Oris announces new watch to support conservation mission

Oris has announced a new partnership and timepiece to support the Changjang Conservation Foundation in saving an endangered whale species.

This comes as part of the Maison’s conservation efforts, with a schedule of activities focused on ocean conservation and a series of watches released in the names of non-profit organisations.

The most recent release is a watch in honour of the critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise. The Yangtze Jiangtun Limited Edition timepiece has a dial crafted from a blue-green mother-of-pearl, which captures and reflects light like a river, emphasised further in the added wave pattern.

The pattern is also designed to mimic the echo sound waves of the whales’ high-frequency, narrow-band ultrasonic clicks, which they rely on for communication and navigation.

The watch draws inspiration from Oris’s Aquis Date 43.50mm dive watch with a stainless-steel case, tapered three-link metal bracelet, lumed hands and hour markets, and a water resistance of 300 metres.

On the caseback there are engravings of a Yangtze finless porpoise and the limited-edition number of each model.

Priced at £2,300, there will be 1,249 pieces released, echoing the number of these whales thought to be left in existence.