Oris Supports The Billion Oyster Project With This New Limited-Edition Watch

Can a watch help restore New York Harbor’s oyster reefs? Oris is on a mission to “Change for the Better,” bringing attention to worthy projects worldwide that help reverse climate change. It recently debuted the New York Harbor Limited Edition timepiece to support the Billion Oyster Project, which aims to restore one billion oysters in the New York Harbor by 2035.

The New York Harbor used to be teeming with wild oysters, but the populations were decimated in less than 100 years by hungry New Yorkers, then by pollution and dredging the harbor to accommodate larger ships. The Billion Oyster Project hopes to reach its first hundred million oysters at the end of this season and improve yields every year in order to achieve its ambitious goal.

Why should we care about restoring oyster reefs to the harbor? Oysters filter up to 50 gallons of water a day, and with one billion oysters in the water, the entire harbor could be filtered every three days. In addition, oyster reefs are a habitat for marine plants and animals, improving biodiversity. They also protect the shoreline from erosion, flooding, and dangerous storm surges.

However, growing oysters is a tricky business. In the wild, oyster larvae would attach to older oysters, forming reefs. The Billion Oyster Project recreates this by collecting oyster shells from the city’s restaurants and using them to create artificial reefs — so go ahead and feel good about ordering that seafood tower. They collect them at their headquarters on Governors Island where volunteers help cure and clean them. The oyster shells are piled up in the sun, and after they are searched for items from the restaurants, such as plastic bags, forks, ramekins, and even mini Tabasco bottles, they dry in the sun to ensure there are no microorganisms living on them.

The shells are then cleaned, put into a reef structure, and placed in enormous tanks built from old shipping containers. Then, the Billion Oyster project releases hundreds of thousands of oyster larvae into the tanks, where they latch onto these old oyster shells. Once the oysters have matured enough to survive in the wild, they remove the reefs from the tanks and place them at designated reef locations in the harbor.

The New York Harbor Limited Edition timepiece has many design details inspired by the project. Naturally, it has a mother-of-pearl dial, a nod to the oysters, and a green hue inspired by the color of the water. The caseback is engraved with three oysters, the watch name, and its number. The timepiece is based on the Aquis diver’s watch because diving is an important part of the Billion Oyster Project. Students and volunteers scuba dive to monitor the health of the reefs, among other important activities. It has a unidirectional rotating bezel and is water-resistant to 300m, well below the depths of the harbor. But, with its good looks, you’ll also want to wear it out of the water.

The automatic watch has a 38-hour power reserve, shows hours, minutes, and sweeping seconds, and has a date window at 6 o’clock. The hands and indices are coated with Super-Luminova. The New York Harbor Limited Edition is limited to 2,000 pieces, is priced at $2,700, and comes with a green rubber strap and an interchangeable steel bracelet. It is available for purchase at retailers worldwide and on the Oris website. If you want to do more to support the Billion Oyster Project, you can make a donation or sign up to volunteer on its website.

This watch is part of Oris’s Change for the Better program. Previous collaborations include coral restoration programs in Australia and Florida, water monitoring on Lake Baikal, and local initiatives cleaning up beaches. But, collaborations that draw attention to important causes aren’t enough. Companies need to be responsible for their business practices. To that end, Oris achieved certification as a climate-neutral company in 2021 by Climate Partner and releases annual sustainability reports. Oris has an ambitious goal to reduce its carbon footprint by 10% annually for the next three years.