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Watches & Wonders Day 3 – Czapek, Chopard, Oris, and More

Published on Fri, 1 Apr 2022 21:11:41 +0000

The third episode is all about some of the great stuff we saw at Czapek, Chopard, Oris, and more.

Synopsis

In this third day of Watches and Wonders coverage, host James Stacey is joined by colleagues Cole Pennington and Danny Milton, recording live from the Oris booth. The conversation begins with James discussing his morning visit to Czapek, a Geneva-based independent watchmaker. He's particularly impressed by their new 38.5mm Antarctique featuring osmium on the dial—an incredibly expensive mineral that creates distinctive frost-like blue-gray patterns. James also highlights the Antarctique Rattrapante in ice blue, a highly complicated split-seconds chronograph that exemplifies what independent watchmaking can achieve.

The team then discusses an unexpected highlight: Van Cleef & Arpels' automaton watches. The "Enchanted Nature" features twelve flower petals that open and close to indicate hours, with each configuration changing throughout the day on a 36-hour cycle. Another piece features a ballerina whose tutu rises to reveal the time, then transforms into butterfly wings. These watches prioritize artistry over traditional time-telling, representing haute horology at its most whimsical. The group also covers Chopard's releases, including the Alpine Eagle Flying Tourbillon—a surprisingly thin watch at 8.4mm that wears exceptionally well despite its $76,000+ price tag—and an extraordinary trilogy of striking watches, including a fully sapphire-cased minute repeater.

The highlight for the group is the new Oris Pro Pilot X Caliber 400, available in gray, blue, and salmon dials. This 39mm titanium watch features Oris's in-house movement and an angular bracelet reminiscent of Bulgari's Octo. Cole declares it "the best watch of the show" in terms of attainable options. Danny is also smitten with the Big Crown Pointer Date with its rich blue dial and vintage-inspired design. The consensus is that Oris continues its hot streak, offering watches that punch well above their price point with thoughtful design and genuine enthusiasm for mechanical watchmaking.

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacey Hey, it's me, James Stacey, and it's day three of Watches and Wonders. I'm joined this time by Cole and Danny. And we're actually recording live uh to tape in the Oris booth. This is where we ended our day, and we've uh we've had a couple of beers and they basically said like it's not that busy, you can just go ahead and use this. Uh so hopefully the audio quality is good. I think it's gonna be fine. How are you guys doing? I couldn't be better
Danny Milton . Being uh Neoris booth is great. It's like uh if uh Tim Burton Batman movie meets a Joel Schumacher Batman movie
James Stacey . I think that's fair. It's a really nice booth. Uh they've got a really like crazy mechanical kind of display for their sign at the front. There there aren't really any brands like Ourist. It's a brand that we'll be talking a bunch about on this episode. Obviously we're big fans and they've got some pretty cool watches that came out this year uh for watches and wonders, but that's not where I want to start. I want to start where where I started my morning and that's with um a a really fabulous brand that I haven't had a lot of experience with, especially because they're you know, they've they've kind of made a rise in the last few years and that's uh Chapik, which is a Geneva based brand that makes kind of very high-end sort of or allergy sort of stuff. I get
Danny Milton that pronunciation wrong every time, but I'm just gonna keep leaning in. The only reason I know it is because it's Polish in origin, so it apparently and my wife will probably kill me anyway, it's Chopic. Yeah. What did I
James Stacey say? Chapic. Chapic. Goodness sakes. That's the Canadian A. So they had a couple interesting watches. Uh uh the the first one that I saw, and and Danny's seen a bunch on my screen because I've been editing the photos uh like anytime we sat down to have a bite eat or whatever is this uh a new version of the Antarctique which is thirty eight point five millimeters wide so it's a smaller version I want to say the other one is a little over forty and one of the versions in the in the whole range uses this uh insanely expensive mineral. I think it's the most expensive precious mineral in the world. It's called osmium. And the way they they show it to you is they bring you this watch, and basically it looks like almost like the way frost forms on a piece of metal, but it's deep blues and grays, and then the the when it shimmers, it shimmers to a light blue. It's very distinctive. Not like sapphire blue. It's much more sky or or like a gray blue. And when they they handed me the watch uh which will be delivered eventually on a bracelet they had it on a leather strap and they also handed me this ore this piece of ore and I think we have it on our on our Instagram but I'll I'll find a link for it if we can and uh the ore is is osmium the as as it is rendered I guess. They were saying that you know the dials are very expensive if you make them out of this material. And I I asked kind of casually like what's this ore cost? It was like six hundred and sixty thousand euros. Wow. Which kind of feels like enough. Hopefully that doesn't walk out of the booth. I mean it's kind of a showpiece. You'll see it in the picture, I think. