ORIS Aquis GREAT BARRIER REEF III Limited Edition

What, another watch from Oris tied to ocean conservation; it is certainly a running theme with the brand but here’s the sad thing, the state of our oceans may have already passed the critical tipping point beyond which there is any chance of recovery (at least not in our lifetimes, anyway).



Oris is one of a growing league of luxury watchmakers who are getting involved in some degree or other with ocean conservation.

Doxa have famously supported “Project Aware”, among other ocean conservation projects that include one where they teamed up with Fabian Cousteau;

while Seiko Prospex has recently released 2x ‘’Save the Ocean’’ collections including this one in BLACK.



Blancpain not too long ago released the third generation of their Ocean Commitment watches, the BOC III.

Carl F. Bucherer are working with the Manta Trust charity and Breitling just recently hooked with Outerknown to supply a special watch with a NATO made from ECONYL® yarn created from nylon waste.



Last year Certina released a special DS Action Diver for Sea Turtle Conservancy, Ulysse Nardin have been doing their bit for hammerhead shark conservation.

The list goes on. Even smaller brands like Deep Blue for example have just teamed up with FORCE BLUE for an ocean conservation project.



But the biggest props has to go to Oris because of all the brands, they are probably the ones who have been the most consistently involved with ocean conservation. Kudos!



I mentioned yesterday about a poor whale that was found dead with 40kg of plastic waste in its stomach –

only today to read that a Great White shark caught by (cretinous expletive c*@#) fisherman just of the coats of Yilan where I live in Taiwan was found with 70kg of plastic in her gut –

oh, and the 4 meter long mother was pregnant with a litter of shark pups. This folks; is why from time to time I use my platform to have a bit of a rant. Thanks for listening.



Back to the watch; Oris has just released the Great Barrier Reef III Limited Edition watch.

As the name suggests, it is the third watch Oris has linked to the world’s largest and most diverse reef system (so big it can be seen from space), spanning 2,600km.



Since their last Great Barrier Reef watch, the situation has far from improved. In fact, it’s got worse.

Two hot summers in 2016 and 2017 led to back-to-back coral bleaching events, leaving vast areas of reef, all over the world devastated.



The Great Barrier Reef is around 8,000 years old and home to 1,500 species of fish, more than 400 types of hard coral, a third of the world’s soft corals, and six of the world’s seven species of threatened marine turtles.

Oris is not alone in recognizing the scale of the problem. They have partnered with a non-profit social enterprise set up in 2016, the Reef Restoration Foundation.



Using knowledge shared by the Oris-backed Coral Restoration Foundation, the foundation has begun a coral planting project off Fitzroy Island near Cairns.

The program is in its infancy, but with support from individuals and companies such as Oris – which installed its first coral tree off Fitzroy Island in 2018.




In partnership with the foundation, Oris has created the Great Barrier Reef Limited Edition III, a diver’s watch based on the latest generation Oris Aquis.

The new model, is a Limited Edition of to 2000 pieces, has a beautiful graduated blue dial and an aqua blue ceramic inlay in its diver’s bezel, recalling the colors of the reef waters.



Housed its 43.5mm Stainless steel case is an automatic movement that provides it with a sub-seconds and a circular date window. It’s water-resistant to 300 meters.

Its Stainless steel case-back has special engravings of corals and the Southern Cross, a star constellation found on the Australian Flag.



The Great Barrier Reef III Limited Edition watch has a Swiss retail price of 2450CHF and is available from June 2019.