Review: Oris Divers Sixty-Five Timeless Limited Edition

Oris is no stranger to producing some killer limited editions. This latest LE is a collaborative project between Timeless Luxury Watches and Oris, with the two teaming up to bring a familiar, yet distinct, watch into the world.

The Divers Sixty-Five is an excellent platform to build upon. The solid set of specs, wrist-friendly 40mm case, and classic vintage diver looks can be tweaked in a variety of ways without taking anything away from the core look of the watch. In the Timeless Luxury edition, there’s a hint of bronze, an all-new dial color, and some extra goodies that aren’t available with the standard edition.

Let’s take a closer look at what makes this limited edition stand out from the rest.

One of the best things about the Divers Sixty-Five is how it wears on wrist, and that’s due to the appropriately-sized 40mm steel case. At just under 13mm tall, it’s not the thinnest watch out there, but the case-back, mid-case, bezel, and crystal are proportioned so that no one element feels too thick.

The most obvious example of this is the mid-case. Not only does it curve down towards your wrist at the lugs, but it also curves in towards the center of the dial when viewed from the top. There’s no solid distinction between the case and the lugs, which streamlines the case giving it a simple, yet svelte appearance. The case-back bubbles down under the case in juxtaposition with the domed crystal on top. You’ll notice when putting the watch on that the bubbled case back nestles itself into your wrist. It’s very comfortable, and it’s one of the slimmer modern divers I’ve had the pleasure of wearing.

Continuing up the case, there’s a slim bronze bezel and a generously domed sapphire resting atop. When looking at the dial at more extreme angles, you’ll notice some cool, funky distortion at the edges. The dome is reminiscent of vintage acrylic crystals, except that it’s crafted from sapphire with all of the scratch resistance and durability to boot.

You won’t find any crazy angles or polishing techniques on the case of the Divers Sixty-Five, but that’s fine with me. What you will find is simple finishing done right. The top surface of the lugs feature straight brushing on top and polished sides. Transitions between brushed and posited surfaces are razor sharp. On the right side of the case, the screw-down crown stands alone. Like its vintage counterparts, there are no crown guards to be seen. The crown is proportionate to the rest of the case – hitting the sweet spot in the middle of the road. It’s large enough for a firm grip to adjust the time, yet small enough to avoid digging into your bent wrist. The Oris logo is proudly displayed on the side of the crown too.

While assessing the Divers Sixty-Five for this review, I couldn’t keep my hands off of the 120-click unidirectional bezel. The “snap” of the mechanism is solid, authoritative, and, if you’re a fidgeter like myself, super fun to play with. It’s one of the better dive watch bezels I’ve used. The bezel ever-so-slightly overhangs the case, so it’s particularly easy to grasp with your thumb and forefinger at the 2:00 and 8:00 positions.

The bezel is a looker too. It’s not often that you can use the words “subtle” and “two-tone” in the same sentence when describing a watch, but here we are. Rendered in bronze, only a slim ring surrounding the bezel insert is visible from above. When viewed from the side, the bronze is more apparent. The warm-toned metal really works with the texture of the bezel, especially when light shines off of the ridges. Oris found a tasteful way to add a two-tone look to the watch without being overwhelming. While I’m not generally a fan of two-tones, I do like the application on this watch.

The biggest change here to the base Divers Sixty-Five is the green dial. It’s a deep green that gets darker the closer it gets to the bezel. There’s a grainy quality to the finish that makes it more interesting than if it were a flat, consistent green the whole way through. Green can be a tough color to get right, but Oris really nailed it with this one.

The dark green, slight texture, and gradient play wonderfully with the warm rose gold accents on the dial, hands, and bezel. Bronze is an alloy composed of copper, which lends its orange/red/pink tones to the color of the metal. The shade of green on the dial leans warm (more yellow than blue), which is what makes the green and pink-gold coordinate so well.

On the dial, you’ll find applied indices that have been plated to match the bronze bezel that are filled with luminous paint. Each of the three hands are plated to match the indices and hit with the same lume treatment as the indices. By the way, the hands and indices are pulled from the Carl brasher LE, albeit with different lume. Unfortunately, the lume performance here is a bit lack luster. After charging it up with both the sun and a high powered flashlight, the glow was still pretty dim. The hands do appear to have more luminous material in them, as they glow significantly brighter than the indices.

On this model, the date window at 6:00 has been eliminated in favor of a large rounded rectangle that matches those at 3:00 and 9:00. Oris’ logo is printed between the triangular 12:00 marker and the stem in gold paint. In addition to the applied indices, there are hashmarks for each minute running around the outside of the dial. Every five minutes there’s a slightly longer line. The marks are printed in gold which has a slight shimmery quality to it that looks great against the dark green backdrop.

Inside the Divers Sixty-Five, there’s Oris’ 733 movement. The automatic winding movement is based on the Sellita SW200-1 movement, but features a custom-branded red rotor. Since the watch has a solid case-back, there’s not a whole heck of a lot to look at. The Sellita movement is seen in a bunch of different watches and is proven to be a reliable workhorse of a movement. The Timeless Luxury edition forgoes a date feature, leaving a simple three-hander in the wake. You get a 38-hour power reserve, a frequency of 28,800vph, and 26 jewels keeping everything running.   

The Divers Sixty-Five is available from Oris with three strap options. It ships standard with a nice medium brown leather strap that has some nice details. The edges are painted, giving it a clean, refined look. At the end of the strap, there are two stitches that follow the pointed end. On the other end is a slim buckle signed with the Oris logo. Also in the box there’s a tropic rubber strap that’s exclusive to the Timeless Luxury Edition. It’s soft, comfortable, and spot-on for a tropic style strap. There are perforations throughout and the underside of the strap is channeled to let water through.

For an additional $350, you can opt in for a riveted steel bracelet with an extreme taper. The bracelet has solid end links holding it to the case. They fall a little short of the lugs. To me, it looks a bit off. However, this little gap allows the bracelet to curve down sooner than if it were to start at the end of the lugs. The result is that it hugs your wrist a little bit better. There’s an extreme taper that goes from 20mm at the lugs all the way down to 14mm at the clasp. Instead of a gradual taper, there are four stepped links (which are riveted) followed by a few straight links that can be removed to size the bracelet. Pins and collars hold the removable links in place and can be adjusted with little fuss. I appreciate the ample amount of fine adjustment notches in the clasp that ensure a comfortable fit, no matter what your wrist size. All three of the strap options have a vintage-inspired design and fit the vibe of the watch well.

Overall, the Divers Sixty-Five Timeless Luxury Edition is a fun watch to wear. The green dial is executed well and perfectly pairs with the bronze bezel and gold accents throughout. My favorite part of the watch is the case design. At 40mm, it’s sized for wrists of all types and the case design makes it very comfortable for daily wear. On the rubber or leather strap, the Divers Sixty Five offers a cool casual look, while the bracelet dresses it up a bit. Green dials and two-tone may sound a little bit scary to some, but this watch is an excellent example of how to do it right.

You can head over to Timeless Luxury’s website and place a pre-order deposit for $500 of the $2,200 price tag. The watch has an expected delivery date of July 2019, so you won’t be waiting too long. Oris via Timeless Luxury