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. We've well we definitely have it in the in the like a social post that we made. Okay. But these are these are like really beautiful, uh time only kind of integrated bracelet watches that sort of elevate. Chapic has like a really specific kind of aesthetic. And then you have like a really gorgeous movement uh to boot with a a micro rotor. It's the SX H five dot O one. It's an automatic caliber. And uh it's it's this really gorgeous bridge work. And and really these are these are just like this is what you want from an independent. And I think there's a lot of great independence operating. Obviously that,'s like it's a huge corner of the market these days. Well, but what
Danny Milton it's interesting is what separates Chopic from a lot of brands is this sort of open acknowledgement that it takes more than themselves to create these things. Right. So this is not, they're not calling this a manufacturer movement, but it is their first fully independently conceived movement. And so they designed it from scratch, but it's sort of pooled by a handful of partners that There's a connection between Patek and Shopek, right? Historically. So what is that? But uh it was uh Patek Chopek and company. Right. Fantastic. I don't know how you say that it's the C I E in Swiss, but I always say C C like H Mosers. Right. And so and then at some point there was a a a break of the two and and uh I forget what Chopic's first name was, but the name was dormant for a long time. And I think whoever are um behind the new Chopic Genev uh sort of licensed the the ability or purchase the ab Yeah, it's definitely high end we're talking
James Stacey very much. No, no, no. You didn't get to come to this meeting. We've all had different schedules today, but we we're definitely need you for uh specifically for later parts of this episode. But the you know, these ones are like they start in the mid 70s and go up from there, depending on what you're looking for. Like I said, it's 38.5 millimeters, it's a stainless steel case, uh 120 meters water resistance, screw down crown. Uh I I was really impressed by the brand. But you could you could it was kind of clear and we'll get to the next watch, which Danny uh uh kindly modeled for me for some photos, that they have they have this kind of dichotomy between going with the current trend towards kind of svelt, integrated bracelet, you know, stylish, not too big watches, and then the kind of classic move of the uh of the the independent with something really, really, really impressive like the Antarctique Rocheprant, which is uh in a new version is ice blue. And I mean, this thing you you'd look at it and it's like it's exactly what I would want if I was ever to get into something like uh an independent. It's this uh kind of large, really insanely complicated uh ratropron conograph with a fully skeletonized dial and these ice blue accents all the way around the dial circumference and then the two subdials as well, but they're rendered in like a sapphire ring. And I mean, this is a hugely expensive watch, very high end. It's an automatic caliber as well. This is what I miss about watch shows is getting to see these watches that this brand doesn't make that many watches. I'm not going to casually come across somebody wearing an anti-Teague Ratcher pont, you know, at a diner in Toronto or something like that. Like this is a kind of rarefied thing and to get to see it right in person, you know, like like I've said on the last two shows, it th this has been a really special experience to get back to these sorts of things. Well it's also interesting because it I mean, just to give
Danny Milton people inside baseball as to what it's like to be at the show, there's this special sort of sub hall of the show where all the independent brands are in sort of a square of their own, uh like a cul-de-sac of independence and you might miss it if you were walking on a straight line to Rolex or Patek or wherever it is you're headed. But this is to James' point, you're not gonna see these on many people's wrists, but it's a real treat to get you pr probably won't even have a any retailer near you to get to see these in persona. So even for us, we see all kinds of watches, but not really a lot of these independents, especially like Chopic. So I would you know, it was amazing to get to see a watch like that.
