1904 marked the year Pay Cattin and Georges Christian established the Oris watch firm in Holstein, Switzerland. The company’s name was inspired by a brook close to their hometown of Le Locle, Switzerland. The company opened five other factories in Switzerland between 1906 through 1925, and Oris became the largest employer in Holstein in 1910.
In 1927, following the death of Georges Christian, Oris was acquired by family friends. Jacques-David LeCoultre was appointed president of the company the same year. Ten years later, the watch firm merged with Edmond Jaegar and became part of Jaeger-LeCoultre.
During World War II, the watch company was better known for manufacturing alarm clocks as opposed to wristwatches.
In 1952, Oris released its first automatic wristwatch. In 1956 Rolf Portmann was hired to overturn a Swiss law, established in 1934, which prevented Oris from switching from pin-lever escapements to higher-quality Swiss lever escapements. After a decade of working to get the law reversed, the Watch Statue was overturned and enabled Oris to produce Swiss lever escapement watches. In 1966, Oris produced its first automatic Caliber 645.
1968 marked the year Oris was awarded its first chronometer certificate for its Caliber 652, which was presented by the Observatoire Astronomique et Chronometrique. One year later, Oris produced more than 1.2 million watches. The watch firm is named one of the 10 largest companies in the world and employs more than 800 individuals.
In 1970, Oris is acquired by ASUAG, which later became the Switch Watch Group. 1970 also marked the auto-racing wristwatch, which was the first of many auto-themed watches released by the company.
The company introduced its first watch with a center-mounted calendar pointer in 1984, which was inspired by an Oris watch that was produced in 1938. The calendar pointer is one of the watch company’s most well-known features.
During the 1980s, Oris started to shift from quartz timepieces back to traditional mechanical watches. In 1988, the watch firm released alarm wristwatches that incorporated A. Schild movements, which were acquired by Herzog.
1992 marked the year the watch firm only started manufacturing mechanical watches. In 1996, Oris teamed with saxophonist Andy Sheppard to create the first watch in the company’s series of jazz timepieces. The years following the watch firm released several watches inspired by great jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, and Duke Ellington.
In 1997, the watch firm released the WorldTimer, which included the Caliber 690. The Caliber 690 allowed the user to move the time forward or backward in one-hour jumps, which was made possible through the push buttons on the side of the casing. The WorldTimer also featured a patented system that enable the date to jump backward if the local time is moved back over midnight.
2002 marked the year the red winding rotor was released and used on the majority of the company’s wristwatches, and became a trademark of Oris.
In 2006, the company released a watch named after free-diver Carlos Coste. The Carlos Coste Limited Edition Chronograph was the first watch in the watch company’s Divers collection. Two years later, the company released the BC4 Flight Timer. This BC4 Flight Timer can display the time in three zones, which is adjusted using a vertical crown.
2013 was the year Oris released the Aquis Depth Gauge. The Aquis Depth Gauge displayed depth by a circular channel that surrounded the dial. Oris owns a patent for the instrument, and it is the first time a gauge of this nature has been used in a wristwatch.
In 2014, Oris released its first in-house development movement in 35 years, which is known as Caliber 110. The Caliber 110 was inspired by the company’s 110th anniversary. The caliber features a manual-wound movement and a 10-day power reserve from a single barrel. The Caliber 110 is featured in the Oris 110 Years Limited Edition timepiece, which is available in steel or rose-gold case. There are only 110 pieces of the Oris 110 Years Limited Edition model.