Oris Aquis Pro 4000m Review

Just like last week when we reviewed the Flieger Werk 7 collection from Fortis, Oris is another brand that has been on my radar for over twenty years but I have not spent any real hands on time with. I vividly remember when the Williams F1 from Oris released in the 2000s and it was very high on my list of watches I'd like to add to my personal collection. For one reason or another I never ended up acquiring the watch. Even recently I still see them posted for sale and think about picking one up.

Throughout the years there have been other models from Oris that caught my attention and I have followed the brand closely the entire time I've been a collector and have been in the industry. Unfortunately the business I spent the majority of my time at in the industry never saw much if any Oris watches come through, so I've never spent any time in the metal with one of the brand's watches.



Oris has actually been producing watches for well over a century and was established in Holstein Switzerland in 1904 by Paul Cattin and Georges Christian who purchased the Lohner & Co. watch factory in the village. The name Oris came from the name of a brook near the factory which gives the brand a solid connection to the area. The main goal of Oris was to produce accurate and reliable timepieces and as the years went by their reputation grew. By the 1920s Oris was operating multiple factories and was a major employer in the area.

While Oris was successful over the first few decades of their existence, their first real milestone came with the launch of the Big Crown in 1938 which was designed for pilots. The watch featured a large oversized crown which made it easy for pilots to adjust the time with their flight gloves on. The watch also emphasized legibility and often used the pointer date complication which would become a calling card for Oris.



Along with World War II, Oris also faced the hurdles put in place by the "Watch Statute" of the 1930s that halted innovation by the brand limiting them to using pin-lever escapements instead of the superior lever escapements used by their competitors. Oris was able to overcome these setbacks and the following decades were a time of growth for the brand which saw their first automatic watch released in 1952 and their first dive watch released in 1965. By the late 1960s, Oris had now become one of the ten largest watch manufactures in the world.

Like with all producers of mechanical watches Oris had a really tough time during the 1970s and 80s when cheap Japanese quartz watches became all the rage and basically made mechanical watches expensive dinosaurs of the past. This saw Oris being sold to the precursor of the Swatch Group (ASUAG), although this acquisition did not last long. In 1982, led by Dr. Rolf Portmann and Ulrich W. Herzog, Oris management was able to establish a buyout of the brand and once again make Oris an independent company.



One of the main pillars of the newly independent Oris was to completely abandon quartz technology in their watches. This established Oris as a brand dedicated to only producing quality mechanical watches, something that even the highest end legacy Swiss watch brands were not adhering to. This also showed watch enthusiasts that Oris was a brand that truly respected the craftsmanship and traditions of mechanical movements.

The era after the buyout has really pushed the boundaries for Oris but still kept the brand grounded in their roots. 1984 saw the re-release of their iconic pointer date complication, which is now a signature within the brand. In 2002 the brand trademarked their red automatic winding rotor really emphasizing their mechanical heart. Then in 2014 Oris introduced their first fully in-house movement in the calibre 110, solidifying the brand as a serious producer of mechanical watches.



With one of the main collections inside of Oris being their dive models, the brand has also become very vocal in environmental causes. There have been numerous partnerships on limited editions watches where the proceeds from sales go towards helping various conservation organizations. A byproduct of these investments into the health of our planet has also enhanced how a younger generation perceives Oris.

Initial Thoughts

Now that we've gone over the history of Oris, let's start to look at the model the brand sent us to review. I initially sent Oris a list of three watches I'd be interested in reviewing and they were able to send me the top watch on my list. This was the Aquis Pro 4000m, which is an overbuilt and over engineered dive watch that is capable of reaching depths past 4,000 meters. I love these kinds of overbuilt divers and have owned and currently own similar models from Hublot, Jaeger-LeCoultre, IWC and Blancpain.



When the Aquis Pro arrived, the first thing I noticed about it was the size of the watch. The dimensions say that it has a nearly 50 mm case diameter with an over 20 mm height. These two dimensions scared me a bit since the Hublot King Power Oceanographic 4000 Diver I used to own had a similar height and I found it a bit too tall. I do have other 46 and 48 mm watches that I'm used to, but the thickness was hard to deal with. The Aquis Pro is actually a hard watch to define just by case dimensions. First the case is right around 46.4 mm when you do not include the bezel. When adding the rubber grip surrounding the bezel the diameter does reach 48.6 mm. The Aquis Pro also has very short lugs making the lug to lug length 54.6 mm, which isn't exactly excessive. My 48 mm IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Top Gun has a much longer lug to lug length. The thickness of the watch case is 19.2 mm which goes up to 23.5 mm when including the very thick sapphire crystal. For some reason these dimensions actually work on the Aquis Pro 4000m when the King Power Oceanographic seemed a bit unwieldy.



