You know what Oris makes a lot of? Diver's watches. The brand just makes a ton of these things. So many models, lots of weird iterations on the theme, after a while I just sort of stopped paying attention to their new models. I mean they came out with a regulator style diving watch. Why? I mean you really need to like regulator watches to be into one of those. There are small seconds, GMTs, all sorts of chronographs, and just a number of other interesting models. In my mind, no one else has as big a variety of mechanical diving watches as Oris. So sifting through all of them I wanted to look for the basic diver that they made that was good ol' dive watch goodness. I came up with the simply named Oris Divers Date watch.
Oris watches are sometimes hit and miss for me. This one I really like though. It is really a tool that is OK to wear for any occasion. The Divers Date (I am not sure why there is no apostrophe in "divers") has a great looking curvy case that is 44mm wide in steel. Actually, there is an almost identical version in titanium called the Divers TT1 Titan watch. This version is different in the material, and the 4 o'clock placement of the crown. OK, I need to stay focused on the watch at hand, but really, there are many versions of these watches.
The Divers Date comes in a few color styles. With the black dial, blue dial, and black dial with the partially red bezel. There are also lume dial (that look greenish), in the titanium versions. They should glow like mofos. The standard lume on the watch is actually bluish, which is nice. If you look closely you will notice a wave pattern texture on the dial that also looks good (similar to what you'd find on a Omega Seamaster 300m). Oris is unique for having its arrow head (sort of) style hour markers and the similar looking baton hands. Oris segments the hour hand to make it stand out from the hour hand more. I admit that marketing images like this of the watch do not do it justice. Google "Oris Diver Date" for owner images and reviews. You'll be sure it is a nice watch then, and you can really see how curvy and chunky the case is. A real professional tool as so many watches wish they could be.
Unlike most dive watches the Oris Diver Date has a see-through caseback with a view into the automatic mechanical movement. Of course the watch still retains 300 meters of water resistance. I am pretty sure the movement is a Swiss ETA 2824-2. You can see Oris's signature mostly red automatic rotor. The watch comes with nicely polished steel strap, and either the rubber strap is included or comes separately. It is a nice way to mix up the style, as well as the weight of the watch that is likely heavy (which I like). I further enjoy how Oris decided to place the date window at the 6 o'clock position making it more symmetrical. There is even a dot of lume beneath it as to not tarnish darkness viewing of the watch. Of course you know that I like the dial matching colored disc that the date is on. The rotating diver's bezel is exactly what you would expect. Nothing fancy or sub-par, just your standard easy to operate diver's bezel (with a top of lume at the top.
Price for these watches is one of the biggest selling points. You get a well-made Swiss watch for somewhere in the $1,000 - $1,300 range. This makes them a pretty good deal and a solid option when looking for a good daily watch or "nice" rugged timepiece that isn't cheap feeling. Especially if you want to feel ready to jump into a pond at any moment. Add it to the list of watches to want.
“They should glow like mofos.”
My new favourite watch review quote!
I am a little worried that this blog is going downhill. Seems that the competition is surpassing it in terms of strong writing and quality watches. This is disappointing to say the least. I’ll hang on and hope it improves some but the writing has gone south in the last 6 months or so. Hmmm…
Ah yes, daily fan mail. I can’t please everyone, nor do I want to. You see, I write aBlogtoRead.com about what I am interested in. I also write about watches as a full time living – which as I understand, isn’t so easy to do. I spread my writing out among various sites and sources. So if you want the full picture you need to read aBlogtoRead.com and Luxist.com, among a few others. I am the most well-read watch blogger and writer online. I didn’t set out to do that, but am fortune for that level of popularity. Ask most of the other watch bloggers and they might have to admit that I influenced them directly or indirectly. Remember that I strive to entertain the interests of all sorts of watch lovers; novices and mature, rich and poor.
Now my garden tool friend, if you have specific suggestions then please to shout out. I do read these things. If aBlogtoRead.com just ain’t doin’ it for you anymore, then by all means move or to greener pastures, or start up your own blog. I will be your first reader, I promise.
