A product of extensive research and innovative engineering, the AquisPro Date Calibre 400 is Oris’ new state-of-the-professional diver’s watch being unveiled at Watches & Wonders 2021. Designed to serve professional divers on saturation dives, this highly technical tool watch is an ideal choice for divers who work on complex engineering projects.
The AquisPro Date Calibre 400 is the larger (49.5mm) and more water resistant (1000m or 100 bar) cousin of the highly coveted Aquis diver. We’ll get to the aesthetics in a bit but first lets spend some time talking about the highlight of this piece, Oris’ new Calibre 400 – a major step forward in the brands’ movement making capabilities. Calibre 400 solves many of today’s divers’ needs. For starters, it features a robust 120 hours (five-day power reserve). When a standard mechanical watch is laid down for a day or two, it will stop as the power reserve runs down, but Calibre 400 will continue running if it’s not been worn between, say, Thursday and Tuesday. It delivers this longer period of use via twin barrels, both of which house an extended mainspring, each long enough to store two-and-a-half days of power. Second, elevated anti-magnetism levels ensure that the watch is kept running irrespective of the situations you encounter on a day to day basis. To make the movement highly anti-magnetic, Oris engineered Calibre 400 using more than 30 non-ferrous and anti-magnetic components, including a silicon escape wheel and a silicon anchor. In testing by the renowned Laboratoire Dubois, Calibre 400 deviated by less than 10 seconds a day after exposure to 2,250 gauss. For context, the latest version of the ISO 764 standard for anti-magnetic watches requires that to qualify as anti-magnetic, a watch must be accurate to within 30 seconds a day after exposure to 200 gauss. Calibre 400 recorded one third of the deviation allowed after exposure to more than 11 times the force permitted, making it a highly anti-magnetic movement. Third, Oris is also proposing 10-year recommended service intervals on Calibre 400 watches in addition to a 10-year warranty. This means that barring accidental damage or water-resistance checks, a Calibre 400 watch won’t need servicing until 2030 at the earliest. Eliminating problems before they occur was the idea behind Calibre 400. Oris’s engineers identified that one of the most frequent issues with automatic mechanical movements concerns the ball-bearing system that allows the free-spinning oscillating weight (or rotor) to rotate. This is a critical element of an automatic watch – as the rotor spins, it generates power that’s stored in the mainspring, which is housed in the barrel. So they removed the ball bearing altogether and replaced it with a low-friction slide bearing system, in which a metal stud runs through a lubricated sleeve. This is much less complex, highly efficient, and involves far less wear and tear, making it less prone to breakdowns.
The new Oris AquisPro Date Calibre 400 is presented in a multi-piece high-grade, lightweight titanium case plated in low-glare black DLC. Despite the 49.5mm size, the watch is extremely comfortable on the wrist. Among its special features is the Oris-patented Rotation Safety System, known as RSS, an exclusive Oris device, commissioned by the professional diving community that securely locks the uni-directional rotating bezel in place during a dive. A chunky rubber grip makes it easy to operate, even when gloved, while a yellow and white minutes scale engraved into the scratch-resistant ceramic bezel insert delivers high levels of low-light legibility. The hands and hour markers are all filled with Super-LumiNova® and works beautifully against the black dial with wave motif.
Titanium is also used for the rubber strap’s folding clasp, where you’ll find two more exclusive Oris innovations. The patented Oris Sliding Sledge Clasp can be adjusted to very fine tolerances without taking the watch off, so that when getting in or out of even the thickest wetsuit, you can loosen or tighten the strap hassle-free. The rubber strap also features the Oris Safety Anchor, developed by Oris so that in the event the clasp is released unintentionally, two hooks grab the strap so the watch stays attached to the wearer’s wrist.
With the AquisPro Date Calibre 400, Oris captures the true meaning of a quality divers watch. Frankly you don’t need to be a professional diver to appreciate this beautifully crafted, high performing instrument.