.JPG "Oris pointer calendar pilot’s watch circa 1940")
Status: Not Available – SOLD
This Oris pointer calendar pilot’s watch dates to circa 1940, see the article below for more info. The watch has been inspected by our watchmaker and is in good working condition. Photos are not actual size of watch, the case measures 32 mm across (not including crown) x 38 mm lug to lug and is fit with a leather bracelet.
The histories of watchmaking and aviation are inextricably linked. Developments in aviation during the first four decades of the 20th century had transformed the notion of heavier-than-air flight from an impossible dream into a commercial, industrial and military reality. Flying was the future – it was fast, exciting, dangerous, and the men and women who took to the skies became heroic figures.
Like the aircraft themselves, early navigational flying aids were very basic. It quickly became clear that pilots needed quality timekeeping instruments they could depend on when planning routes and manoeuvres, and undertaking airborne missions.
Pocket watches were still the trend during the early flight years at the beginning of the 20th century. But for pilots, who would be gloved to protect them from the elements, fumbling around in a pocket for an important reading was impractical. The practical alternative was a watch worn on the wrist. No longer hidden from view, wristwatches meant pilots could quickly and easily reference the time without a great deal of movement. Wristwatches were quickly adopted by pilots around the world.
But they weren’t perfect, and improvements followed. Movements became smaller, because few pilots could wear a pocket watch on their wrist without it being an obstruction in the confined space of a cockpit. Dials became more legible, stripped back to the essentials, with luminescent materials applied to the hands and hour markers so the watch could be read during night flying. And crowns became larger so pilots could operate a watch while wearing gloves.
As aircraft and the men and women who flew them became more and more popular, so the pilot’s watch aesthetic grew in influence. Those returning from wartime operations were heroes – and their standard-issue watches became symbols of their heroic deeds. Aviation made wristwatches both better and more fashionable.
Oris was at the heart of this sea change. The original 1938 Big Crown Pointer Date watch was pioneering, not just because of its oversized crown, but because of its pointer date function, a design that would become the Oris signature.