Oris Maldives Dive Watch

Oris have a new addition to their diver's watch collection, the Maldives Limited Edition.  Some of the profits from the sale of the piece will be donated to help to preserve marine life in the Maldives.  The brand from Hölstein did something similar with last year's "Great Barrier Reef" watch which featured a large-ish stainless steel case and a wave-ripple textured dial.  The 2011 piece is just about as understated as a diver's watch can be.  It has been scaled down to 43mm, the dial has been smoothed out and the case of this one has been upgraded to titanium with a bezel inlay made from very tasty brushed ceramic.  This summer's dive watches just keep on getting better and better!

I first got a glimpse of this Maldives piece on watchuseek.com's BaselWorld 2011 coverage back in March.  The images were not brilliant, but something about this watch just looked right.  The proportions, the colourway, or maybe the unusual bezel?  I liked it then, I love it now.  Oris have the right combination of great build quality and keen prices and in recent years someone in the design department has got it spot on too.

Inside is the Oris 643 automatic movement with power reserve of 38 hours.  The blue dial has applied indices with deep orange superluminova and a small seconds subdial at 9 o'clock.  On the case side at 9 is the "anti-bends" helium valve with a stainless steel screw-in crown at 3 o'clock.  On the back is an image of a Manta Ray.  Water resistance is to 300 metres.

The Oris Maldives Dive watch is a limited edition of 2000 pieces with a choice of either rubber strap or titanium bracelet.