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Independent Swiss watchmaker Oris has been producing its Big Crown collection for so long that we watch nerds tend to take it for granted. Way back in 1938, the Big Crown Pointer Calendar made its debut as a model designed for pilots, whose gloved hands could more easily manipulate the oversized setting and winding crown. (Why pilots needed to know the date – let alone adjust it – while flying a rickety '30s airplane is a question for another time.)
Fortunately, the design stuck around, surviving a brief foray into quartz technology and emerging triumphant as a mechanical pillar in the brand’s modern collection. If last year’s crop of colourful new Big Crown Pointer Date models and references was an experiment in modernity, the new Bullseye edition is a firm throwback to the watch’s origins. Despite a stainless steel case in a contemporary 38mm diameter, the fluted bezel is a feature of the collection’s '80s reintroduction, and the sub-seconds display – as opposed to the centre seconds on standard versions – is likewise a reference to bygone days.
Courtesy of Oris
The sub-seconds display isn't the only distinguishing feature of the new Bullseye. Watches like these, often dubbed “tuxedo” dials for their bi-chromatic black-and-white aesthetic, have been around for more than a century, and the look has slowly been re-entering the horological zeitgeist over the past few years. (For other examples, check out the Longines Heritage Classic Tuxedo or the Serica ref. 6190 TXD.) On the new Big Crown Pointer Date, its black-tie bona fides manifest as a series of partitioned sectors in alternating white (really more of an eggshell) and black, which makes a handsome complement to a set of cathedral hands filled with white Super-LumiNova lume and a red-tipped pointer-date hand.
Courtesy of Oris