Fratello × Oris Big Crown Bronze Pointer Date With Oxblood Dial

Allow us to proudly introduce the Fratello-designed collaboration watch. This time, we’ve teamed-up with Oris to bring you the Fratello × Oris Big Crown Bronze Pointer Date with oxblood red dial. With a festive palette and a heartwarming story behind its creation, it is the perfect watch with which to kick off the holiday season.

RJ and his Fratello × Oris Big Crown Bronze Pointer Date

Fratello × Oris Big Crown Bronze Pointer Date

Robert-Jan: “It is with great pride that we are introducing the Fratello × Oris Big Crown Bronze Pointer Date. This adventure to create a watch together with Oris has been a great experience from start till end. Michael Stockton’s idea of creating a bronze watch with a red dial was gladly accepted by Oris. A visit to Hölstein gave us some additional inspiration for the dial, for example. In its neat little museum, Oris has a number of vintage watches. One of them had “Anti-Shock” on the dial, which we thought was a nice touch as opposed to the usual “Automatic” wording.

For this Fratello × Oris Big Crown Bronze Pointer Date, we decided to use gilt printing for the dates, minute track, and text. It blends in wonderfully with the warm tones of the bronze case. The Big Crown model as such was also no discussion. This model has been in the Oris collection since 1938 and we consider it to be a classic. After working with Oris so intensively last year, my appreciation for the brand only has increased. Great people, and just like the Dutch, very down to Earth.

I am incredibly happy with the outcome of our hard work and proud to wear the #13/300 (as that’s my favorite number) of the watch. The #1 went to Michael Stockton, who came up with the idea of the oxblood dial.”

Emotional resonance

Designing watches is a nuanced pursuit. Part of the fun of, and difficulty in coming up with something new lay within the rules to which one must adhere. Watches are functional items. Additionally, they are artful objects, created to inspire as well as to inform. While creating a legible timepiece is of paramount importance, so too is ensuring that the watch has emotional resonance. To achieve that, the designer must be aware of what has gone before and how that can inform a successful design.

Context is everything. Watches live and die on their ability to capture the wearer’s imagination. This can be achieved through the harmonious presentation of information as well as a fusion of colors and shapes that draw the eye back towards the watch, time and time again.

For this Oris × Fratello collaboration, we chose the Big Crown Pointer Date as our starting point. Rather than simply choosing a model from the catalog, the decision came via an organic process. The man behind this venture? Our very own Mike Stockton. This model sprang from his imagination, which was piqued while on the hunt for something new at Baselworld 2019…

Love at first sight

Mike doesn’t need too much persuasion to buy a new watch at the best of times. When Oris presented its newly-released Big Pointer Date with an Oxblood red dial, it was love at first sight. Except, the course of true love rarely runs smoothly, and as taken as Mike was by the watch’s proportions, layout, and dial color, an idea began to germinate in his mind…

He couldn’t help but wonder what this new dial would look like installed in the 40mm bronze case created exclusively for Oris’s 80th anniversary the year before. The only problem with that watch in Mike’s mind? The 80th-anniversary edition featured a green dial. As complementary a color as Mike thought the Oxblood red dial would be in the bronze case, such a configuration was nowhere to be found in the brand’s lineup.

The question…

And so he did what all good watch journalists should do and asked the question: “Would it be possible to slide one of these glorious Oxblood red dials into the bronze case from the year prior?” And guess what? Oris said yes! Well, kind of…

“Our Dutch contact was clearly willing to help find an Oris Big Crown Pointer Date 80th Anniversary, although he mentioned that demand was and is so hot for these that it would take two months to get one. Regarding the dial, a loose one could be sent, but the brand was unwilling to offer a truly one-off piece for a host of different (and quite understandable) reasons.”

“The handsets on the steel and bronze models differ (i.e. the hands have white metal surrounds on the steel version), but the dials contain no trace of metal on them. Therefore, this was purely a dial swap. I had the watch shipped to our favorite watchmaker Paul, who took care of the red dial transplant. The result, in my humble opinion, looks epic.”

Something different…

“Oris, from my vantage point, qualifies as one of the most gifted in the industry when it comes to choosing color hues for its watches. Whether it’s that light blue and yellow Divers Sixty-Five, the chalkboard green dial found on 36mm Pointer Dates, or the vivid hues found on the sunburst-dialed Aquis diver, Oris has a real knack for being “on point” with its palette. I simply wanted something different and as the bronze watch case has developed a patina in just a few short weeks, I’ve only become more smitten. But there’s more to this watch than color alone. After all, a dial modification can enhance a watch, but it’s unlikely to transform a mediocre platform.

“The Oris Big Crown Pointer Date is a fantastic, all-rounder. With its lumed hands, big screw-down crown, screw-down case back, 50-meter water resistance, and domed sapphire crystal, it is a surprisingly tough, go-anywhere, do-anything kind of watch. And it has a red dial. I never get tired of looking at it.”

The color takes center stage

The absence of a date window gives this model a pleasingly balanced appearance. As such, the color takes center stage. The broad, brightly-lumed cathedral hands add a touch of throwback elegance to proceedings. They look at home next to the warm-hued bronze case and against the rich red dial. To further integrate the dial with the case, we’ve replaced the starker white minute track with an “old gold” minuterie. Consequently, the dial feels even more at one with its surroundings. Learn more about the Oris brand here. And place your order for our latest model in the Fratello Shop here.