ProPilot X Calibre 400: A mechanical joy machine

May 28, 2022

The joy of mechanics comes to the fore in the new ProPilot X Calibre 400, a titanium-cased watch inspired by more than a century of aviation heritage and powered by our five-day automatic.

The Joy Machine

It’s the heir to a pilot’s watch legacy going back more than 100 years, but before all that, the ProPilot X Calibre 400 has been designed to celebrate the joy of mechanics.

When you love mechanical watches, do you begin your critique of a new piece looking at the case front or back? The new ProPilot X Calibre 400 is designed to inspire joy no matter what angle you come at it from.

The dial-side is defined first by its 39mm titanium case. The taut, angular lines of the aviation-inspired form are satin and sand-blasted, giving the watch its raw, technical look, and complemented by the familiar ProPilot bezel and a muscular, sculpted titanium bracelet. The oversized crown is also titanium, and flanked by protectors.

Beyond, the launch collection offers a choice of three dial colors: grey, blue and salmon. This is a fresh, expensive palette, chosen to augment the case’s dynamic proportions – and to bring life and color to your wrist.

“The ProPilot X Calibre 400’s power lies beyond its associations: it’s a mechanical joy machine”

And then there’s the view from the other side. The watch’s titanium case back and open sapphire crystal frame Oris Calibre 400, our in-house five-day automatic.

As with all Calibre 400 Series movements, it’s accurate to -3 to +5 seconds a day, within chronometer certification standards, even after it’s been exposed to the sort of magnetic fields we’re surrounded by every day. This base calibre version has a sweep central seconds hand and a date at 6 o’clock.

All Calibre 400 Series watches carry 10-year warranties and 10-year recommended intervals, and that applies to the ProPilot X Calibre 400, too. Calibre 400 Series movements have more than 30 non-ferrous and anti-magnetic parts, and were developed to minims friction and wear-and-tear — the winding rotor uses a slide bearing system, for example – so that we can confidently give the watches their class-leading warranties.

The ProPilot X Calibre 400 follows in a long line of Oris pilot’s watches going back to the early 1900s, but its power lies beyond its associations: it’s a mechanical joy machine.

The Mechanical Wonder

Inside the ProPilot X Calibre 400 is one of our new generations of high-performance automatics. Conceived entirely in-house by our skilled engineers, Calibre 400 Series movements all feature elevated levels of anti-magnetism, a five-day power reserve and a 10-year warranty. We call this The New Standard. Here, we’ll take you inside Calibre 400 and explain how it works.

Twin barrel concept

Five-day power reserve

When conceptualizing the Calibre 400 Series, Oris’s engineers recognized that these days we may not wear the same watch every day. If you put a standard mechanical watch down for a day or two, it will stop as the power reserve runs down. Calibre 400 Series movements have a five-day power reserve, so they’ll still be running if you’ve not worn your watch between, say, Thursday and Tuesday. They deliver this longer period of use via twin barrels, both of which house an extended mainspring, each long enough to store two-and-a-half days of power.

Class-leading reliability

10-year warranty and 10-year recommended service intervals

Oris is so confident in the performance of the advanced technologies integrated into the Calibre 400 Series that we offer a 10-year warranty on all Oris watches powered by the new movements when they’re registered at MyOris. In addition, Oris is also proposing 10-year recommended service intervals on Calibre 400 Series watches. This means that barring accidental damage or water-resistance checks, a Calibre 400 Series watch won’t need servicing until 2032 at the earliest. This is the new standard.

Invention at its core

A more stable rotor system

One of Oris’s fundamental ambitions with the Calibre 400 Series was to eliminate problems before they occur. Oris’s engineers identified that one of the most frequent issues with automatic mechanical movements concerns the ball-bearing system that allows the free-spinning oscillating weight (or rotor) to rotate. This is a critical element of an automatic watch – as the rotor spins, it generates power that’s stored in the mainspring, which is housed in the barrel. So we removed the ball bearing altogether and replaced it with a low-friction slide bearing system, in which a metal stud runs through a lubricated sleeve. This is much less complex, highly efficient, and involves far less wear and tear, making it less prone to breakdowns.

Highly anti-magnetic

Elevated resistance to magnetic fields

Most watch movements are made of metals that can become magnetized if exposed to sufficient magnetic forces. When this happens, they become less accurate, and can top altogether. To make it highly anti-magnetic, Oris engineered the Calibre 400 Series using more than 30 non-ferrous and anti-magnetic components, including a silicone escape wheel and a silicon anchor. In testing by the renowned Laboratoire Dubois, Calibre 400 deviated by less than 10 seconds a day after exposure to 2,250 gauss. For context, the latest version of the ISO 764 standard for anti-magnetic watches requires that to qualify as anti-magnetic, a watch must be accurate to within 30 seconds a day after exposure to 200 gauss. Calibre 400 recorded one third of the deviation allowed after exposure to more than 11 times the force permitted, making it a highly anti-magnetic movement.