James Stacey Yeah. You know, up close. And it's a uh it's again a steel sports watch, 42.5 millimeters wide and uh about 15.3 millimeters thick. It's again 120 meters water resistant, impressively expensive. It uses an SXH6 movement, which is a uh a split second mono pusher chronograph, sixty hours of power reserve. Like we're talking like pretty high end sort of stuff here. You gotta love the sword hands too. You're a sword hand guy. Absolutely. And and you kind of I I I really, you know, kind of support people just taking a peek at the watch 'cause it's a nice use of color, but it's really about this like hugely open movement and the really high end watch making and looking I've I spent the last couple of years watch looking at kind of more modest watches, the kind of stuff I really that like and and like to write about. And this would be outside my scope to spend a like to try and really dig into the tech. I'd have to be bothering Jack a lot to make that happen. But I wanted to highlight this because this is where I started my day. And I found it to be really impressive. I think that the the despite pandemic and the rest of it, the whole indie scene has continued with great pace and uh the it's it's really fun to kind of take in that complexity. Yeah, no
Danny Milton , it I think indie brands can thrive in the internet environment because like I said, the fact that you can't really see them in person anyway makes the internet work for them even better, which is why it's that much cooler to see a brand like Chopic. I was wondering, James, I know that podcasting is such a visual medium, but is the other bracelet links? Are they the letter C polished in the same thing? Wish I could show that to everybody, but check it out in the pictures. You'll just have to go read the article. There you go. There you go. And speaking of of uh sort of interesting watch design and things that we've pretty much never ever ever see, I happened to walk into a meeting today that I wasn't planning on taking just because I saw all my friends there. And it was uh at Van Cleef in Arpel and it was we saw something called the Enchanted Nature, which is where a watch meets an automaton. I guess you would say, James, would you agree with that? Uh it's right in that zone for sure. It tells the time for sure. But in a way that's wholly unexpected. Basically, uh what we're looking at is a um uh peak hot horology, um where the dial is comprised of automated uh flowers that open and close. Uh, this is impossible to describe accurately, but there's basically a bunch of flower petals all across the dial, and each hour, certain petals will close and certain will open. So if it's two o'clock, there'll be two pedals open. If it's three o'clock, three pedals open. I think you know where I'm going with this. The interesting thing about that is those are only showing you the hours. There is an exhibition um see-through window on the on the case itself that tracks the minutes. And what Van Cleef has done with this watch is create a system internally and a movement that they don't even show off. It's actually hidden inside the watch that the orientation of how the flowers open and close to display the hours have three different sets which means that the same two flower petals if it's two o'clock will be different at your two o'clock in the morning, your two o'clock in the afternoon, and the following two o'clock in the morning. It doesn't reset until that next two o'clock in the afternoon. Yeah. It's a very unique experience through the time, and it actually makes it feel like they're different every time. And what's the most unique is uh the way that the movement functions as the pedals close, it's almost like a slow motion close and they spring open um really quickly. Yeah. Which again, please check out the article because I know that in the hands-on piece that we're running, there will be an animated image, a GIF, if you will. GIF, depending on where you're from in the world. But you'll see this really wild watch. And I I'm hoping it's not one of those things where we just fall in love with it because we see it in person and if you see it online and you're just like, I don't get it, but I really hope that it comes through
James Stacey . Because it's it's a largely um like specifically female oriented brand. High jewelry is kind of their calling card. But they make these watches and they it they take the watch making so seriously. They had their kind of like technical guy come in and explain what it takes to make these twelve flowers. And and like Danny was saying, if it's one o'clock, one of the flowers is open. And when it's two o'clock, it's not just one other flower opens. The quote unquote one o'clock flower closes and two others open for two. You have this crazy um a linear minute retrograde display on on the side. So if you need to know the minutes in your day, you glance at the side of the watch. And yeah, I I think if I had this one, it wouldn't really suit my personal style, but if I had it on my wrist, sure you'd be sitting there like physically counting the flowers. But I don't know if you would
Danny Milton care. Right. So cool. I have to bring up we saw two watches from Van Cleef today, and the other one was even less about telling the time. Basically the dial has uh an image of a ballerina right on the dial, uh and her as as they put it, I don't know the technical term, they literally told us two two. Um that's right. Is it is two two is the dress that they wear, yeah. And so the the tutu uh actually um you have to click the side, the pusher on the side of the case, and the tutu will rise and show you the time. Well, and it splits in half and becomes like butterfly wings. So once it rises, then the image turns from ballerina to butterfly. But the point is when the tutu is in its tutu position, you don't know what time it is. Yeah. At all. You have to actually initiate the time-telling function. And what' intersesting about what Van Cleef does, again, both of these watches they're not showing you the movement. There's no exhibition case back. But what's happening on the inside is the time continues to run, but it's not um it's not connected to these sort of automated functions unless you click the pusher. Then it sort of latches on to tell you the time and then latches off to stop telling you the time.