The next thing I noticed about the Oris Aquis Pro was the overall construction of the watch. It doesn't take long to realize how robust this watch is. The watch just feels like a solid block of titanium in the hand. There isn't one area of the watch that seems flimsy and would let the other parts of the watch down. Even the screws Oris uses on the bezel, lugs and crown guards feature a triangular screw head which requires a special tool and will not strip like traditional flat head screws. Then there is the extremely thick sapphire crystal that protrudes from the bezel by over 4 mm and reminds me of something you'd see on a deep water submersible. 4,000 meters is no joke and I believe the Aquis Pro could easily achieve this depth just looking at the build quality of this watch.

The final thing I noticed about the Aquis Pro 4000m during my initial time with the watch was the bezel and lume. All dial markers and hands on the Aquis Pro are coated with Super-Luminova including C3 BL X1 Grade which gives off a stunning glow under UV light and in low light. Dial elements glow a bluish green, while the first 15 minutes of the bezel glow a more true blue then turning to green for the remaining markers. The bezel while ceramic really reminds me of the sapphire bezel found on my Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 500 Fathoms which is my favorite dive bezel of all time. I'm not sure how Oris was able to do it, but even the lume comes through amazing on the ceramic bezel. Overall the lightshow given off by the Aquis Pro 4000m is really something quite spectacular.



Technical Specifications

Having gone over my initial thoughts of the Oris Aquis Pro 4000m, let's now take a look at the technical specifications of the watch. The Aquis Pro is crafted out of titanium and has a case diameter of 46.6 mm when measuring just the case of the watch. The rubber bezel cover slightly overhangs the watch and gives the Aquis Pro a diameter of 48.6 mm. The Aquis Pro doesn't have very long lugs which keeps the lug to lug length down to 54.6 mm. The watch not including the bezel has a thickness of 19.2 mm, when adding the very thick sapphire crystal the thickest part of the watch measures in at 23.5 mm. On our scale the Oris Aquis Pro 4000m weighed in at 196 grams when on the rubber strap and titanium deployant clasp. While this is a substantial weight, being fully crafted out of titanium drastically reduces the weight of the watch. I can't even imagine what the Aquis Pro would weigh if it was made out of much heavier stainless steel.

Having to deal with the immense pressures found at over 4,000 meters of depth the Aquis Pro uses an extremely thick sapphire crystal that extends a full 4 mm over the bezel of the watch. The top of the sapphire is also slightly domed and the sapphire has an anti-reflective coating on it. While the sapphire does add a lot of extra thickness to the watch, it also really enforces how serious of a tool watch the Aquis Pro is.



Underneath the incredibly thick yet crystal clear sapphire is the blue dial which has a slight dark to light blue gradient. The dial is also decorated with a tasteful wave pattern that is rather subtle and doesn't steal the attention away from the engineering of the case. Looking at the edge of the dial you can see just how tall the rehaut of the watch and in turn the sapphire is. Around the outside of the dial is a very dark blue (near black) minute track with small white hash marks being used for each non-hour minute.

Oris uses polished applied hour markers on the Aquis Pro 4000m. Each marker is also covered with C3 BL X1 Grade Super-Luminova which gives of a strong bluish green glow in low light. 12 o'clock gets two additional lumed dots on either side of the slightly larger hour marker. At 6 o'clock the hour marker has been replaced by a dark blue backed date window with two small lumed points underneath. There are three centrally mounted hands on the Aquis Pro being the hour, minute and running seconds hands. The hour and minute hands are polished sword shaped hands covered in matching lume to the hour markers. The seconds hand is done in an aqua blue with a counter balance resembling the other hands and features a lumed round tip. Finishing off the dial is Oris branding found at 12 o'clock with "AQUIS PRO", "400BAR / 4000M", "5 DAYS" and "Swiss Made" found at 6 o'clock.



