There are some brands that seem so perfectly modern, it can sometimes come as a great surprise when you discover they?ve recently made an homage piece.  I remember a few years ago, when I was first started writing about watches at Theo & Harris, we came across an amazing 1950s-era racing chronograph with beautiful copper hands and a fantastically intricate dial. It had these incredibly sturdy pushers, measured maybe just over 36 mm, and had a lightly scuffed case full of character that seemed designed to fit beneath a jacket cuff. The brand that made this watch, surprisingly, was Invicta. And while I certainly have no qualms with that brand, it’s fair to say that its watches are not usually known for their history or subtlety.
So, when I came across the Oris Big Crown 1917 during Baselworld this year, I must say I was quite surprised ? not as surprised as upon finding that vintage Invicta, of course, but surprised nonetheless. I?ve been familiar with the brand?s now-famous Diver Sixty-Five ? a watch modeled after a vintage 1965 Oris dive watch ? and I?ve read about the original Big Crown, which draws its influences from the company’s late-1930s aviation pieces. That was about my range of expertise on Oris’s history ? until just recently, when Oris researchers, while digging through the brand’s archives, discovered an early pocketwatch-converted 1917 pilots’ wristwatch (pictured above). Surprisingly ? to the researchers as w...