ORIS

Oris was founded on June 1, 1904 in the Swiss town of Hölstein when Paul Cattin and Georges Christian decided to buy the recently closed Lohner & Co watch factory to name their new watch company Oris, after a nearby brook. By 1911, with over 300 workers, Oris had become the largest employer in Hölstein, one that provided homes for its staff. Then around 1925, ORIS started fitting bracelet buckles to its pocket watches, thereby transforming them into fully-fledged wristwatches.

But in 1927, the brand’s co-founder Georges Christian died leaving Jacques-David LeCoultre, Antoine LeCoultre’s grandson, as the President of the Board of Directors. In 1970, just before the quartz crisis hit, Oris became part of ASUAG, the now Swatch Group. From 1928 to 1971 Herzog steered Oris through the many watchmaking highs and lows of the 20th century and in 1982 Dr Rolf Portmann and Ulrich W. Herzog lead a management buyout and soon formed the new Oris SA that bravely elected to abandon quartz and produce solely mechanical timepieces. From its own dial factory in Bel in 1936 to the first ORIS escapements in 1936 to the birth of its first watch for pilots with a distinguishing big crown and a Pointer Calendar function and their famous clocks amongst other accolades, ORIS today has made its mark be it under water, on the race-track or in the air.