Moving on from the dial is the uni-directional ceramic dive bezel which requires 120 clicks to complete a full rotation. 12 o'clock features a triangle with a center dot and then a series of hash marks going to 15. Thick marks are used for 5 and 10, with 5 being topped with a bezel screw and 10 topped with an Arabic numeral. 15 to 60 then have thick marks for each 5 minute increment between 10 minute intervals each topped with a bezel screw. 20, 30, 40 and 50 are solely done in large Arabic numerals. The triangle at 12 and all marks from 1 to 14 glow a strong natural blue in low light. All markers from 15 back to 60 and the dot inside of the triangle glow green. The ceramic bezel insert is of exceptional quality and resembles some finer sapphire bezels I've seen and the lume is very strong on the bezel matching that of the dial.

Oris uses an interesting bezel lock system on the Aquis Pro 4000m called the Rotation Safety System (RSS). The bezel itself doesn't have any grooves or scalloping on it, but rather the bezel is surrounded by a rubber rotating cover the takes up 50 minutes of the bezel. To rotate the bezel you must compress both sides of this cover which will then allow you to have enough friction on the bezel to rotate it. This system pretty much guarantees that the bezel will never inadvertently be turned by mistake or bumped out of position when making contact with a foreign object, both paramount to diver safety. The bezel is very sure and each turn results in a satisfying click. There is also very little back play in the bezel. This is the first time I've encountered a bezel system like this and it just adds again to how serious of a tool dive watch the Aquis Pro 4000m is.



Surprisingly the case of the Oris Aquis Pro 4000m isn't completely brushed in finish. While the majority of the case is brushed, the chamfers, crown ridges and tops of the lugs and crown guards are polished. The added polished bits do add a bit of visual interest to the otherwise all tool watch aesthetic. Looking at the profile of the watch the first thing I noticed was the 10 minute area of the bezel not covered by the Rotation Safety System had the text "Rotation Safety System Tested To 4000 Meters" engraved on it. Next I noticed the multi-piece construction of the watch starting with the case back and ending with the tall sapphire crystal. You can also see just how short the lugs are making the rather large watch wearable.

The left-hand side of the watch features a polished automatic helium relief valve while the right-hand side of the case has the oversized screw down crow and large crown guards. The crown guards come about half way on the crown and are secured to the case with two exposed screws. The crown has a mix of satin and polished finishes and is nicely scalloped. The crown should easily be able to be used while wearing dive gloves since it provides ample grip. The top of the crown has an engraved Oris logo on it as well.



When you un-screw the crown you can actually feel how substantial the gaskets must be on the crown to withstand 4,000 meters of pressure. Once unscrewed you can manually wind the automatic movement in the resting position, having five days of power reserve fully winding the watch can take a while. Pulling the crown out to position one allows you set the date which results in a nice click for each date change. Pulling the crown all the way out to position two stops the seconds hand and allows you set the time. Pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the minutes hand and getting the crown to catch to screw back in takes no additional care.

The Aquis Pro has a lug width of 26 mm and comes on a light blue rubber strap that is fixed to the lugs using screws instead of spring bars which adds to my trust of the strap not inadvertently coming off. The strap tapers down to 19 mm at the titanium deployant clasp. The clasp features Oris branding and has a mix of brushed and polished finishes. Pushing two buttons in is required to release the clasp and once opened you can see some hidden perlage finishing. The clasp also has a slightly skeletonized appearance to it which is where the micro-adjustments are done. The Aquis Pro has five pre-determined positions of adjustments which span around 15 mm. This is enough adjustment to even get the watch over lighter wetsuits when for normal wear the clasp is in the fully closed position and for the wetsuit fully extended. The strap is also extremely comfortable and required zero break in. The strap is branded with Oris on both sides as well.



Flipping the Aquis Pro 4000m over shows the titanium screw down case back. The case back has an engraving of the Oris logo as well as most of the important specifications of the watch. The center of the case back also features a conversion scale of meters to feet. Underneath the case back beats the in-house Calibre 400 automatic movement. The movement beats away at 28,800 vph (4Hz) and has a tremendous power reserve of 120 hours. The Calibre 400 also features a ten year warranty and is only suggested to be serviced every ten years as well. On our timegrapher the Calibre 400 showed an accuracy of +5 seconds per day when averaged out over several positions. This shows the Calibre 400 in the Aquis Pro 4000m is very accurate and just within chronometer standards.

On The Wrist

Well now on to the elephant in the room, or on the wrist… how does the Oris Aquis Pro 4000m wear on the wrist? On my 7.25 inch wrist with a 55 mm flat area the watch actually wore fairly well. I couldn't detect any overhang and the watch covered my wrist nicely. The just under 200 grams of weight was distributed well and the watch didn't feel top heavy. Also the very comfortable rubber strap kept the watch in place and even after a long time on the wrist I never had any wrist fatigue start to creep in. I typically prefer to wear lighter weight watches around 100 grams or less, so it was a bit surprising that I didn't feel the need to take the watch off after a few hours.



