Manufacturer:- www.oris.ch
Purchase Price :- $1035 / £557.46 http://www.xe.com/ucc/ See Dealer at the end. UK list is MUCH Higher at around £925
Size:- The bezel is 44mm ø, 47mm lug to lug and 14.5mm thick to the top of the crystal.
Lug spacing is 10mm. Oris custom straps.
Weight :- 112g with Rubber strap fitted. Very light for its size due to Titanium construction.
Movement:- ETA2836-2 base movement modified into Oris 649 with quickset date and hacking seconds
Case Material:- Titanium
Supplied Strap:- Vanilla Scented Rubber with Titanium Deployment Clasp. Also supplied with a Solid Titanium Bracelet with deployment clasp.
Lens Material:- 4.7mm thick Domed Sapphire Crystal with anti reflective coating on the underside.
Dial and Hand Markings :- Tritium
Depth Rating:- 1000m to ISO 2281 (Yes this is correct)
Anti Magnetic :- Not Known

OK. I have had time to put a few words together now, so please let me know what you think?

After my recent drought of no new watches I have now bought two in as many weeks. The Oris caught my eye as it is a 1000m rated dive watch with a different take on the display side of things. I have mainly dive watches in my collection so I thought that this would make a very suitable addition.

The first and most striking feature is the design of the watch face. The outer minutes scale and hand are the same as most normal watches, until you realise that the hour hand is missing from the normal location, rotating with the minute hand.

The hours are indicated on a separate sub dial located at the 4 o'clock position on the main dial. The idea is to give a watch face a design that focuses the attention on the minutes. It does this very well, but does result in a longer period reading the whole time. I am sure I will eventually get used to this, but with a lifetime of normal analogue displays it is different. Makes you look longer at the watch face though and that never a bad thing. If you like watches that is.

Right, with the main thought on the watch out of the way I will jump back to the beginning. I bought the watch from an Australian company after looking round on the net. The service I got from them was first class, with prompt replies to my questions and a friendly service. The really surprising thing though was the speed that my watch got to me from the time of placing the order. The watch was sent on the 5/11/2004 and I got it on the 9/11/2004 I would have got it a day sooner if I had been in for the DHL man!

The outer watch box was wrapped in tissue paper then packed in bubble wrap and this was surrounded with several layers of thick card board. It arrived with no damage what so ever to the outer box or the contents.

Carefully unwrapping the parcel I was impressed to find a rather large Oris outer box. Inside this is a beautiful nylon zip case containing the watch and accessories. Along with the Oris users guide which was stamped with the dealers stamp for the warrantee. This watch has also been independently inspected and tested by the Swiss Time Service in Melbourne for a time keeping, running reserve and water resistance. Good to know but I would have expected the factory to do these tests anyway.

Opening the zip case reveals the watch. As you can see in the pictures this is protected from the rest of the accessories with foam and each item is individually wrapped to prevent any accidents.

What do you get in the case?

1.) Oris TT1 Divers Professional Regulator watch fitted with rubber strap and Titanium deployment clasp.

2.) Addition full Titanium strap made from polished and brushed links also fitted with a deployment clasp.

3.) Glass vial containing two spare bracelet / strap attachment bars/screws.

4.) Glass vial containing the screwdriver bit for the bracelet removal tool.

5.) Bracelet removal tool screwdriver base.

6.) Screwdriver.

7.) UK AAA waterproof divers pen light torch (even comes fitted with batteries).

I really like the way that the watch is presented. When you have spent this amount on a watch you actually feel like you are getting your moneys worth.

You also get for free the STRONG smell of Vanilla when you open the box. This comes from the impregnated rubber strap and is way more preferable to a STRONG smell of rubber!

On picking up the watch on the rubber strap the first thing that I found hard to believe was the lack of weight. I am used to similar sized watches made from stainless steel. These are normally heavy. In the case of my Dreadnought PRS2, 265g fitted with the SS Bracelet. This watch with the rubber strap fitted weighs in at 112g. It's a light weight watch then.

What makes this possible then?

Titanium. A super metal alloy used extensively in the aerospace and aeronautical industries and famed for is low weight and high strength. What's the downside then. Well it's expensive and harder to work with than traditional materials.

What are the other advantages? Well first off it has a relatively low thermal conductivity. This means that is conducts heat much more slowly than say steel or aluminium. So this means the material feels a lot warmer to the touch than steel. Titanium also contains no nickel content that some people have skin irritation problems with. It is also impervious to corrosion from salt water. A good thing considering its intended use.

I also like the way the Titanium finish looks. It has a slight light gold sheen to it. Not sure if that the best way to describe it. But you can see a big difference next to a stainless steel finish.

The watch case is impressive in its size, with massive lugs and a huge screw on rear cover. The crown in screwed onto the case at the 4 o'clock position and the helium release valve is located at the 2 o'clock one to balance out the design. I like the red dot applied to the helium valve. I will never use its function so it is left firmly screwed closed. For any of you deep saturation divers out there you may find it of some use!

