One of the most reliable events on the watch release calendar every year is a glut of new watches in January celebrating the lunar new year, which this year begins on February 17. This is a very important holiday in many Asian countries, and brands with an international focus are not shy about dropping limited editions throughout the month to appeal (primarily) to customers in those territories. Of course, very often the watches themselves are quite cool outside the context of the lunar new year celebration itself, and it’s always kind of a fun spectator sport to see what brands come up with. Typically, brands will riff on the animal associated with a given year, and this year it’s the fire horse. First out of the gate: Oris, with the new Year of the Horse Limited Edition.
The Year of the Horse Limited Edition can be defined by two prominent features: deep red tones, and the use of the Calibre 113 movement. The movement is somewhat unusual and not used frequently in the Oris catalog, so we’ll start there. This is a manually wound caliber with an impressive ten day power reserve, and also includes a “business calendar” that provides the day, date, and also displays the week of the year via a scale at the dial’s perimeter. The week indicator is an unusual, old-fashioned feature that holds a lot of charm, and provides an easy visual reference for how deep we are into a given year.
The watch has a dark red dial with lighter red fumé subdials at 3 and 9 that indicate the power reserve and running seconds, respectively. The date is displayed through an aperture at 9, and the day through a small aperture near 12. A horse motif can be found within the power reserve display – it is displayed at rest at zero power, and galloping at full power.
The case is stainless steel and measures 43mm in diameter and 50mm from lug to lug. It is 13.1mm tall, which feels appropriate and too thick for a watch of this size, which will require a large wrist to properly pull off (even more so given the red dial). The hands have been coated with lume and the case is mounted to a brown cordovan leather strap (a bit ironic…). The Year of the Limited Edition will be made in a run of 88 pieces, a number of significance in Chinese culture meaning double luck and double prosperity.
The Year of the Horse Limited Edition is available this month through Oris authorized retailers, and the retail price is set at $8,000. Oris
Zach Kazan
2026-01-07 17:00:00