Many brands support global conservation and it’s always interesting to see the many ways it’s possible to go about creating a greener world. Some focus on reducing their own impact through carbon neutrality, others adopt more sustainable supply lines using recycled materials. Another classic example is to produce a special edition watch raising awareness of a specific issue while also raising funds for a relevant group or charity, which is what Oris are doing with the launch of the new Yangtze Jiangtun Limited Edition.
Unless you’re a cetologist, the jiangtun is an animal that you might not be familiar with. It’s an incredibly niche type of whale that’s endemic to a single river in China – though that river does happen to be the third largest in the world, the Yangtze. In the west it is better known as the Yangtze finless porpoise, and it’s one of the few remaining freshwater whales/dolphins/porpoises (collectively, cetaceans) to exist and the only one in China, which is what makes its conservation so important. A survey in 2022 found that there were only around 1,249 individuals alive, well below the 2,500 level to be considered Endangered.
It’s not all doom and gloom though! Conservation efforts appear to be working as the population decline has slowed and even started reversing thanks to the work of groups like the Changjiang Conservation Foundation (CCF). The CCF, incidentally, is the group that Oris is supporting with the Yangtze Jiangtun Limited Edition, the latest in a line of conservational partnerships for the Swiss watchmaker.
The watch itself is based on the Aquis Date 43.5mm model, offering solid diving specs with 300m water resistance and a robust, scratch resistant steel case. 43.5mm makes it among the largest of the Aquis models, a size Oris have been revisiting more frequently in recent months with other examples including their other conservation watch, the Harbour II.
For the dial, it has a blue-green mother-of-pearl base on top of which is a matte green that restricts the shimmering of the mother-of-pearl down to a series of wavy bands across the display. Those bands are designed to represent the lines of a finless porpoise’s ultrasonic sonar clicks, used for echolocation and navigation in the cloudy waters of the Yangtze. It’s not an over-the-top design by any stretch and is relatively subtle in how it conveys its meaning and message, which I appreciate.
The caseback is significantly more overt, featuring an engraved picture of the Jiangtun. It also shows the limited edition number out of 1,249 in reference to that aforementioned number of animals left. Behind that caseback is the Oris Calibre 733 with 41-hour power reserve, which is one of their Sellita-based movements. That helps keep the Yangtze Jiangtun Limited Edition at £2,300 rather than the substantially more expensive in-house Calibre 400 versions which are £1,000 higher. When spreading awareness is your aim, making sure the watch can be bought by as many people as possible makes sense.
Price and Specs:
More details at Oris.