James Stacey Yeah. And and look, I I I understand if you saw uh Chapik, Chopar, and Oris listed here, you didn't think we were gonna be talking about uh Ballerina watches that turn into butterflies or watches that show little gardens that tell the time somehow. But I wanted to dedicate every day of this uh these daily podcasts to whatever we got excited about. And everybody that we were in the room with, it was Jack and Nora and myself and Danny. And we we were all really pumped to see this. Is it a watch I want on my wrist? No, not at all. But I'm really glad they make
Danny Milton it. Sounds like I have to stop at the moment. You do. And just to clarify, what's on what's on the case back is you can see the rotor and the rotor is um I don't say this James but usually like a rotor is a it's a half cylinder, a half circle. But the rotors on these are like full they're full. Full peripheral rotor. Yeah. Well I guess it's not peripheral to the movement. Right. And so that's the only window you have into what's happening in the back, which is pretty interesting. Yeah, cool. Uh how about Chopar? How about Chopard? I think I want to lead with um a watch that you and I both kind of gravitated to in a weird way, which was um the Alpine Eagle Turbul. Right. I think we both agree that what made this watch for both of us, because it still has the same forty-one millimeter size, same bracelet, with a minor difference where the uh the clasp actually has a uh twin-trigger deployment system. So you can actually like unlatch the clasp very easily, whereas on the original Alpine Eagle it's a mess and you have to really think about how to take on and put on the watch. But it's about eight point four millimeters in thickness.. Super thin Super, super thin compared to ten millimeters thickness, which is a it doesn't sound like a lot when we're in millimeters, but it's a it's a we had both in the room today. And I know you were telling me that you're not really into turb
James Stacey ulence, but I'm and to be honest, I'm not even into Alpine Eagles. Yeah. Like this is the first time I've seen one in person. I think these came out loosely just before the pandemic. So I I haven't had a chance to really dig into one or or have one on my wrist ever. And I don't I'm not wild about the aesthetic. Um, but in trying this on, as soon as it's on your wrist and and and the bracelet fits, it works. It feels really good. Uh, you know, I don't care anything about turbulons. This is the Alpine Eagle flying turbulion. It's a forty-one millimeter. It uses their Chopar Lucent Steel and it uses, you know, it's a it's high end movement. It's a Chopar. So I mean like you kind of take certain things for granted within the format. But a nice wearing watch for sure. And and you know, the turbine's not like too too big or small. It's kind of the right size. It's in the right spot. They largely look pretty good. I like it. I like it a lot
Danny Milton . It wore better than I would have ever expected. It's one of those things where the the turbine really uh the price changes dramatically. Oh Oh I imagine I didn't even ask the price. I I asked. So I think you have to ask you can't afford it. Well that's what happened. I did the thing where I nodded affirmative like, oh of course, of course. Yeah. Uh because I think the the Alpine Eagle itself is something in the thirteen thousand dollar realm. Uh which is a deal compared to every other watch that it's a lot without question with. I mean you want to take a guess what we w I'm gonna go nort north or south. We're gonna overunder. What's the overunder in your mind? I think the this watch is forty five thous
James Stacey and dollars. Okay. Seventy six. It's it's over a hundred thousand. Wow. There you go. I mean it's shopar. Quietly what could be just sneaking up right behind the holy trinity. Like, you know, really just very impressive things. I I I still I'm looking at the photos on my screen. I'm not sure I'm I'm locked in on the aesthetic of the of the all pine eagle. It's a little broke. It has an eighties sort of vibe to it. I felt like a like a bad guy banker that would drive a nine eleven in an eighties movie with aest.hetic, right? It's the whole thing Yeah, yeah, yeah