The watch is thick, there is no way getting around that. Looking straight on the watch doesn't look out of proportion at all, it's really only when you look at the profile of the watch that you see how think it is. With the 54.6 mm lug to lug, the actual case height of 19.2 mm looks right on the watch, the added height of the sapphire does make the watch look a bit tall at 23.5 mm though. Once again this was done on purpose to allow the Aquis Pro to reach depths of 4,000 meters. Pretty much any non-oiled fill watch with this kind of depth rating will be a thick watch, there is just no way around it. I actually like looking at the profile watch and seeing how serious of a dive tool this Aquis Pro 4000m is, and this view reminds you of that.

Let's also be honest, nobody is going to wear the Oris Aquis Pro 4000m as their everyday watch unless they go diving or are in the water every day in some sort of professional sense. The watch is really meant to be an extension of your already varied collection or to serve as a beach vacation or weekend watch. I'm sure some people will also take the watch on more serious dives as well where it would serve as a good back up to a dive computer. Even my 46 and 48 mm watches are not daily wearers. I do prefer larger watches, but these are more statement or fun pieces I wear for shorter periods. Typically I wear watches like my 42 mm IWC GST Aquatimer 2000 or Porsche Design Ocean 2000 both titanium and on Velcro as everyday pieces since they are just easier to navigate everyday life with. Watches like my Big Pilot Perpetual, 500 Fathoms, JLC Diver and the Aquis Pro are cumbersome watches and don't do best when constantly being worn. Now these are also some of my favorite watches of all time, but they aren't daily wearers.



To test legibility I use a simple test where I try to see how hard it is to tell the time while driving at a glance. Dive watches with their high contrast dials and large hands and hour markers always do the best in this test, so I was expecting good results from the Aquis Pro. Not much to my surprise the Aquis Pro 4000m aced this test. The only thing that could have made the watch do a bit better would have been to have a darker or black dial to create more contrast. Also with all of the lume applied to the dial and bezel, telling the time in low light was a breeze.

During my time with the Oris Aquis Pro 4000m I tried to wear the watch as much as possible. This included wearing the watch on short everyday errands as well as out to dinner and drinks. For everyday tasks the watch was a good wrist companion, I can't say it ever disappeared on the wrist, but for the most part it stayed out of the way when I wasn't thinking about it. With the five day power reserve the watch was also running every time I got it out of the safe, even after days without putting it on.

As you could imagine the Aquis Pro gets noticed everywhere you wear it. The watch has wrist presence in spades and on the bright blue rubber strap is no wallflower. I noticed the watch getting tons of looks when I wore it out and had more than a few people comment it. Overall everyone liked the watch and most comments were on its size and thickness. People were also extremely impressed by its water resistance and how solid the watch felt. Most were also surprised by the relatively low price of the watch as well.



Value and Position in the Market

Speaking of price, the Oris Aquis Pro 4000m retails for $6,900. For that price you're getting an extremely well built watch that has a full 4,000 meters of water resistance and is crafted out of titanium. The watch also houses a very accurate in-house movement with a full five days of power reserve. Now would be a good time to look at other watches with similar features and specifications and see how the Aquis Pro holds up value wise.

Up first we have the current depth king going by specs in the Deepsea Challenge from Rolex which has a 50 mm titanium case. The Deepsea Challenge has an absurd depth rating of 11,000 meters and is powered by an in-house Rolex caliber with only 70 hours of power reserve. The Deepsea Challenge takes the established Rolex Submariner dive watch look and dials it up to 11. The Deepsea Challenge is also a lot more expensive then the Aquis Pro 4000m at $27,600.



Next up we have the current champion of depth achieved on a real dive in the Seamaster Planet Ocean Ultra Deep 6000m which has a 45.5 mm diameter and is also crafted out of titanium. While the Ultra Deep has much less water resistance than the Deepsea Challenge, it actually dove deeper in a real world test. The Ultra Deep is a bit smaller than the Deepsea Challenge and the Aquis Pro but still boasts 6,000 meters of water resistance and is powered by an in-house movement with only 60 hours of power reserve. While the Ultra Deep is much less expensive than the Deepsea Challenge, it is still much more expensive than the Aquis Pro at $14,300.

