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Oris to Auction Gold Aquis to Help Restore Reefs

Oris will again assist the Coral Restoration Foundation as it works to restore the world’s coral reefs. The Swiss watchmaker is donating a yellow gold Carysfort Reef Limited Edition Aquis to the annual Raise the Reef gala in Key Largo, Florida, scheduled for March 19. The auction provides the vast majority of the annual budget for the Foundation.

The Oris Carysfort Reef Limited Edition Aquis.

Oris originally released the watch as a limited edition of fifty pieces, all of which are sold. But for the gala, Oris donated the first production piece, which features the lowest limited edition number (#02 of 50) available to the public. Oris will also donate two additional models of the watch to the non-profit Coral Restoration Foundation for other fund-raisers this spring.

The 43.5mm 18-karat gold watch is based on the Oris Aquis dive watch and was the first Oris Aquis model produced in solid gold. The 18-karat yellow gold case is complemented by a solid 18-karat gold bezel with a black and blue ceramic insert.

The automatic mechanical watch has a GMT function and can show the time in three time zones simultaneously using the 24-hour scale laser-engraved into the bezel. The watch’s caseback is decorated with a special Carysfort Reef motif. Oris expects the watch to raise far more than the $19,000 original retail price at the gala auction.

Oris has a nearly decade-long partnership with Coral Restoration Foundation is part of the Oris Change For the Better initiative. By the end of this year, the foundation will have planted more than 30,000 corals on Florida’s Carysfort Reef.

“This partnership is central to our continuing mission to bring Change for the Better,” explains Oris Co-CEO Rolf Studer. “Through the Oris Carysfort Reef Limited Edition, we’re really stepping up our ambitions and our contribution to returning the world’s corals to their original state. It’s a hugely important project and we’re excited by everything Coral Restoration Foundation is achieving through it.”

 

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The Watches

Glashütte Original Adds Green to SeaQ Diver

Glashütte Original adds a green lacquer dial option to it its SeaQ Panorama Date collection. The new dial color, dubbed ‘reed green’ by the brand, joins existing black, blue and grey options within the same collection.

The new Glashütte Original SeaQ Panorama Date comes with a rubber strap, stainless steel bracelet or a grey fabric strap.

As with all dials made by Glashütte Original, the rich color of this newest hue again underscore’s this watchmaker’s unusually strong expertise at this particular craft.

This in-house ability is the result the brand’s 2006 purchase of its long-time watch dial supplier. The purchase made Glashütte Original one of just a few watch manufacturers to make its own dials in-house. (Check out this much-lauded example of how Glashütte Original excels at creating eye-catching dials.)

Glashütte Original also makes all its own movements. Inside this watch’s 43.2mm steel case you’ll find the manufacture’s automatic Caliber 36-13, made extra shock-resistant and protected from water to 300 meters under the sea.

Caliber 36-13 also offers an extra-long power reserve of 100 hours and, with a silicon balance spring, is immune to the effects of magnetic fields.

Like all the brand’s seaworthy watches, this model not only meets all the dive watch requirements set by the DIN 8306 and ISO 6425 standards, but is also passes Glashütte Original’s own Excellence Test, which entails a 24-day series of tests.

The watch’s unidirectional rotating bezel features a scratch-resistant ceramic inlay while all hands, numerals and indexes are coated with SuperLumiNova.

The new Glashütte Original SeaQ Panorama Date comes with a rubber strap, stainless steel bracelet or a grey fabric strap.

Price: $11,500.

 

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The Watches

Tutima’s Sturdy Seven Seas Goes Green (and Yellow)

Tutima adds two models to its excellent M2 Seven Seas S adventure watch collection, and both catch the eye with a steel case and two interesting green or yellow gradient dials.

This newer of the M2 Seven Seas collections adds an S to its name to denote a use of a brushed and partially polished 43mm stainless steel case rather than a titanium case.

Where previous steel models offer red or blue dials, the newest M2 Seven Seas S offers a yellow or green dial, but with a twist. In the center, each dial option invites the viewer to enjoy the color’s slowly darkening hue until the color turns darkest along its periphery.

The new M2 Seven Seas S from Tutima Glashütte.

Glashütte-based Tutima then continues the gradient effect by enlisting the leather bracelet, which is colored to match the green on the dial of both new models.

Of course, Tutima offers a steel bracelet as well, priced with a very fair $400 premium, for those who prefer a more traditional approach.

