This details-packed everyday watch is made for enthusiasts, by enthusiasts

It’s every watch journalist‘s dream to design their own watch. After all, we can only write, “this is what [insert brand here] should have done” so many times before we just come across as bitter.

Even so, few of us are willing or able to put our literal money where our keyboard is and invest in creating a watch from whole cloth. But that’s just what Zach Weiss of Worn & Wound has done.

The site’s cofounder, who’s already shown a willingness to venture outside the confines of his dot-com domain with ambitious projects like the Windup Watch Fair, has just launched his own watch brand called Oraorea (Latin for “Golden Hour”), and it’s very clearly designed for enthusiasts, by an enthusiast.

Golden hour

One of my favorite things about watches is the amount of minute details that can be packed into such a tiny, wearable package. I suspect Zach feels the same way, as the first watch from Oraorea, the Coriolis Pointer Date, is bursting with small details that watch geeks love to nerd out over.

Worn & Wound’s Zach Weiss is living the dream by launching his own watch brand.

I’ll start with the dial, as that’s the most interesting thing happening on the Coriolis and the aspect that I suspect took the longest to develop. At first glance, there’s a lot going on, and it’s a bit confusing, but once you get your bearings, the design really is as intuitive as it is beautiful.

The dial is made of plated brass and is machined with multiple levels. The area around the handset is sunken and radially brushed, with an elevated date ring positioned within. The date ring features printed numerals in a font of the brand’s own design, and the markers are perfectly spaced for symmetry; there’s no 31 breathing down 1’s neck here.

Moving outward, the dial rises again for the hour markers, which are the calling card of the Coriolis. Weiss calls the markers setup an “Oscillating Index,” and I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

A lot of thought went into the design of the Coriolis Pointer Date’s unusual dial.

It comprises a single piece of steel containing three distinct tracks. The outer and inner tracks feature alternating Roman numeral hour markers, and they’re both attached to a central railroad minute track. The complex index track was cut out with a femtosecond laser, detailed on a CNC machine and then hand-polished and applied to the dial.

But that’s just part of the story. Each of those Roman numerals gets its own accent inside the Oscillating Index in the form of a diminutive applied hemisphere made of solid 18K gold. These little gold balls add even more visual interest and dynamism to the hour markers while also bringing a touch of shimmering luxury thanks to the use of real gold.

The handset is also quite sharp. The seconds hand is very thin, with a long lollipop-tipped counterweight, while the minute hand is a long, slender pencil. Both are polished with noticeable curves at their ends. The hour hand is a CNC-machined two-piece, two-tone affair with a skeletonized oval body and an arrow pointer. Lastly, the pointer date hand is a stubby, skeletonized, sharp pencil.

Nearly 3mm of the watch’s 12.1mm thickness is owed to the highly domed sapphire crystal.

The stainless steel case is highly wearable with the kinds of measurements watch journalists love, naturally. It’s 38.5mm across, 45mm long, has a 20mm lug width and is 12.1mm thick. That might sound a little chunky, but much of that thickness comes from an enormous, high-domed sapphire crystal. Without the dome, the case is just 9.3mm tall, making it quite thin indeed.

The water resistance is 100m, so you can wear this thing pretty much anywhere, and there’s a screw-on sapphire caseback showing off the movement. Speaking of said movement, it’s not something you see every day. It’s the Swiss-made Sellita SW386-1, the next evolution of Sellita’s highly popular SW300 automatic. It beats at 4Hz and has a solid power reserve of 56 hours.

What’s more, Weiss opted for the Top Grade version of the movement and its highest level of decoration. There’s perlage on the bridges, rhodium plating, snailing, heat-blued screws and a custom bezel that mimics some of the dial’s orbit-inspired imagery.

The movement inside the Coriolis is the Sellita SW386-1 automatic.

Availability and pricing

There are three colorways of the Coriolis Pointer Date. Skyline Silver features a silver dial with gold and blue accents, Rhodium Black has a rhodium-plated dial with mostly silver accents, and Venetus Teal boasts a lacquered teal dial with a mix of silver and gold accents.

All three versions come on the same saddle-stitched Italian vegetable-tanned leather strap with quick-release spring bars and a steel pin buckle featuring the Oraorea logo in relief. All three watches also have the same SRP of $3,950 and are available to preorder now on Oraorea’s website, with shipping expected around the start of Q4 this year.

Silver wristwatch with blue dial, Roman numerals, and tan leather strap on orange and blue fabric.

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