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High and mighty: Oris’ latest pilot watch is its most complicated yet Big Crown ProPilot Altimeter by Oris, £2,350 (with textile strap); £2,420 (with steel bracelet). oris.ch
Altitude slickness The new Big Crown ProPilot Altimeter by Oris will ensure you always know where you’re at, even when your head is in the clouds AVIATION HAS always been a pillar of Oris’ business and it has been producing pilot watches since 1938, with the original Big Crown Pointer Date – a design that remains a signature of the brand to this day. Its new model is the most complicated pilot’s watch Oris has ever made, the world’s first automatic watch to include a mechanical altimeter – destined to become an 132 G OCTOBER 2014
indispensable tool for pilots as well as mountaineers and explorers. An altimeter measures how far you are above sea level, thanks to atmospheric pressure decreasing the higher in the atmosphere you are (imagine the weight of a column of air 100km high pressing down on you). Perhaps the biggest challenge in its execution was the design of the altimeter hand itself. To make
the mechanism fit within the case, the hand had to be very light but rigid enough to avoid inaccurate readings. The solution was to use laminated carbon fibre: the result is that the hand is seven times lighter but ten times stiffer than an average watch hand. So if you’re a high flyer – or even just a climber – this will be your essential kit. Robert Johnston