As anyone who follows the brand knows, Oris has stepped up its efforts to bring more eco-friendly materials and sustainable practices to watchmaking in recent years, as evidenced by projects like last year’s Aquis Date Upcycle models. The Hölstein-based company’s latest effort in this arena springs from a collaboration with Cervo Volante, a Swiss leather goods manufacturer that uses sustainable deer-skin leather to produce footwear and accessories. These skins, by-products derived from the culling of wild deer populations in Switzerland and which would otherwise have gone to waste, now find a new use as straps in the Oris Big Crown X Cervo Volante, a series of three new timepieces based on the popular Big Crown Pointer Date model.
The watches all adopt the familiar look of the Big Crown Pointer Date, a mainstay of Oris’s portfolio since 1938, with a multi-part stainless steel case measuring 38 mm in diameter and featuring the tapered lugs, coin-edged bezel, and oversized, fluted, screw-down crown that lends the aviation-inspired Big Crown collection its name. The gradient gray, green, and blue dial options, says Oris, are inspired by the Alps, and the dials host the hallmark vintage-styled handset and central “pointer date” hand that indicates the date on a numerical scale on the periphery.

Through the screwed caseback with its sapphire exhibition window, you get a glimpse of the movement, Oris Caliber 754, based on the Sellita S...