Introducing the Oris Lake Baikal Limited Edition

Oris as a responsible watchmaker has long since championed several environmental concerns. These include, the sustainability of what they do as a watchmaker, plastic pollution and, endangered and ecosystem relevant concerns.

Speaking to a small gathering of journalists at Taipei earlier today, David Weber, Director of Oris in Greater China affirmed this saying, “These are the three pillars that we see are essential for ourselves in the future that we also want to see and drive attention to.

“We know we are a luxury brand, we are a mechanical watch brand. But we still have a certain responsibility that we must take up ourselves , and invest in, to help this cause. Because at the end of the day, there is only one planet we have. There is no plan B; there’s no second solution.”

On this note, David then lead our attention to the Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater body on earth, located in southern Siberia, Russia, north of Mongolia and China. Lake Baikal, in fact, accounts for about 20 percent of the world’s fresh water content. The lake is 636 meters long and at its deepest point is 1,642 meters. It is the deepest fresh body on earth.

More than it’s physical attributes, the lake is home to an amazing array of wildlife that is unique to it, because of the way that the lake is landlocked between Russia and Mongolia. But all of this is under threat now, as many environmental authorities have raised alarms pointing out that toxic waste has flown into Lake Bailak in as much as 15,000 metric tons (read more, here).

In the same way that Oris has actively supported several other aquatic conservation efforts, it is now committing to aid ‘Point No1’, a Lake Baikal conservation project run by the Scientific Research Institute of Biology at Irkutsk State University.

For this they’ve created a special execution of their Aquis diver’s watch, which takes on the surreal blues of Lake Baikal when it remains frozen through about 4-5 months of the winter season. This phenomenon is in itself under threat as scientists have noted that the surface temperatures at the lake have risen approximately 1.5 °C in last 50 years.

As Oris usually does, they’ve included a secret signature on the back of the watch depicting the phenomenon of crevasses in the waters of Lake Baikal when it is frozen. These are unique patterns that form in the frozen waters, which remains transparent for up to a meter.

The watch will be limited to 1,999 pieces, reflecting the year in which Russia adopted the Baikal Law protecting the lake. Funds raised by sales of the new Oris Lake Baikal Limited Edition will be used in support of the aforementioned Point No1.