Danny Milton . I mean it's I agree. It's it's something that that that takes a lot. But again, this watch is not gonna be any kind of it's not limited uh edition, but it is limited production. I think they totally at all
James Stacey twenty per year is what they're gonna make. And if it's if it's a six-figure watch, like if we're talking about 120 grand or whatever it is, like that makes sense. Yeah, okay. And talking about limited, they had some other stuff as well. Yeah, they did. And that includes this insane uh trio of um striingke like strik watches. Yes. You mean they were like minute repeater striking or they were striking visually to you? Uh well they're definitely striking visually. One of them has an entirely s uh sapphire case that includes it's uh the resonator for the chiming system is also sapphire in in the within the system. Uh it uses a s a more traditional gong, um, but it's it's uh it's a three part set and there was each is being made five units and there was one left for them to sell. And I th they didn't say what it costs to buy all five of them, but the most expensive one was like in the neighborhood of five hundred thousand dollars. And if you were you could buy
Danny Milton the the trilogy of them, the trio, the only way you do that is there's only one trilogy available, and they're all the number ones of each watch. And they come in in a hilariously large box that we got a chance to see. Beautiful box. Beautiful box. You've seen boxes before, but you've never seen a
James Stacey box like this. It's a really gorgeous box, but something you would expect to have like a w whatever is something a little bit larger than a violin, but smaller than a a guitar. Well speaking of viol
Danny Milton ins and guitars, what's in the box is a is uh an apparatus where you can rest the watch for for the striking system and it will it will amplify and resonate similar to a violin.
James Stacey Sure. These are like deep collector things. I'm sure there's a few people in the audience that are like rolling their eyes, they want to get the chorus. Like I I understand I'm I'm not buying this kind of stuff, but I love seeing it. This is what it is to come to one of these trade shows. So it's the LUC Full Strike Sapphire, which is uh for the 25th anniversary of the LUC collection, which is kind of Chopard's upper echelon best watchmaking sort of stuff. And it's a fully sapphire case and uh uses one of their incredible, it's the 08.01L movement. And then the second one is called the full strike turbion. I think you can figure out what's happening there. It has a turbine. And then they have the LUC strike one, which is my favorite of the three. It has this really cool honeycomb pattern, which is like a thing for the brand, kind of in the dial center. And then it has the exposed gong for the striking system. And these are uh the the strike one is is almost similar to if you go into a G Shock or a Timex where on the hour it beeps twice. Well this one dings every hour. Uh so it's not like a repeater where you you know you have a uh a slide and and it chimes out the time. This would just ding every hour, which I I like the idea of more than a repeater. I don't need my watch to ding. I kind of I agree with you. I like it more than a repeater. Have you ever seen the repeater thing? Because this is the only world in which I've ever come across repeaters. And you're like, who does this? Who needs this
Cole Pennington ? I think the same kind of people, like there's a whole corner of our world that loves pocket watches still. Yeah, I could see that. And I think they are the kind of folks who appreciate that ding ding ding in the middle of the night and stuff like I wouldn't wake me up or anything.