The watch retains the collection’s full array of nautical-ready specifications, including a screwed crown, threaded caseback and, critically, an extra-thick (three-mm) pane of sapphire crystal protecting the dial. The unidirectional rotating bezel with a marker at the “12” is both functional and eye-catching.

The hands and markers here are wide and exceptionally easy to read. Tutima enhances that visibility by placing a generous coat of SuperLuminova on the markers, hands and the dot at the top of the dial.

Tutima’s use of both a screw-in caseback and an extra-thick crystal contribute to the very strong 500-meter water resistance rating for the M2 Seven Seas series. Inside the M2 Seven Seas S Tutima places its automatic ETA-based Caliber 330 that exhibits a standard 38-hour power reserve when fully wound.

Prices: $1,900 (leather strap) and $2,300 (steel bracelet).

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The Watches

New Delma Blue Shark Dives Deep

Independent Swiss watchmaker Delma continues to swim with the sharks with a new dive watch made to venture far deeper than most of its similarly priced competitors.

The new Delma Blue Shark III Black Edition.

The new Delma Blue Shark III Black Edition, water resistant to an impressive 4,000 meters, retains this collection’s very sporty technical features, including professional-level helium escape valve and crown protection, but now offers added protection of a scratch resistant black DLC coating on its 47mm steel case.

Built as a limited edition of 300 pieces, the new watch is hyper-visible on a diver’s wrist with large luminous hands and indexes and luminous markers along its broad bezel.

Delma is making 300 examples of the new Blue Shark III Black Edition in each of three dial colors: black, blue or orange dial. All three versions come with an additional black genuine rubber strap and a black-DLC-coated buckle with tools for interchanging the bracelets.

Inside Delma fits a Sellita automatic movement, which is protected by a solid caseback that Delma engraves with a Limited Edition number and an eye-catching blue shark image.

Price: $2,750.

Specifications: Delma Blue Shark III Black Edition

(Limited edition of 300 pieces in each dial color)

Case: 47mm by 18.5 mm stainless-steel black DLC (diamond-like-carbon), helium escape valve at 9 o’clock, luminescent numerals, indexes and hands. unidirectional rotating bezel in black DLC. Water resistance to 4,000 meters as tested and certified by the Swiss PST Laboratory for Product Safety Testing in Zwillikon, Canton of Zurich.

Movement: Sellita SW200 automatic, frequency 28,800 vph, power reserve of 38 hours.

Dial: Blue, black or orange with applied indexes and Arabic numerals with luminous markers. Orange hour, minute and seconds hand with luminous markers.

Bracelet: Scratch resistant, stainless steel black-DLC-coated bracelet and a black genuine rubber strap. Security screws and custom tools to enable easy and reliable adjustment of the interchangeable bracelets.

Price: $2,750.

 

 

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The Watches

Grand Seiko Brightens Dive Duo

Grand Seiko adds two new Spring Drive 200 meter diver’s watches to its already impressive Sport Collection. Both new models boast enhanced dial luminosity as Grand Seiko has coated the hands, markers, and bezels with newly generous amounts of LumiBrite.

Titanium-cased Grand Seiko Spring Drive SBGA463.

In addition, the watchmaker has designed the bezels on both models to feature markers at every minute position, including the one at three o’clock to the right of the calendar frame, a slight change from existing diver models.

Both new models boast enhanced dial luminosity.

Both watches also measure 44.2mm in diameter, 14mm in thickness, and 50mm in length, and, as noted, boast water resistance to a depth of 200 meters. One model, Grand Seiko Spring Drive SBGA461, is cased in steel while the other, and Grand Seiko Spring Drive SBGA463, is cased in High-Intensity Titanium.

The steel-cased Grand Seiko Spring Drive SBGA461.

The latter watch provides heightened scratch and corrosion resistance, according to Grand Seiko, as well as a substantial weight reduction (about 30%) when compared to its stainless steel brother. Regardless of metal material, grand Seiko finishes each with contrasting hairline and Zaratsu-polished surfaces.

Both these dive watches are in full compliance with ISO dive watch standards, and even enhance these basic requirements with a magnetic resistance of 4,800 A/m.

Inside each model Grand Seiko fits its superb Spring Drive 9R65 caliber, which combines a mainspring with quartz precision.

Look for the Grand Seiko SBGA461 and SBGA463 to be delivered after December 15th. Prices: $6,100 (SBGA461) and $7,300 (SBGA463).

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