Swiss watch manufacture Oris has several pieces of good news to share with the watch world right now. Having recently completed its second sustainability report, it’s evident that the company is meeting its sustainability goals. These are being achieved alongside the development of a number of environmental projects developed as part of the ‘Better for Change’ programme, first launched 20 years ago. For example, Oris is now very close to its goal of reducing its own CO² emissions by 10 percent within three years. Despite the pandemic and the company’s continued growth, Oris achieved a CO² reduction of 7.8 percent, as well as a 38.1 percent cut of business travel emissions.
Furthermore, Oris has committed to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, supporting sustainable and social projects around the world as part of its ‘Better for Change’ agenda – from a solar project in India to a non-profit restoring oyster reefs in New York. This has also led to collaborations with several other organisations and companies committed to a creating a sustainable world. For example, Oris’ collaboration with the company Bracenet resulted in a diver’s watch with a dial made from abandoned fishing nets floating around in the sea.
Since 2021, Oris has been partnering with the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat (CWSS), a German-Danish-Dutch organisation that works to preserve the ‘Dat Wat’ – the local dialect’s name for the Wadden Sea – and the 10,000 species that live across the 11,500 km² area. The cooperation has already supported several beach cleaning campaigns, a children’s holiday camp with a focus on the Wadden Sea, and the first Dat Watt Limited Edition watch. Now, the collaboration has been extended by two more years to 2025. Therefore, a new limited-edition watch based on the popular Aquis is being introduced to mark the occasion: the Dat Watt Limited Edition II.
The 43.5 mm stainless steel case of the Dat Watt Limited Edition II is water-resistant to 300 m. To shield it from water, the watch features a screw-down stainless-steel safety crown with protection. A domed anti-reflective sapphire crystal protects the sensitive dial. Furthermore, the unidirectional rotating bezel with a 60-minute scale on a grey tungsten inlay ensures a safe dive. A downward-pointing triangle with a circle in its centre stands for the sixtieth minute.
Depicting its 500-kilometre-long coastline, the engraving on the caseback provides a symbolic connection to the Wadden Sea. Surrounded by a ring-shaped engraving of the model’s name and limitation number, an illustration of birds in flight and the coastal area from Den Helder in Holland to Skallingen in Denmark is embedded in the middle of the caseback.
Just like the caseback, the dial represents the extent to which the Wadden Sea served as a design inspiration for this timepiece. With its shimmering green hue, the dial is meant to evoke the colours of the salt marshes, home to thousands of animal and plant species and storage of CO². Thus, the Dat Watt Limited Edition II is a reminder of how important it is to preserve the Wadden Sea, thereby slowing down climate change to some extent.
Aside from the hours and minutes, the Dat Watt Limited Edition II also displays the small seconds at 9 o’clock, which is indicated in quarters. To ensure that you can still keep an eye on the time in poor lighting conditions, the hands, indices, and one half of the small seconds hand are covered with Super-LumiNova. In addition, the dial features a circular date window with white indications that runs alongside a slim circular aperture.
The limited edition diver’s watch is powered by Oris’ in-house 743 automatic movement with a power reserve of 38 hours, beating at a frequency of 4 Hz. The watch offers hours, minutes, small seconds – earning its nickname ‘Small seconds diver’ – and date. In addition, the calibre integrates 38 jewels, while using a Sellita movement as its base.
There are two different strap options for the Dat Watt Limited Edition II: the blue rubber strap creates a sporty aesthetic, while the three-row stainless steel bracelet offers a more masculine option. Both bracelets have a safety folding clasp with an extension, and come with a tool that allows easy interchange between the two straps.
There are 2,009 copies of the Dat Watt Limited Edition II available. This special number represents the year 2009, when the Wadden Sea was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The timepiece is available for 2,900 euros and presented in a special box, and likewise, 2,009 pieces are available.