I think the quality is fine. Great, in fact. And a lot of frequent updates with fairly comprehensive coverage, though seemingly very advertiser driven. But it means coverage of a lot of brands that are not mentioned in any depth elsewhere. Rake is just being bitter grapes. If you don’t like it, don’t read it.
Hey,
I want make an important point that I think sometimes get’s lost. aBlogtoRead.com is not advertiser driven. That implies most of what I do in to satisfy the advertisers. This is not true. aBlogtoRead.com is advertiser supported, not driver. As I mentioned, this is my job. I am not going to get rich enough to afford most of the watches I talk about by doing this, but it give me the ability to pay rent and eat. Otherwise I would have to go back into law or do something else and maybe talk about watches once in a while. I did this to be independent and do what I love. Nobody tells me what to write about, or what to write about it. My advertisers work with me because of my readership and my coverage – my writing is totally without pressure or alternative interests. When I can given a watch for review, I give it my honest opinion, stressing the strengths and mentioning the weaknesses. A watch that is truly horrific, I would not even review. Most all decent watches are good for at least a few people.
Thanks for backing me up
I guess I need to clarify on these points once in a while. I don’t mind at all negative or critical people. That is part of the territory. I just don’t want people to believe things that aren’t true. Thanks again everyone.
Haha! Yea I liked saying it
On top of self nominating yourself as the watch writer and blogger of the year, I nominate you for the hairiest armed watch blogger of the decade. You are a shoo-in.
Keep up the great work Ariel. Yours is one of my daily visits as are your YouTube reviews. And if you ever get around to it, I’d love to see a review of the Fortis B-42 Day/Date Flieger. It’s one I’ve been interested in.
Thank you! I am gonna be checking out Fortis next month at Basel and will do my best to give the model you are looking at coverage. Take care.
Thanks for noticing I am a dude. I get all metro and trim the arm hair once in a while to keep things a bit “less than Middle Eastern looking.” Then again, it isn’t as bad as my facial hair that turns to mid grade sand paper about 12 hours after Gillette’s Mach 3 Turbo struggles to mow the whiskers. Now thank me that I share with you watches as they are seen in real life, not on some white background – so that you can get a good idea of what the thing is like. Oh, and that is “watch blogger employee of the month,” not of the year. I get to nominate myself for that regularly. Its a good carrot to waking up when my commute is to the kitchen and back.
I enjoy reading the blog, but have to agree that I find myself now checking it only about once a week, whereas at the beginning I was checking it daily.
I’d like to see more reviews of moderately priced watches in the $500 to $1500 range, as those get my interest more than the watches in the $2,000 and up range.
I do really enjoy reading the boutique watch brand reviews
Rob, I will take that into consideration. I prefer to discuss less expensive watches that are affordable to most people, but I need to go where the news it. When I get information about cool watches in this range, I do discuss that. Having said that, I make sure that a lot of the watches I do detailed reviews on fall within this range. So you get at least one affordable watch a week. Take care.
Hey Ariel,
Just keep doing what you’re doing (especially the podcast!) and I’ll keep visiting this blog every couple of days!
I’m also a fan of the basic Oris diver. It looks a lot like the classic 2254 Seamaster without the “wannabe Rolex” pricing policy that Omega seems to be following.
As a little side note: as far as I know, the Divers Date now uses a Sellita SW200 while the rest of the range uses ETA-based movements.
Thanks Ian, will do. Good to know about them using the SW200 movement. More and more brands are gonna be having Sellita’s in them.
Oris is really good quality for your money. I happen to own two of them. One is a Divers just like the one you pictured, but with rubber wristwrap and GMT hand, and it feels quite light on my wrist.
The second one is a Williams F1 Skeleton 2009 model, wich I do like but I also feel very heavy.
Keep the great work and if possible, try to talk about watches no more expensive than 2 grand, this would help a lot.
[...] Oris Divers Date Watch – Solid Choice [...]
I think it’s great that you are writing about Oris. They have some fantastic watches at prices which make them available to a wide demographic, not just watch snobs. Good post.