Oris is a proud watchmaker noted for the innovative diving watches introduced in to the market from their stable over a long period of time. The latest creation from the firm is the Oris Aquis that is definitely going to please divers from a variety of backgrounds. The numero uno feature that separates this watch from its fellow compatriots is its mechanical depth gauge. The watchmaker achieved the great distinction of the very first one to come with a watch that allows water to enter it and thus measure the water depth. Those of you horologists familiar with X-Fathoms may look at it as a cheaper alternative to the famous watch name. Let us get in to the details of the watch and see if there is any truth in this suspicion.

How does a watch measure water depth by allowing water in to it? The principle of Boyles Law (Boyle Mariotte Law) is working behind the watch to achieve this result. The engineers and technicians of Oris made good use of this principle to gauge the water depth. As per Boyle’s Law, the pressure and volume of a closed body of gas is inversely proportional to each other. As there is no inertia involved, there is no risk of coming up with the wrong depth calculation. This feature is very effective in decompression breaks conducted at shallower depths. As this feature is the first of its kind, Oris has proudly got the patent for the technology.

The watch’s case is made of steel and has a diameter of 46 mm. It can withstand water pressure up to a depth of 500 meters. It has a unidirectional black ceramic bezel in it. The watch is run by an automatic mechanical in house movement named Oris 733. It has a date window located at 6 O’ clock position.

The top glass of the watch is made with specially crafted sapphire crystal that is 50% thicker than regular top glasses. This glass does have a channel that runs counterclockwise around the dial and leading to a position between 1 and 2 O’ clocks. There is another hole coming to this channel at 12 O’ clock position. While the diver is descending, the water pressure in the surroundings would compress the air inside the channel and force water to seep in through the hole at 12 O’ clock position. The light and dark grey color contrasts between the air and water on the scale around the dial lets the diver read the depth during both the descending as well as ascending processes.

For a diver watch, the Oris Aquis is quite a macho watch at 46 mm, but is not a humongous one like the 55 mm giant from Blancpain, the X-Fathoms. Apart from the size difference, these two models have a price difference of $ 36,500 among them as well! The Aquis is available for $ 3,500 only and the X-fathoms at $ 40,000. Still, can you call the Aquis a cheaper counterpart of X-fathoms? That is a judgment call that you have to make!