Vintage Please

The world is a changing place.  In a world where watches have become "smart" maybe it is obvious there would be a large shift to the traditional.  We live in an artisan renaissance with craft beers and farm to table food.  Why should what we wear be different?  Why care about the electronic phone that straps on your phone?  While some people may long for one of those boring squares, I clearly do not and would rather run far, far, away.  If you really think about people don't really need watches anymore in general.  Perhaps that is why we there is a strong artisan based culture.  In a crowded world of the same, the artisan, the vintage and the retro stick out.  Luckily Oris understands this and we now have the Oris Divers Sixty-Five.  There are quite a few models of the Oris sixty-five out, I'll be discussing the model with the numerals on the face.

The Oris Divers Sixty-Five

Oris has made a really nice dive watch with the Oris Sixty-Five.  The Sixty-five has a terrific domed crystal with a vintage inspired face in a modern sized dive watch.  While talking about the modern size, I mean a regular sized watch, not the extremely large watch that looks like a small clock strapped to your arm.  No the Sixty-five sits at only 40mm,  a fine size for the average man.  It is there, but it doesn't really get in your way.  It is a watch you can actually wear.

The Case

The watch case for the Oris 65 is a simple design with strong lines all supporting the face of the watch.  The crystal is a very domed sapphire crystal that is coated with anti-reflective coating.  The watch case is classic with a simple black and white rotating bezel that acts as a frame for the true standout of the watch, the face.

The Face

The face of the Oris 65 is taken almost directly from the original watch design back in the 1960's.  The 12, 3, 6, and 9 have an invert design compared to the other numbers on the dial.  This design gives the dial an almost compass rose like feel and the watch the feel of an adventurer's watch.  In my opinion a diver's watch is only as good as as its lume and the watch glows beautifully.  

The Band

The watch comes with a few different options, all the options really go with the whole style of the watch.  The first as shown on our cover image is a vintage style black rubber band.  This band really catches that cool vintage ocean feel.  Next band they have is a stainless steel band.  While this band looks more traditional they tried to keep the vintage feel with giving the band rivets on the side.  Finally, there is a woven fabric band that matches the blue and black of the watch's face.

100 Meters

The Oris 65 is only water resistant to 100 meters.  While all 100 meter watch resistance is clearly not the same, a 100 meters water resistance feel more like a regular watch than a dive watch.  Since this is a vintage tribute watch, perhaps Oris wanted to go full vintage and have the watch only be 100 meters water resistant.  But, let's get serious here, the huge numbers put on dive watches are more fro pride than actual use.  Yeah, you can find watches that are 300 meter, 500 meters and 1000 meters, but very few people actually go that deep.  Most coral reefs are above 91m down, most shipwrecks are also found above 100m.  The only person this watch would not fit is your professional deep sea diver. 

Overview

When it comes to watches, I like something that is comfortable, and looks striking.  I also like to be able to forget about my watch.  Meaning, if I want to go from a cocktail party to sailing, paddle boarding or snorkeling out of the blue, I don't want to worry about my watch not being able to handle it.  The best part is the watch looks good in both places, the cocktail party and the ocean.  We can confirm what we always knew, that the watch is a fantastic tribute watch and a clever looking dive watch.