or stainless steel bracelet
• Price: CHF 5,500 / EUR 5,400
• Reference: 01 111 7700 4065 LS
• Availability: December 2017