News
Introducing the new Oris ProPilot Altimeter in Carbon Fiber
News
Introducing the new Oris ProPilot Altimeter in Carbon Fiber
Oris Propilot Altimeter
While Oris has dive watches that can measure depth, the brand wowed mechanical watch connoisseurs when it unveiled a timepiece nine years ago that can measure height and ascent. In 2014, the brand created the Oris Big Crown ProPilot Altimeter, the first automatic watch to feature a mechanical altimeter. Now, the Oris ProPilot Altimeter has returned slimmer and in a lightweight carbon fiber composite case.
Today, Oris’s Altimeter is still the only automatic mechanical watch in the world that incorporates a mechanical altimeter. This scientific instrument is essentially an aneroid barometer that measures atmospheric pressure to indicate the altitude — visit a mountainous region or take flight in an unpressurized cabin, and this precision device will tell you how far you are from sea level, in either imperial or metric units.
Housing the slim Caliber 793 with 56-hour power reserve, the new Oris ProPilot Altimeter’s carbon fiber case was developed by a specialized company called 9T Labs, which is a Red Dot Design Award-winning Swiss engineering company founded in 2018. Its altimeter, too, is made of carbon fiber.
“We introduced a thinner automatic movement with a 56-hour power reserve, Oris Caliber 793, and housed it in a unique carbon fiber composite material case with a titanium bezel and caseback. The carbon composite is two thirds lighter than titanium,” says Oris’s product development engineer Richard Siegrist. “The result is a watch with improved performance that’s also 1mm slimmer than the previous model and 70g lighter. At 47mm, it’s still a substantial watch, but we’ve created a beautifully balanced tool that works even on a smaller wrist. Of course, there are electronic altimeters out there, but this is all about the joy of mechanics!”
Push in the four o’clock position crown and you can adjust the time by rotating the two o’clock position crown. Activate the altimeter by unscrewing the four o’clock crown and you will see a red ring under it — now, you can set the altimeter by pulling the four o’clock crown out and rotating it until the red triangle at the six o’clock position indicates the current air pressure. The yellow indicator will tell you the current altitude and the red indicator will tell you the current air pressure. Screw back the crown to turn off the altimeter.
Tech Specs
Oris Propilot Altimeter
References: 793 7775 8734-Set (Altitude scale in feet); 793 7775 8764-Set (Altitude scale in meters)
Movement: Self-winding Caliber 793; 56-hour power reserve
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, date and altimeter
Case: 47mm; single-piece carbon fiber, gray PVD-plated titanium bezel and caseback; water resistant to 100m
Dial: Black with altitude scale on dial ring in either feet or meters; Super-LumiNova filled Arabic numerals and indexes
Strap: Green textile with brown leather lining; gray PVD-plated titanium folding clasp with fine adjustment system
Price: CHF 6,200