The hour and minute hands of the ProPilot are something between alpha hands and swords. They are both white with lume filling, and taper to a near point as they move away from the center. These are actually taken from their BC4 watches, but work well on this dial. The seconds hand is then an all black stick with a red tip. I like how down-played the seconds hand is as the touch of red is nice, but not overwhelming, and at a glance the minute and hour are incredible clear. At night, the hour and minute hands glow brightest on the dial, with the numbers following. Because the number are thin, the lume is a bit lackluster in that area.

If you look at the Oris aviation collection together, the source of the dial design becomes clear. The ProPilot line sits between their Big Crowns, classic aviation, and their BC3 Advanced series, which are tough and tactical, with a touch of their BC4’s, their big square instrument watches. The ProPilots being a spiritual update of the BigCrown and perhaps a replacement for the latter two, which have been around for some time with little update. The case of the ProPilots speaks more to the Big Crowns, while the dial seems adapted from the BC3’s with the hands of the BC4’s. All together, the 4 lines create a nice harmony, though they might also compete with one another.

Straps and Wearability

The version of the ProPilot date we received features their olive textile/nylon strap. The watch is also available with either grey or black textile, black leather or a bracelet, with costs varying. Pilot’s watches always end up on olive nylon straps one way or another, and it’s the least expensive option, so I wanted to try that one out. The strap looks great on the watch. The material has a heavy weave, so it’s got a toothy texture that is rugged. The tone is a perfect olive, neither too drab nor too green. The strap itself tapers, has black calf leather lining and is padded, giving it a solid, well constructed feel.

Completing it is a very unique deployant clasp. The first curious thing is that it doesn’t pop through sizing holes on the strap… there are none in fact. Rather the material feeds through a little clamp, allowing you to adjust it by tiny increments. While this works, it also is a bit difficult to do, as the material doesn’t want to feed through, and it crimps the strap, so if you need to resize for some reason or sell the watch, the strap will be a bit damaged. The other unique aspect is how it closes. The buckle is a latch that you lift up to disengage (it even says lift on it!), making it feel like a seat belt or harness.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that the strap looks good on the watch, is well made and has a clever buckle, it’s very uncomfortable, bordering on unusable. The issue is with the deployant. As with other deployants, there is a long hinge that is inside that allows the strap to open, and get off your wrist, without ever fully coming apart…standard on all bracelets too… The problem is that here, it rides up the side of your wrist, and doesn’t contour properly. So it both jabs into you, and actually pushes against the strap, making it wear off center. The issue could actually be that by sizing the sides of the straps in a typical fashion, the deployant buckle is centered, while the mechanism is too far over. So the whole thing should have been shifted. I think a better solution would have actually been a butterfly version for symmetry, though that’s a whole different design.