“Honestly, we made the Diver 65 Cotton Candy collection because we thought they were beautiful,” Says Oris’ CEO Rolf Studer, “we didn’t expect them to be the run-away success that they’ve become. People seem to have embraced them as symbols of optimism, hope and love and we are so happy about this. At the same time we are struggling to deliver enough watches to meet the demand.”
Since time immemorial artists, tailors, designers and psychologists have understood the way colour has a powerful effect on our moods. Colours like blue have an extraordinary ability to imbue calm. Pink creates a powerful sense of positivity. Green is known to be the most restful colour and is even believed to improve fertility. But more than that: to me, the beautiful vivid colours of mint green, sky blue and pink that grace the dials of the Diver 65 Cotton Candy Collection are a celebration of our survival through the most life-changing pandemic we will hopefully experience in our lifetimes. After a mournful period of elegiac isolation and the ensuing existential malaise or as the German’s call Weltschmerz we need totems of positivity more than ever. We need watches that resonate with as Studer puts it, “hope and optimism” to be worn in moments when we reconnect with the world, re-embrace our friends and family, celebrate our loves and friendships while appreciating all the immense, immeasurable beauty in the world.
When I first saw the movie American Beauty I was struck by the line, “There’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once and my heart fills up like a balloon about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold onto it. And then it flows through me like rain, and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life.” Now after going through 2020 I feel these words resonate within me so powerfully. They fill me with a sense of gratitude to be alive and ambulatory and endowed with a profound receptivity to all the beauty life has to offer and that I overlooked before. That’s what the Cotton Candy watches make me feel when I wear them.
Here, then, are the five reasons I bought all three of the Diver 65 Cotton Candy Collection.
Reason One: They are Beautiful
The extraordinary thing about the Cotton Candy watches is that they transcend the sum of their parts. Sure the Diver 65 is impressive with its bronze case and bronze bracelet. Even without the phenomenal dials these watches have so much wrist presence. A lot of time people will think you are wearing a full rose gold diving watch until they notice the stunning patina that makes each watch unique. But you add the Cotton Candy Dials and the watches literally explode off the wrist with so much charm. The colours that Oris has selected could well be the result of a deep chromatic analysis on what resonates with us psychologically. Studer and his team have chosen the perfect pink, the perfect mint green, perfect sky blue all of which stirs up a powerful sense of comfort and nostalgia with images ranging from childhood candy to Yves Klein paintings, to Sonny Crockett’s T shirts in Miami Vice. The point is it doesn’t matter if you are a watch fanatic or if you are a relative neophyte or don’t care about watches at all everyone I’ve known who sets eyes on them are drawn to their allure.