James Stacey And with the full strike, at least you could see everything. So this is again the fully sapphire one where like the crown and the pusher are sapphire. At least in this one you could see everything happening as it as it starts to ding. And of course changing the case material from a steel to a precious metal to a sapphire changes the tone, the sound, and how it resonates. We got a full preview of that watch before we ever even saw it, too. Oh, yeah, yeah. So this is a real trend this year. Danny's alluding to a video presentation we had. Every brand had a video, and uh, but this one we like had to get special headphones and go into a dark room and it was a three hundred and sixty degre degree like projection of the watch essentially growing. So first we saw like crystals almost like in annihilation. Right. The Alex Garland film. So we saw crystals like get pulled out of the ground by like negative gravity and go into space and form this incredibly complicated structure of the mid-case barrel that has that resonating rod. The thing that actually vibrates to make the tone uh is all integrated into into the system and then you you see the movement come together with all these great sound effects and the rest of it. Just imagine
Danny Milton John Bees, James Stacy and myself in a completely pitch black room with a three hundred and sixty dedication screen spinning around in circles to keep track of everything that's happening on the screen at work
James Stacey . Watch parts flying around at crystals forming and stuff. We uh we uh we hey, we were out here. We were out here living. Yeah. Out here living the full strike lifestyle. For sure. And the last one I would mention before we move on to Auris, is the LUC XPS 1860 Officer. And so this is a yellow gold watch with a green dial, but they managed to make it a dark green dial that still has a lot of vibrance to it. It's a 40mm case. It's about 7, 7.2 millimeters thick, 30 meters water resistance, and then you flip it over and it has like an officer-style caseback or a hunter caseback where there's a button in the crown, kind of looks like a mono pusher. And if you tap that, this little door pops open and uh it opens up and you can actually see the movement and both the dial center and the case back have that honeycomb pattern. It's the solution between any case back open uh exhibition case back or not argument. Yeah. Just do that. It's pretty cool. And the the funny thing is is the reason I wanted to chat about this one specifically is this is the exact type of watch I would ignore were this digital. I wouldn't even have downloaded the press release, but when they like hand it to you and you put it on your wrist and it fits and the green is really nice and light and it responds to them like my camera's flash really well. It just it's
Danny Milton exciting. It's I wasn't I wasn't sure when when they were showing it to us before they handed it over. It I think you, John and I, and Tiffany, who was shooting the watch watches, all had the same reaction. It was a very classic design. The green was almost at the center, very matte. Um like it didn't reflect light. It just sort of light dyed against it, which is what you kind of want in a sort of a non-glossy dial formation. But this is like you want to talk timeless watch design that's still feels a little bit vintage in gold. Uh, this is it. And of course, one of the coolest things about it, which has nothing to do with the mechanics for the watch itself, is the fact that it has this kind of great little brown leather strap that when you
James Stacey I like the strap. And yeah, it's this it's a nor relatively normal, very high quality looking strap. And then they made the liner match. So on one side it's dial green and brown, flip it on the other side and you get gold and the green. Yep. It's just, you know, this is what you get. Like Chopard, they're very thoughtful in the way that they approach watches. It's a brand that I've kind of missed being able to see their stuff the last couple years. Yeah. So it was a meeting I was looking forward to. I didn't know if we would necessarily have stuff to talk about. Because sometimes if it's like just Sapphire half a million dollar like, cool, great video. I loved it, whatever. But like, how much can I really talk about? But there was a nice spread. All LUC stuff, so all super expensive, high end, all that kind of thing. With the rare exception of the uh the turbulence uh which was also very high end, quite expensive. Very high end. If if it wasn't LUC, it was still high end. Right. And you know, to to to bring this plane to a somewhat lower elevation, you want to talk Horus? Yeah. We're sitting in their booth and and I finally got to see this watch in person. I've been seeing photos of it for a while. Well, Cole, I've I've been talking a ton, Cole. You go nuts. Tell us
Cole Pennington about the watch. Well, I' Ill'll open with a strong statement which I actually believe. In terms of a watch that I could buy or even one that's just not pie in the sky, right? Right. This is the best watch of the show. So it's not sapphire cased with a a special chiming feature and I mean a really fancy wooden black That's intellectually interesting, like put it this way, if it's something I can go see at the Met or whatever, it's not something I'm thinking about ever own. Right. I get you. This I feel like I Yeah, it could be in my future. You never really know. But it's the the new Oris Pro Pilot X caliber 400. So the Pro Pilot X. Yeah, this watch, blue dial, gray dial, and salmon dial. Salmon dial is the the standout. And I actually let's have a quick chat, Stacy, about salmon dials and their like because you don't think this is a quite a salmon dial. You think this is like a this is the
James Stacey flesh of a salmon dial. It's not that it's not a salmon dial, it's just I feel like the term salmon dial doesn't mean what I think it means, which is sort of an iridescent off pink in the realm of roses. So you're thinking it's the scale, not the flesh. I think it's up to interpretation. I would say the oris is one is is much more like again, if we have to use this term the flesh of that animal, um it it's quite pink. Yeah. It's a little bit desaturated. Peachy. It's not as it's not as pink as say the cotton candy, because we saw both of them on the table today. But this watch, yeah, you comes in a gray, which I'm quite smitten by. Yeah. It's a really beautiful, like very modern take on a on a time uh time and date pilot's watch. Yeah. And then it has this incredible bracelet that as soon as I put it on, everybody made the same thing, it's kind of like octo-adjacent. Yeah.
