If You Like the Aquis, Oris Has You Covered this Summer

Oris gets a lot of attention for their Divers Sixty-Five line, fantastic pilot’s watches, and the tried and true pointer date, but in my opinion the unsung hero of the collection is the Aquis dive watch. While no one could blame Oris for looking to the past for inspiration throughout most of the current catalog, I’ll take the contemporary sports watch any day of the week. The Aquis comes in a range of sizes to suit any wrist, and there’s an enormous variety in dial colors and complications as well. Two recent releases from Oris continue to expand those options, increasing the likelihood, release after release, that there’s an Aquis out there for you. 

First up is the Aquis Date Cherry in a 43.5mm case. Fans of the brand likely remember last year’s cherry flavored Aquis in the diver’s 41.5mm case, so if you’re a large wristed collector or just want a stronger dose of that deep red dial, this one’s for you. The 43.5mm case sounds big, and of course it is a step up from the medium Aquis, but something about this case shape has always made it worn a bit easier than you’d expect. The larger Aquis is commanding for sure, but it’s not unwieldy in my experience. Like the smaller red dialed Aquis, this one has a 60 minute dive bezel etched in relief, 300 meters of water resistance, and the red dial has a dynamic sunray finish. 

Like other watches in the Aquis family, this one runs on the Oris 733 caliber, a rebadged Sellita movement with a date at 6:00 and 38 hours of power reserve. It’s outfitted with plenty of Super-LumiNova on the applied markers and hands, and has all the modern features you’d expect in a pro diver, including a sapphire crystal, screw down crown, and a clasp extension system appropriate for fitting this one over a wetsuit. 

Next, we have the latest watches to feature the Oris Caliber 400, their impressive in-house movement with a five day power reserve and ten year recommended service interval. The Aquis Date Caliber 400 Bi-Colour is a stainless steel Aquis in a 41.5mm case with gold accents on the dive bezel. It’s a subtle way to add a little gold into a watch rotation without diving too deep into full gold bracelets and solid case territory – you just get a hint of it here, which is sometimes exactly what you need. 

This two-tone version of the Aquis is available with both green and blue dials, and can be mounted on the familiar Aquis bracelet or rubber straps in colors matching the dials. Normally I’m very much a proponent of buying a watch with the bracelet if multiple options are available, but there’s something appealing about the casual nature of a two-tone diver on a brightly colored rubber strap that I think would be hard to pass up. 

All of the new summer ready Aquis divers are available now through authorized Oris channels. The 43.5mm Aquis Date Cherry has a retail price of $2,300, and the new variants with the Caliber 400 and a touch of gold sell for $4,400 on a strap and $4,600 on a bracelet. More information can be found on the Oris website.