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History of Oris Watches

When you hear the words, purely mechanical Swiss watch, Oris should come to mind. These extraordinary timepieces are the creation of watch makers, Paul Cattin and Georges Christian. Over 100 years ago, in Holstein, Switzerland, these two men took a closed watch factory (Lohner and Company), and turned it into Oris. The name of the company that would change the industrial history of Switzerland, came from a near by brook and valley there in the northwestern part of the region. With their meager start, they were accompanied with less than 30 factory workers. In 1904, Cattin and Georges set out and made their first watch, an outstanding pocket watch with roman numerals and gold case.

By 1921 Oris had expanded and built ten other assembly plants, scattered across Switzerland. During the 20's, Oris began to fit simple buckles to their pocket watches. In doing this they turned pocket watches into fully functioning wrist watches. Before this point, the watches had either hung from a chain or fit like a bracelet that had a clasping system. Crafted with rich leather and gold, the wrist watches continued to be a successful time piece. The creation of this clean, sophisticated watch changed the industry of watches forever.

Until 1928, the company was ran by its founder Georges Christian, who sadly passed, leaving the company to his brother-in-law. Continuing a tradition of high quality work, Oris begins to produce its own watch escapements making it an integrated manufacturer. For this fragile work, women who were highly skilled aided in this part of the production.

Transitioning in the late 40's, Oris begins the manufacturing of clocks. At this point World War II was in full swing and the clocks became highly sought after. The clocks popularity was shown when the sales for the company increased. European customers were among the primary purchasers of the clocks. In 1949 the clock movement with an eight-day power-reserve was successfully launched as well. With over 800 employees, the original Oris watch factory in Holstein, was expanded in 1961, and was considered one of the largest of ten watch producers in Switzerland. Four years later, the famous Oris automatic movement went into production, which soon produced the legendary Oris movement 645 with automatic winding ability.

In 1970, leading the way with the first chronograph, Chronoris, is premiered on to the market. From the very first model, the stop watch collection was a huge success. The Chronoris had style inspired by racing, providing a classic style that is still very popular today. In 2005 a prototype was returned to production, and proved to be an exciting come back.

As designs continued to become more innovative and encompassing, Oris introduced analogue time displays in the late 1990's. This cutting edge invention incorporated push-button time adjustment. Now, over 100 years later, Oris moves forward designing extremely well crafted watches. Today you will find limited edition time pieces that are inspired by music, cars, and aviation, each with its own distinct style and class.

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