A manufacture that has created versatile watches themed on aviation, diving and city life, Oris engineers a variety of sporty watches in its facility in Hölstein, Switzerland. Inspired by the great outdoors, Oris has developed more than 280 unique calibers and created many horological icons since its founding in 1904, including the Aquis, Divers Sixty-Five and Big Crown. In the Oris family, the ProPilot is a collection of utilitarian timepieces themed on flying; each ProPilot watch bears aviation-inspired aesthetic details. This March, the brand debuts two timepieces under the acclaimed collection, both of which express the flight-ready design DNA of the collection, but in distinctly different ways.

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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.

Bright markers, numerals and scales in white, yellow and red are contrasted by a pitch dark dial and case. An outer ring reads altitude, up to 19,700 feet or 6,000 meters, while the inner ring displays corresponding air pressure. This is a vast improvement as previous Oris ProPilot Altimeter scales measured up to only 15,000 feet or 4,500 meters.

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!”

“Oris wanted a watch made of lightweight, extremely strong materials, but in a new, innovative way. Watches produced using carbon fiber composite are two-a-penny now. It’s become a bit boring, and the materials are not sustainable,” describes Giovanni Cavolina, who is cofounder and chief commercial officer at 9T Labs. “Using sustainable processes… 9T Labs developed a unique, all-in-one manufacturing solution based on ‘additive manufacturing and molding.’ This is different to normal 3D-printing, which is mainly for prototyping. We can industrialize manufacturing and use the technology to produce structural end-use parts at high volumes. This is a real breakthrough. It’s a composite of carbon fiber and a polymer called PEKK that has high mechanical, heat and chemical resistance. Together, they form a material that’s as light as plastic and that can be stronger than metals. So it’s low weight, high stiffness and high strength.”

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.

Even though this 100-meter water resistant watch is not as impervious to water when its four o’clock crown is unscrewed or pulled out, Oris’s patented altimeter adjustment and venting crown system is equipped with a PTFE vapor barrier that stops ambient moisture entering the watch.

Tech Specs