La edición de 1,000 piezas del Oris Aquis Date Kelp Forest recrea en la esfera los bosques de algas que su embajador, el fotógrafo submarino Francis Pérez, ha visto desaparecer.
Francis Pérez, an underwater photographer from Tenerife and a World Press Photo winner, has worked with Oris since 2015, when he shot the underwater images for the launch of the El Hierro limited edition. Shortly afterwards, Oris Spain asked him to direct and organize an exhibition in Madrid marking ten years of the brand's commitment to ocean conservation, and the brand then offered him the role of its ambassador in Spain.
According to Oris, the Aquis Date Kelp Forest Limited Edition, unveiled on October 20, grew out of a conversation with Pérez about kelp forests: ecosystems of very large algae, which can exceed 30 meters in length and grow from the rocky seabed to the surface in temperate and cold waters. In the interview that accompanies the press release, Pérez explains that they are abundant off California and along the coasts of Chile and Peru, down to Patagonia, and that Chile's are among the most degraded in the world, largely because of commercial harvesting of the algae to extract alginate, a thickener used by the food industry.
The edition of 1,000 numbered pieces is based on the 41.5 mm Aquis Date, the dive watch in Oris's permanent collection, with its own dial and engraved caseback.
Technical Specs
| Reference | 01 733 7787 4187-Set; limited edition of 1,000 numbered pieces |
| Case | Multi-piece stainless steel; 41.5 mm diameter, 12.9 mm thick, 49 mm lug-to-lug, 22 mm lug width |
| Bezel and crown | Unidirectional rotating bezel with green ceramic insert and minute scale; screw-down steel crown with guard |
| Crystal and back | Sapphire, domed on both sides, with inner anti-reflective coating; screwed steel caseback engraved with a kelp motif and the piece number |
| Water resistance | 30 bar (300 m) |
| Dial | Ocean green with 3D-printed kelp texture; hands and indices with gold outlines and Super-LumiNova |
| Caliber | Oris Calibre 733-1, automatic, based on the Sellita SW200-1; 28,800 vph (4 Hz); 41-hour power reserve |
| Functions | Central hours, minutes and seconds; instantaneous date with corrector; stop-seconds |
| Bracelet | Three-link steel, brushed and polished; folding clasp with adjustment and quick-change systems |
| Price and availability | 2,950 USD; 60,000 pesos in Mexico; 2,450 euros in Spain; sold on Oris's official website; two-year warranty, three with MyOris registration |
A 3D-printed dial
On the ocean green dial, Oris 3D-printed a texture that recreates kelp fronds swaying in the current, with the shifts of green and gold seen in those forests. As the light changes angle, the relief makes the dial appear to move, as if it were underwater.
Gold returns on the outlines of the hands and indices, which carry Super-LumiNova for reading the time in the dark or on a dive. The green continues on the ceramic bezel insert, which turns in one direction only: if it is knocked, it can only show more elapsed dive time than the real figure, which brings the diver's ascent forward.
Case and bracelet
The steel case measures 41.5 mm in diameter, 12.9 mm thick and 49 mm lug to lug. The lugs extend less than four millimeters beyond the case on each side, which keeps the watch compact from end to end despite its 300 meters of water resistance. The sapphire crystal is domed on both sides, with anti-reflective coating on the inside, and the screw-down crown is protected on the flank of the case. The caseback, also screwed in, is engraved with a kelp motif and the number of each watch within the edition.
The steel bracelet, with three brushed and polished links, closes with a folding clasp that has one system for adjusting the length and a quick-change system for swapping the bracelet for a strap.
The Calibre 733
Inside is the Oris Calibre 733, a Swiss automatic movement based on the Sellita SW200-1. It runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour (4 Hz) and has a 41-hour power reserve. The date is instantaneous, jumping from one number to the next in a single step at midnight. The stop-seconds function halts the seconds hand when the crown is pulled out, so the watch can be set to the exact second, against a time signal, for example.
Prices and retail in Mexico and Spain
The Kelp Forest is on sale on Oris's official website, which lists it at 2,950 dollars in the United States, 60,000 pesos in Mexico, with free shipping, and 2,450 euros in Spain. Oris has its own subsidiary in Mexico, Oris Watch Mexico, based in Mexico City, and a broad network of authorized retailers that includes the department stores El Palacio de Hierro and Liverpool, as ORELO detailed when covering the ProPilot Calibre 111.
An Aquis Date with a kelp dial
The Kelp Forest is a 41.5 mm Aquis Date with its 300 meters of water resistance and ceramic bezel, to which Oris has added a dial no other watch in the collection carries. The 3D-printed texture changes with the light, in the greens and golds of kelp, and the engraved caseback identifies each of the 1,000 pieces. On Oris's official website, the regular version with a green dial and steel bracelet costs 2,800 dollars and 59,000 pesos in Mexico, which puts the limited edition very close to the price of the standard model. For Francis Pérez, who has spent some 25 years photographing the ocean, the watch is also a way to draw attention to the degradation of those forests.