Danny Milton Can I can I briefly push just on the salmon issue for a moment? Sure. Push. For to uh James, is your point that if something is gonna call itself a salmon dial that it it can't just be deriving itself from like inspiring itself from a color palette that has to actually bring in physical properties of
James Stacey of of salmon I think like if you're making a reference, that reference is meant to be specific. That's the point of said reference. And like this is this is a a a joke that came up a a few years ago, one of the last straight shows we went to. This is great. Uh Longa debuted the datagraph turbion perpetual in white gold or platinum, I don't remember, with a salmon dial. And I said it wasn't salmon, it was like salmon adjacent. It was a little bit too brown, right? Right. And then uh people people would call uh the fifteen two oh two B C the AP. Right. And that's not. That's very much like a rose gold, which is different than salmon in my world. But people just say salmon about anything. And I think that the Oris is arguably closer to being salmon colored than what we call or the uh than the AP revenge. I yeah, true. I stole it from John Hodgman who says it a lot and I'm sure he stole it from some famous author or something. But
Cole Pennington I think you're right on the money with that. Like when we say salmon, we should get salmon. But but to bring it back to the watch, this watch is more or less like if you took a salmon, scaled it, the color is very similar to the flat. That's what I think. And the thirty-nine millimeter fully titanium watch super light on the wrist. Crazy light. Very light. Yeah. And yeah, I think the other thing here that's we're talking about is that it is their it's in my opinion, it's the best use so far of their caliber four hundred. Like like uh in dive watches and so forth. I don't typically it it debuted in the aquas, right? But when it comes to dive watches, I am of the belief, and this is a another one that a lot of folks don't agree with, but I want the simplest, most workhorse, easily serviceable movement. If we're gonna use an in-house caliber, like it has to have a little pizzazz around it. And I think this watch is and they're smart, Oris specifically said this this watch celebrates the joy of mechanics, even though it is a pilot's watch. It's not really a aviation focused pilot's watch. Um that's why I think this is the perfect watch to utilize an in-house caliber. So you can celebrate two aspects. Yeah, the w we
James Stacey arability and yeah. The other thing that I like is is one, the size I think is perfect. Thirty nine millimeters super wearable. It makes it feel really light. The other thing is is uh you know, again, several years ago they launched the Pro Pilot X with the caliber one fifteen, which is a higher end version of a similar aesthetic, but a much larger watch as well. And um and that was more like an eight thousand dollar watch and this is coming in more like four thousand dollars. It's I think it's a a more approachable size. Uh the Pro Pilot X caliber one fifteen was forty four millimeters, but they took all the cool style, the the kind of almost like um B2 spirit inspired uh faceted bracelet. Yep. And the really lightweight and you've got that buckle with the little lift tab. Yeah. Yeah. The seat belt. They just do this kind of stuff really well. And uh I think this is good. It's a got it's got a date at six. Um, what do you guys like? What's your color? I'll be boring. I'm gonna go gray. I like gray always. I I put them all on. I'm gonna go salmon. I think salmon is if probably look good on a NATO. It would look good on a NATO. I think all three colors would look good on a NATO. And the blue's like a D uh like a grayish with a little bit of green. Yeah. You ag
Cole Pennington ree, Cole. Salmon's the same. Salmon only because Or is a master at you know doing the color thing, but it's unexpected. Gray and blue, these are like these are They fit the sort
Danny Milton of like dark, serious, toolish nature where salmon's like doesn't. It doesn't at all. In fact, it it runs counter to what you what the ethos of the watch is, which makes it a little more fun. Yeah, but it works. And it matches the lightness. If you if you think about it, like there's a lightness to the color and a physical lightness to the watch. Yeah. Um and I that's a cool interplay. I just thought of that right now. The unbearable. Exactly. The unbe
Cole Pennington the imbeple lightness of Horus. I would say the only thing about salmon though, we were really going on the salmon thing, but I thought we were done. Yeah. Well you asked what color you liked. Yeah. Um I think it's salmon. Yeah. Actually I'll just leave it with that. Like I pick salmon. That's it. Like I picked the salmon one. I actually kind of want
James Stacey one, actually. And speaking of watches that we like and and and are kind of enjoying, uh Danny got to go kind of hands on with something uh pretty cool too, right? Yeah, it was the Big Crown Pointer date, which I think came out end of
Danny Milton last year. I think it was around uh Dubai watch week. And the only interaction I had with it was looking at your awesome pictures of the watch. Um, but it's I think it's thirty eight millimeters.
