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As part of its support for the non-profit organisation Billion Oyster Project, Oris has unveiled the New York Harbor Limited Edition II. This Aquis Date – from which part of the proceeds will help fund the environmental project’s mission – features a sea-green mother-of-pearl dial with an oyster shell effect.
This Initiative has set the goal of restoring one billion oysters to New York Harbor, engaging one million people along the way. An adult oyster can filter as much as 50 gallons of water a day, while oyster reefs create ecosystems for other marine life and form natural storm barriers. As experts often say: oyster reefs are to the ocean what trees are to the forest.
Several centuries ago, New York Harbor was home to 220,000 acres of oyster reefs. But by the early 20th century, New Yorkers’ taste for oysters, pollution and other man-made factors had all but destroyed marine life in the city’s waterways. The Clean Water Act of 1972 prohibited the dumping of industrial and chemical waste and raw sewage into the harbor, thereby improving water quality. In 2010, whales were spotted in the harbor. But problems persist, not least with the city’s ageing sewage overflow system.
In 2014, two New York City educators spotted an opportunity for New Yorkers to reconnect with their neglected waterfront. They founded Billion Oyster Project, a hugely ambitious non-profit that set the goal of returning one billion oysters to the harbor. In 2022, Oris entered into a collaboration with the project and released a limited-edition watch to raise funds for it. Billion Oyster Project has now restored more than 150 million oysters to New York Harbor and worked with more than 15,000 volunteers and 30,000 students.
September 04, 2025