Oris Big Crown ProPilot X Calibre 115: Malaysia Price and Review

Leong Wong 24 September 2019

If you’ve got it, flaunt it like Oris.

A skeleton dial offers a window into a timepiece’s soul, which in this case is the mechanical heartbeat that underpins the Big Crown ProPilot X Calibre 115. As Oris Chief Operating Officer Beat Fischli, says, “You know a palace is beautiful inside, but until you actually walk through the door, you can’t be sure exactly how beautiful.” But what is it about this movement exactly that made Oris decide to lay bare its inner workings?

The story of the Calibre 115 is largely centred on its 10-day power reserve. This is considered quite an achievement, because most of its mechanical peers run for just about two days. The power reserve is fuelled by a mainspring coiled in a single oversized barrel, visible at 12 o’clock. Normally hidden, even in many skeletonised watches, much of the watch’s character is derived from the mainspring (above), as it changes its appearance depending on how much power is stored in it.

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The power reserve is displayed through an Oris-developed and patented non-linear indicator at three o’clock. It shows the power remaining with ever-greater accuracy as the time to wind the watch draws near. This function is controlled by a ‘worm-gear’, which is found in all Oris in-house developed calibres.

Perhaps, a little unusually, the Calibre 115’s skeletonised bridges are matte grey—rather than polished or engraved finishings. The movement’s edges have also not been chamfered or bevelled but left in their natural state. Oris says this finish reflects its designers’ main inspiration: the weather-beaten topography of the Waldenburg Valley, which surrounds the village of Hölstein, where the independent company has been based since it was founded in 1904.

Meanwhile, the look of the case is also determined by the Calibre 115. Broadly speaking, it is descended from the 1938 original, supplemented by the jet engine turbine blade motif introduced into the Big Crown ProPilot’s bezel a few years ago. But if its foundations reference a storied past, then the decision to construct the case out of brushed titanium makes this timepiece the stealth addition to the Oris ‘fleet’.

The Big Crown ProPilot X Calibre 115 represents Oris’ fresh take on luxury. According to Senior Product Design Engineer Lukas Bühlmann, the approach is casual, low key and informed yet “future-driven”. Only what is deemed necessary is included (eagle-eyed enthusiasts would have noticed right off the bat that this is the first Oris pilot watch not to feature numerals on its dial, for example). As it preps for a new decade, it’s clear Oris has in its sights a new customer base for whom good design is honest. But could this also be the start of a bigger trend for the industry as a whole? We’ll have to watch this space.