Moving on is the Fifty Fathoms 500 Fathoms from Blancpain which has a 48 mm case crafted out of titanium. The 500 Fathoms builds upon the look of the famed Fifty Fathoms and like the Deepsea Challenge takes the looks up to 11. The 500 Fathoms has the brightest lume I've ever seen on a watch and bumps up the Fifty Fathoms water resistant to 1,000 meters from 300 meters, which is only a fourth of the Aquis Pro. The watch is powered by an in-house automatic movement with 120 hours of power reserve matching the Aquis Pro. The 500 Fathoms is also much more expensive than the Aquis Pro at $29,100.



Finally we have the King Power Oceanographic 4000 Diver from Hublot which has a 48 mm case made out of carbon or titanium. The Oceanographic has a water resistance of 4,000 meters and is powered by a modified version of the ETA 2892 automatic movement with a power reserve of just 42 hours. The Oceanographic has a case design that is a bit more non-conventional like that of the Aquis Pro. The retail price of the carbon Oceanographic was $30,400 and they can now be had for just under $10,000, still more expensive than the Aquis Pro 4000m.

Looking at the four watches above you can tell how great of a value the Oris Aquis Pro 4000m is. The Rolex and Omega have a lot more water resistance but their retails are at least twice that of the Oris. At these depths it's all about bragging rights since recreational diving stops at a mere 40 meters. Only the Blancpain ties the Oris for power reserve of their in-house movements, but once again the watch came at a much steeper price with a fraction of the water resistance. I owned the Oceanographic in carbon and currently own the 500 Fathoms and can clearly see how great of a watch and value the Aquis Pro 4000m is when comparing them.



Closing Thoughts

So in the end, is the Oris Aquis Pro 4000m for me? Besides professional divers, I'm probably the ideal collector for the Aquis Pro. I enjoy oversized watches and have a few that have even longer lug to lug lengths. I also know that this isn't an everyday watch, but rather something that is appreciated time to time or while at the pool or beach. The size doesn't scare me away and even the thickness was easy enough to get used to. I love over engineered watches and those that have otherworldly specs, and the Aquis Pro checks both of those boxes. Titanium is also my favorite case material with carbon and ceramic coming in a distant second. The 54.6 mm lug to lug length covered my wrist perfectly as well.

Would I then recommend the Aquis Pro to somebody looking for a large over spec'd dive watch? I would in a heartbeat under a few conditions. First that person has to know the Aquis Pro is a large watch and be used to watches of that size. The weight is really not bad at all and should help with somebody getting used to the size of the watch, it basically weights what a 40 mm stainless steel sports watch on a bracelet weights after all. Second they need to realize the Aquis Pro will not be an everyday watch, unless they really don't care about watch being unwieldy at times. They must also be ok with the watch drawing a lot of attention every time it's worn out. Besides something like an Ulysse Nardin Freak, the Aquis Pro really grabbed more people's eyes than other watches I've worn.



Otherwise the Oris Aquis Pro 4000m is an excellent watch backed by a great manufacture in Oris and running on a very accurate and long lasting in-house movement. The watch looks exactly like what you'd expect for a watch capable of diving to 4,000 meters and the build quality reinforces that rating. Finally when you compare it to what the competition is charging for similar models, you can really see the Aquis Pro 4000m shine.

I'd really like to thank Oris for sending us this Aquis Pro 4000m to review. It was my first taste of Oris in the metal and it really has shown me what Oris can do as a watch manufacture. Not only with an extremely impressive case, but also with its well executed in-house movement. The Aquis Pro 4000m was really everything I hoped it would be and actually more so with how solid it felt in hand. I'll miss the time I spent with the Aquis Pro 4000m and really can't wait to see what Oris will send us next as I continue to explore the brand. For more information about the Aquis Pro 4000m please visit : Oris

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: 01 400 7777 7155-Set

Retail Price: $6,900

Case Size: 46.6 mm (Case Only), 48.6 mm (With Bezel Overhang)

Lug to Lug: 54.6 mm

Thickness: 19.2 mm (Case Only), 23.5 mm (With Crystal)

Weight: 196 grams

Case Material: Titanium

Bezel: Uni-Directional Ceramic Bezel with 120 Clicks

Strap: Blue Rubber Strap with Titanium Deployant Clasp

Movement: Swiss Made In-House Calibre 400 Automatic Movement

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds and Date

Power Reserve: 120 Hours

Water Resistance: 4,000 Meters