Oris has done well to create a large and diverse range of collections with broad appeal in recent years, anchored by their Aquis, Big Crown, and ProPilot X offerings. As wonderful as some of these watches are, I’ve always found the watches at the periphery to be the most compelling. Watches like the yearly Hölstein Editions (especially this guy from 2022), the ProPilot X Laser, and perhaps most of all, the bonkers 47mm ProPilot Altimeter. This year, at Geneva Watch Days, Oris is leaning into this part of their personality with a pair of new releases that go hard on big colors, and big complications. This is the Oris x Bamford Watch Department Altimeter Mission Control.
At its core, the Altimeter begins life as arguably the most hard core reference within the ProPilot stable, boasting a 47mm multi-piece, 3D-printed carbon fiber and titanium case. It’s big, but it’s shockingly light on the wrist (just under 100 grams), and incredibly easy to wear. The size is necessitated by the built in altimeter, which can gauge altitude to 19,700 feet. This display appears at the perimeter of, and a level beneath, the dial itself. A crown at four o‘clock can be opened to calibrate the watch to current altitude, and from there, a mechanical aneroid barometer measures pressure changes in the atmosphere to display against the scale built into the rehaut.
This is a rarely seen complication, though Oris has a history of building such niche instrumentation (even building a mechanical depth gauge at one point). In teaming up with Bamford Watch Department, the design has been livened up with the use of vibrant green, yellow, and red to differentiate the scales at work around the dial. These colors bring out a decidedly more fun element of the Altimeter’s personality, and uncouple it from the rigid instrument based vibe it had been known for. It’s hugely expressive, and underscores the sound design language at work at the core of the ProPilot collection as a whole.
This watch certainly wouldn’t have been the obvious choice for a high profile collaboration, given its rather niche appeal, but it serves as a wonderful showcase of both Oris and Bamford Watch Department’s strengths. The design here brings out a new dimension of the Oris ProPilot, and frankly, makes it exciting. The campaign that the two entities have created for the watch helps in this regard as well, being framed as an otherworldly tool straight out of a Kubrick movie. This is where the name, Mission Control, comes into play, meant to evoke the imagination.
Oris is using their caliber 793, which is a modified Sellita SW300, offering 54 hours of reserve. The movement sits behind a closed caseback that features an engraved conversion scale from freedom units to metric, though the watch itself can be had in either unit of measurement. Just 250 examples of the watch will be produced, with pricing set at $8,100. It’s a steep ask, but the case and altimeter complication alone place this watch within truly unique territory, and the Bamford Watch Department touches dial everything up to 11. Oris / Bamford Watch Department