The watch bezel is a unidirectional design and ratcheted in 120 clicks around the dial. It is positive in operation and (Hurrah) lines up with the minute markers on the dial. The bezel insert is marked one quarter bright cherry red and three quarters black. Possibly a bit to bling for some owners but I love the colour.

The case is fitted with a monster 4.7mm shallow domed sapphire crystal. This does give a very slight blue tint when turned in the light at certain angles. It looks stunning and it should be scratch proof and look the same in 20 years time. It can be shattered with a a hard impact probably its only weakness. But I don't intend to hammer tent pegs in with my watch so I won't worry about it.

On to the dial. The dial is a deep shiny gloss black with applied raised markers at the 5 minute intervals around the face. These are filled with tritium luminous compound and should glow in complete darkness. They will also illuminate more brightly for a short while if lit with a bright light source.

The minute intervals are marked with fine white lines applied at the very edge of the dial. The face contains two sub dials as stated at the start of the review. These have a very fine pattern of concentric circles on them that catch the light. The Hours dial has painted tritium markers with Arabic numerals at the four compass points. The hour hand is plain unpainted stainless steel with a filled tritium centre.

The seconds dial is my only point of contention with the design. It has tritium marks around the edge of its dial, but the hand is hollow and does not show up in the dark. Why not use the same hand design as the hours hand? Unlikely you would mix them up!

The minutes hand is a big fat arrow pointer with a bright red border and tritium filled inner. It sits on the end of a thin black pivot section. This uncluttered the middle of the watch and makes the red pointer float in space. The red pointer extends into the minutes markers and makes it easy to read the exact minute.

The date window is at the 6 o'clock position. It consists of white numerals on a black background framed with a white border. The digits are large and very easy to read.

Other dial markings are as follows : -

ORIS
AUTOMATIC

1000m / 3300 ft
ISO 2281

The ISO 2281:1990 water-resistance standard is the reference for testing waterproof watches. This particular watch has a very high depth rating of 1000m. This is double that of any of my other watches requires a very tough case, crystal, and seals to comply. This watch has been tested by the German Military thus earning the 'Der Meistertaucher' (Master Diver) title.

The movement contained in this watch is the ORIS 649 which is based on the ETA 2836-2

These are the listed specs from the Oris website :-

Cal. Oris 649, Regulator, base ETA 2836-2,
Ø 25,60 mm, 11 1/2''', bi-directional
automatic winding, ball bearing,
27 jewels, Incabloc, 28¹800 A/h, 4 Hz,
power-reserve 38 h,
fine timing device and stop-second,
centre hand for minutes, subsidiary hour
at 3 h, subsidiary second at 9 h,
date window at 6 h, instantaneous
date, date corrector. Oris
development based on ETA movement.
Initial production 1995.

ORIS 649

I don't know if the rotor is finished as shown in the picture as I have not and will not open the watch myself. I'll leave this to the experts. Some Oris watches have glass view back so you can see the movement. But for obvious reasons this is not possible in this case.

Setting the watch and operating the crown does not hold any surprises. After unscrewing it from the case the first position allows you to wind the movement up. The second position allows the quick set date to be adjusted and the third position allows the time to be set. It hacks the seconds so these will stop when you pull the crown to the time adjustment position.

The watch came fitted with the rubber divers strap. This had to be shortened for my wrist by cutting the both sides of the strap to the correct length. I did this with a scalpel blade to give a clean edge. Make sure you measure it carefully as there will be no going back if you made it too short.

Once fitted the rubber strap is very comfortable. I now also know I am wearing the watch by the constant smell of Vanilla following me everywhere!

The titanium deployment clasp is fitted with a twin pushbutton release and a signed security clasp. It not as good as the one on my Omega Seamaster, but not a lot is! It still works very well and has a fold out divers extension for fitting over your wetsuit when you go diving.

I have yet to get the correct tool for removing the Titanium bracelet pins so have yet to try the watch with this fitted. I'll update here in a few days when I get the tool.

Overall I am pretty well impressed with this watch. It does (at the price I paid) represent excellent value for money. The fit finish and overall quality seem to fit watches that cost a lot more. Its unique looks should keep your friends amused when they ask what the time is and I bet you don't see many more of them on peoples wrist on your travels. If you do it would make for an interesting talking point.

Also this is my very first Titanium watch. I like the material and the low weight is certainly a revelation. I don't know how it will wear compared with my steel watches but time will tell.

The Titanium Seiko samurai in orange looks more and more appealing every day. Maybe next year. LOL

Take care

Mark

Update 11/11/2004

I got my excellent A*F Bracelet pin removal tool today. Thanks to RLTWatches. This allowed me to size the bracelet to fit my wrist and give an opportunity to take even more pictures!

As you can see it is made with solid Titanium links these are polished in the centre sections and brushed the same as the watchcase on the outside links.

I think the watch looks absolutely fantastic on this bracelet and I can see me using this more than the rubber strap. The other big advantage is this solid metal bracelet is as light as a feather! Well almost.

Australian Dealer

www.watch-czar.com

Please also note that there is also an excellent UK watch forum here where you can communicate with like minded people about all things watch related.