Oris Audi Sport Limited Edition II Watch Review
Monday - 09 November 2015
by Angus Davies, www.escapementmagazine.com
Fine watches and prestigious cars go together like peaches and cream. They appeal to the same audience, a fact not lost on marketing professionals. In particular, the link between chronographs and motorsport is even stronger. The requirement to measure elapsed times with split-second accuracy is of paramount importance to everyone employed by a racing team. Success or failure can be defined by seconds, or sometimes fractions thereof.
The importance of time is not merely the preserve of the driver circumnavigating a race track, it is key to changing tyres, refuelling a vehicle or getting support vehicles to the race venue. The management of time is essential to all members of a victorious race team.
Audi Sport is no stranger to victory having won LeMans on an unprecedented 12 times since 2000. Oris, recognising this achievement, became the ‘Official Watch Partner’ of the Audi Sport teams racing in the FIA World Endurance Championships (WEC) and the German Touring Car Championship (DTM) in 2014.
The latest timepiece from Oris to celebrate its relationship with the German racing team is the Audi Sport Limited Edition II, a chronograph equipped with a self-winding movement.
This watch exhibits a highly original design. The black hour and minute hands are lined with luminescent material, but exhibit an almost covert character against the stealthily black dial canvas. A subdial resides below noon, featuring a 30-minute chronograph register and 10-minute countdown. This latter function proves especially useful for drivers and other team members as an aide-memoire prior to the race start.
Oris has also incorporated an ingenious retrograde small seconds display, located at 9 o’clock. This complication was developed in-house and delivers an interesting depiction of seconds that I particularly appreciate. At 3 o’clock, two apertures reveal the day and date.
Black tones dominate the dial display and exude a sultry, dare I say, sexy character to this watch. Smatterings of red detail add a judicious quotient of ebullience to the case and dial, reinforcing the racy character of the watch.
Oris has crafted another fine timepiece, suffused with a high degree of individuality and distilled to an impressively worthy standard. This watch will be worn by Audi Sport drivers during the 2015 season, the question is, ‘Will you join them and purchase one of the 2000 limited edition pieces?’
