Oris x Bracenet Aquis Date Raises Awareness of Ghost Net Environmental Crisis

Over the last few weeks there have been a couple of Oris watch releases that fall outside of their usual remit. The Artelier is a lovely soft relaunch of Oris’ dress watch collection while the AquisPro 4000m is a gargantuan entry into the world of ultra deep dive watches. However, the third of their recent launches is firmly back inside their wheelhouse. It’s the Oris x Bracenet Aquis Date with green dials made from upcycled ‘ghost’ fishing nets.

What do I mean by the Oris wheelhouse? Well, for the most part Oris produce great value tool watches with a slant towards sustainability and promoting environmental awareness. That’s exactly what the new watch is with its stainless-steel case available in both 43.5mm and 36.5mm diameters and with 300m water resistance.

The sustainability element comes from the dial, which was created in partnership with Bracenet, a company who use upcycled ghost nets to create accessories and jewellery. “Ghost net” is a term used for discarded fishing nets that are left floating in the world’s oceans and that will continue to capture and kill wildlife for 600-800 years if left in their current state. The dial of the Oris x Bracenet is made from the upcycled ghost net material and has a swirling pattern of light and dark greens. It looks cool and reminds me of the Aquis Upcycle.

Housed inside the watch is the Oris Calibre 733, a time and date movement with automatic winding and a 38-hour power reserve. It’s very much a staple in their more accessible watches, which makes sense since it’s based on the Sellita SW200-1. I would usually use this opportunity to bemoan the absence of the Calibre 400 but the use of that movement in the AquisPro 4000m means I am satisfied.

As for the price of the Oris x Bracenet Aquis Date, it’s £2,000 at both sizes. That’s exactly the same as the aforementioned Aquis Upcycle and only £50 more than the 41.5mm Aquis Date on bracelet. Ultimately, this isn’t the most exciting or headline grabbing Oris release recently, but as a counter argument to that, it’s probably the one you’re most likely to buy. That is, if you can pull off a 43.5mm or 36.5mm size watch.