At first glance you may think “Oh no, not another retro model”, but upon closer inspection of the Oris Divers Sixty-Five the suspicious watch aficionado learns that this is about more than convenient retro just to be fashionable. What Oris has done is translate a vintage model from 1965 into a watch for today, and in such a way that the price remains extremely reasonable.
Let’s start with the case size. The 40mm size the brand has opted for may be called contemporary, but it is also conservative and well-considered. The company decided not to indiscriminately blow up the 36mm case – the size of the original – into a 40mm case simply because that would result in a big, rugged watch. At 40mm the Divers Sixty-Five stays connected to its past and the striking Superluminova numerals that look like they are made of the now outlawed radium, the shape of the case and the convex crystal all contribute to that effect. Incidentally, today’s convex crystal is made of scratch-resistant sapphire.
Convex is a lot more expensive than flat, but only convex suits this model so no compromises were made.Like the original, the Divers Sixty-Five with its automatic movement is water resistant to 100m. It could have been a more modern 300m, but that would have made the sapphire crystal a lot more expensive – as it would need to be thicker – and that was not the company’s intention. This compromise, the only one, results in a price of approximately 1,600 euro and that is an optimal combination of vintage experience and modern values.