James Stacey Yeah, it's a nice size. Great like rich blue dial. And or and you get the it's a little bit different of an expression of the pointer date where normally it has that sort of crescent half circle that that hits. This has more of a traditional like
Danny Milton arrowhead. The styling is also vastly different in terms of dial design. I think we were talking to Oris a little bit today because I was clearly so into it that they were they were getting into it, was that this actually harkens back to a design template that predates the last iteration of the big crown pointer date. So like they're two different eras of vintage aurus. But I don't know, this one hits me. Um 30s. This one I think. Yeah, this one's from the 30s. There's sort of thick blo,cky numerals. It's kind of interesting to me that there's a dark abyssal blue dial against a black strap, which doesn't really make a ton of sense because I think that can get lost against the black, but I still think that's very cool. Um, and no, I I I I just was was I put it on my wrist and I um it's a watch I think I'll be uh talking about more on Hodinky uh in in days to come, weeks to come, months to come. And we got to see a handful of other st
James Stacey uff that we're not allowed to talk about. Yeah, I always love a good T This is might be in the coming months. I mean they've always been good, but they've been
Cole Pennington on a run for a while, right? They have been, but I don't know. I maybe j I'm just smitten with this one watch, but I think the the Pro Pilot X can lead the way for like I don't know. Aurus has been a niche brand for a long time, and anyone who knows it loves it and understands it, right? But it actually does take getting to the point to be open enough to understand it that mainstream watch fans maybe don't get you know what I mean or no. Like it's I think
Danny Milton I do. I think James has the like the entire collection up on his computer screen right now as we're sort of looking at things and it's a very concentrated collection of watches where it's a lot of remote. But it's within a very specific design of each range, and I think that that speaks to the confidence of what the brand is. Um and I've definitely fallen under sort of the Auris spell. You're Mr. Danny Rolex Milton, but now you're thinking about Oris
Cole Pennington . Mr. Danny Rolex Milton. Put that on a business card. I think Jack, that's not my thing. Jack called him that initially. Um, let me remind you that there are other brands besides Rolex. That's right. I got I got taken aside. I got brought to the woodshed. And and but here's the thing. What I'm saying is now you're thinking about this watch. That's right. I think this is the year where Oris can open more people up to the brand. That's what I me
James Stacey an. Well, I think that's roughly a show, and uh we've got to go take some pictures of these uh these watches, the new Pro Pilot X. So uh we're gonna do that before we run out of I mean it's not daylight, we've been inside the whole time. It might be snowing outside like it was this morning. Uh yeah, energy, steam, uh you know gotta edit So you know what I say. If you're enjoying these episodes, let us know in the comments or share the link with a friend. We'd love to uh reach out to more people. Uh but yeah, otherwise this is the end of day three at uh Watches Wonders 2022. We thank you so much for listening and Cole and Danny, thank you so much for being on. Thanks, James. Pleasure's mine. All right, we're gonna have a special presentation for you tomorrow. It will not be with me, but I do think you'll have a really good time nonetheless. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll chat to you in about twenty-four hours.