Posted on January 10, 2023

Oris Celebrates the Beauty of Manual Movements with Caliber 473

When the brand kick-started the Oris Movement Creation Program in the late 2000’s, it revived a part of Oris culture that had been dormant since the Quartz Crisis of the 1970’s. Since 1904, Oris had created more than 270 unique calibers. Original, innovative watch movements are an integral part of the brand.

From the outset, the program brief was clear. Oris movements had to be distinctly Oris. Which meant? Purely mechanical and Swiss Made, with unique functions and performance, and at prices that make sense to today’s world citizen. The company’s vision remains to create beautiful mechanical watches and original, purpose-driven movements that bring joy to people who love mechanics.

It began in 2014 with Caliber 110, the first of the Caliber 100 Series of hand-wound movements. These beautiful calibers had 10-day power reserves from a single barrel, patented non-linear power reserve indicators, and often additional useful functions, such as a business calendar or a second time zone.

The company followed these in 2020 with the Caliber 400 Series, its first in-house developed line of automatics in more than 40 years. These featured five-day power reserves, elevated levels of anti-magnetism, 10-year warranties and 10-year recommended service intervals: The New Standard in Swiss Made automatics.

The response has encouraged the band to keep innovating. In the past nine years, it has introduced nine highly original, high-performance calibers, installing them in beautifully designed Swiss Made watches.

And now, in the tenth year of the revived Oris Movement Creation Program, Oris announces a new high-performance hand-wound movement: Caliber 473. It's built on the same base as the Oris Caliber 403 automatic. So, it has hour, minute, small seconds and pointer date hands, and a five-day power reserve, now shown by a 120-hour power reserve indicator on the back of the movement. Caliber 473 took four years to develop and closes a circle for Oris.

Without a rotor, the power reserve indicator is visible through the watch’s sapphire caseback. As with Caliber 400 Series movements, Caliber 473 also has elevated levels of anti-magnetism, and each watch powered by it comes with a 10-year warranty and 10-year recommended service intervals. Pure joy.