The New Oris Carl Brashear Chronograph Limited Edition Bronze Watch
Oris has been one of the well-known brands, and it’s all because of its quality watches. They are uniquely designed, yet they maintain a relatively minimal look that’s desirable for formal occasions. One of its recent watches was the Carl Brashear, released about two years ago as a limited edition watch. It had a blue dial that contrasted with it bronze case, and drew inspiration from vintage dive watches. It wasn’t a surprise therefore that it quickly sold out, and was well received by collectors. It’s in the same spirit that that Oris have released a second edition, the Oris Carl Brashear Chronograph Limited Edition Bronze Watch, which has similar features to its predecessor, but now comes with a unique complication.
Unlike the past collection from Oris, this watch will include a chronograph in its design. That was a bold step because adding a chronograph can be tricky when done on a diver. In most cases, it leads to a bloated appearance, which is hard to avoid when you have to combine a busier dial and bezel that you can rotate. While we cannot mention any names, it’s easy to think of such watches because of the clutter that follows such a design if it wasn’t well planned for. To avoid that fate, Oris chose to create theirs with a minimalist design in mind. They only added the most essential chronograph features to their design, and it worked.
They only noticeable differences from the past model that didn’t feature the chronograph are the two notable sub-counters, meaning it doesn’t show the date. Instead of going for the 6-9-12 design common with the 7750-architecture, they went for a 30 minute counter at 3, and a small second at 9, which is a simple two-register design. That’s how the watch is capable of maintaining its great legibility, and clarity of the original model. Other notable features are minute hand and hour hand, which are rose-gold plated, and a dial background that’s colored deep blue. The indexes are also plated rose-gold.
To make the watch easy to read under low to zero light conditions, they hands and indexes are filled with luminous paint on their entire upper surface, except for the raised edges. Overall, the watch still maintains appearance of the Divers 65 Watch collection, such as the design shape of the hands and indexes, and the overall layout. It still maintains a stainless steel caseback, which is hypoallergenic, and therefore desirable.
The case however appears bigger, thanks to the addition of the chronograph function. The three-hand version now has a case measuring 43mm, up from the previous 42mm. It’s also considerably tall by a millimeter or so than the original. The pushes, the case, the crown, and the bezel are all made of bronze. As you might expect, the bronze will age with time and attain it patina, which will determined partly by how the end user will be using the watch.
The watch is water resistant for up to a depth of 100 meters, which is expected for a watch of its kind. The rotating bronze bezel is unidirectional, and it has a domed sapphire crystal that gives the dial’s edges a magnified appearance when viewed from the sides. The bronze case matches the rose-gold plating on the dials, which makes it look more of a formal dress-watch than a casual watch. However, it will still look great when you wear it to places such as a golf course, or even on your vacation.
The watch comes with a brown leather strap, nicely aged, and a matching bronze pin-buckle. For its movement, the watch uses a SW-510 caliber, and Sellita. While the caliber is derived from the Valjoux 7750, they gave it a unique bi-compact layout. Other specifications are an automatic winding, and a 48Hz frequency with a 48h power reserve. Finally, the watch has a Carl Brashear’s Mantra, and a diver’s helmet embossed on its caseback. The watch will have a price tag of $ 5,251.22, and being a limited edition watch, we can confidently say that its price may go up once they sell out.
Overall, we expect this watch to receive an equally warm reception from Oris fans and collectors. We hope that you found this article to informative and engaging.
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