By Osheen Arakelian
In its long history, Oris has had a close relationship with the skies, producing some of the watch industries most innovative and iconic pilot watches, and working closely with pioneers of the aviation world. These included some beautiful limited edition timepieces like the Oskar Bider Big Crown, Oris Challenge International de Tourisme 1932 LE Big Crown and also the Oris Air Racing Edition IV in honour of the Swiss Air Racing Team’s gold race win in 2013. This time around we have another ProPilot Limited Edition timepiece, the Air Racing V.
The Oris ProPilot Air Racing V is to celebrate one of the Swiss Air Racing Team’s finest, Don Vito Wypraechtiger, who in 2010 took part in the National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada, USA as a rookie. He finished second overall in the Formula One Gold Race that year, earning him the accolade of “Rookie of the Year”. Since that day, Don Vito has overseen a complete refit of the teams’ Formula One plane, the Scarlet Screamer, fine tuning it to turn it into the race winning machine you see flying the skies today.
In 2013, his hard work and dedication paid off as he won the illustrious Formula One Gold Race event, becoming the first non-American Gold Race Champion in the event’s fifty-year history. It is for this reason that Oris is celebrating this unprecedented achievement with the new Oris Air Racing Edition V, a limited edition timepiece that has been made in Don Vito’s image.
The watch has all the usual elements that one can find in a ProPilot timepiece including the big 45mm diameter ProPilot case, based on the ProPilot 7698, made of stainless steel and finished with a Black DLC coating. On the caseback, however, is an engraved image of the Scarlet Screamer to show its limited edition status amongst the rest of its family. Inside beats, the 752 Calibre movement with oversized date and the entire piece is held on the wrist with a black fabric strap with black DLC patented clasp.
Although not the fanciest or most innovative of Pilot Watches to come from the Oris stables, it’s still certainly a great piece for the price and worth taking note. Retailing at roughly $2,600, it’s great to see Oris is not stamping an exaggerated price tag on this limited edition piece. A tick of approval from me in all respects.
For more info, please visit oris.ch
OSHEEN ARAKELIAN – CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Drawing on a lifelong love of horology and a more recent introduction to the appreciation of fine whisky, Osheen brought the two together with watch & whisky. He is the proprietor of the site, which covers everything related to watches and whisky. In between completing a degree in commercial law and supporting a rich social life, he is out and about attending all the latest watch and whisky events Sydney has to offer. His passion has also taken him around Australia attending a number of events and he hopes to continue his career in the watch industry on a more serious level after he graduates. Read his articles here.
