Dynamic storage display + five-day chain, this new manual movement is very interesting

Posted by lifata on May 6th, 2023

In January 2023, Oris released the new Big Crown watch of the year, accompanied by a new self-made movement: Cal.473. 120-hour dynamic storage, manual winding, dynamic storage display on the back, anti-magnetic ability and ten-year maintenance interval are the highlights of this movement.

In recent years, Oris replica has made frequent moves on the road of research and development of the movement. First, it launched the first modern self-winding movement Cal.110 in 2014, and then launched another self-winding movement Cal.400 in 2020. The reason for emphasizing "modern" is that before the quartz crisis in the 1970s, Oris had launched many self-movement works, the more famous one being the "eight-day chain alarm clock". Affected by the wave of the times, Oris, after joining ASUAG (the predecessor of SWATCH Group), divested its self-produced movement business and switched to the general movement solution provided by ETA. Although Oris soon withdrew from ASUAG and became an independent brand again, this practice was continued due to the advantages of general movement cost and stability. After the millennium, in order to further shape the differentiation and enhance the brand characteristics, Oris will decorate the rotor in red.

Although the performance of the movement has withstood the test of time, "unified core" and "non-self-produced" are the points that many watch friends care about, and they are also factors that hinder the brand from moving towards high-end. It is true that self-produced or not can not be used as a criterion for evaluating the quality of the movement. Top brands also have many outsourced movements. It’s just that as the supply of ETA movements has been cut off in recent years, major brands have revived the opportunity of self-produced movements, and no one is willing to be left behind. On the other hand, when the innovation of watch functions, materials and appearance has encountered bottlenecks, the brand also needs a window to show its watchmaking strength-the self-produced movement is an excellent choice.

It is not difficult to see from the name that the Cal.473 movement unveiled this time still belongs to the Oris 4 series movement. Many of its structural features are in line with Cal.400 (pointer calendar version Cal.403), including hours, minutes, small seconds and pointer calendar, and a 120-hour dynamic storage. The biggest difference of the Cal.473 movement is that the oscillating weight and the automatic winding structure are removed, and it is a purely manual winding movement. In addition, Cal.473 also added a dynamic storage indicator on the back to facilitate insight into the power of the mainspring.

Some watch lovers may be puzzled. Oris fake watches cheap already has a manual winding 110 series movement and an automatic winding 400 series movement. Why should it develop a new manual winding movement? In fact, the significance of the Cal.473 movement is precisely to combine the characteristics of the two, and it is a masterpiece of Oris’s own movement technology.

In order to achieve long power, the Cal.110 series movement reduces the vibration frequency to 21600vph (3hz). Although it is more common to reduce the frequency to increase the dynamic storage, such as the early IWC "PORTUGIESER VII" movement, and the ETA C07 movement that is widely used at present. But there is no doubt that 28800vph is the recognized mainstream choice. On the other hand, the Cal.110 series movement accommodates a huge single barrel with a diameter of 34 mm, which is difficult to assemble in a case of less than 40 mm, which puts forward certain requirements on the style and appearance of the watch.

The second self-made movement Cal.400 released by Oris in 2020 solves these pain points. Its vibration frequency is 28800vph, which improves the accuracy of the second hand indication; the diameter of 30 mm is conducive to the assembly of more shell shapes. However, the previous models of the 400 series movement are all self-winding structures, and the brand still lacks a small-sized manual winding self-winding movement.

The launch of the Cal.473 movement fills the gap that the brand does not have a small-sized manual winding movement. We know that in retro perfect replica watches, manual winding is often more interesting than automatic winding, and the Big Crown series generally use a diameter of 38 mm, which is difficult to adapt to the 1 series movement. Therefore, it can be said that the Cal.473 movement is tailor-made for the Big Crown series.

Compared with the previous 4-series movement, Cal.473 is polished more finely, the splint uses a large-area drawing process, and the edges are also chamfered. In terms of performance, the Cal.473 movement has a certain anti-magnetic ability, and it is adjusted according to the CSOC standard before leaving the factory to ensure that the daily difference is between -3/+5 seconds.

With the blessing of various characteristics, Cal.473 is a masterpiece of Oris's own movement. I also look forward to seeing this movement in more new products in the future.