Need help identifying this vintage Oris

Beautiful Vintage piece ⌚👍.

@morganthedruid  is spot on 💯.

The Oris Caliber 451 was produced in a 7 jewel variant and also 15. The 15 jeweled one obtained Chronometer grade certification. That was an amazing feat because it is a pin pallet movement vs the more refined lever escapement.

The later uses tiny jewel plates to regulate the escapement and the other metal pins that are more prone to friction. It was a good idea that was patented by George Frederic Roskopf in 1867 for an affordable watch. The father of the "takes a licking and keeps on ticking concept" 😉.

The 7 jeweled version is almost considered un-seviceable like some say about vintage Timex watches. Some watchmakers do service those types of movements. I personally find that to be great 👌.

If you can open it, we would be able to distinguish if your watch carries the 7 or 15 jewel version. Nevertheless, very cool watch 😎🙌.

Definitely 1950s, and these are cheaper movements. My cal.725 died last month, it’s a gonner. It’s cool, but servicing on pin-lever movements can be tricky - maybe source a donor movement. Nice watch though.

Yeah that's about as far as I managed to get with my digging as well. Thank you for trying!

Thanks for the extra bit of info on the serviceability - I did not manage to get that far in my fact-finding online. I am told the watch works but is lacking power reserve, so I'm hoping it to be a fairly simple repair.

Thanks for that information. I am told it runs with limited power reserve, I haven't done a lot of homework on what repairs that might entail, but I'm just going to assume there may be more repairs beyond that needed. Worst case I could probably look for donor movements for parts. From trying to find out more about my watch, I found some listings for Calibre 451 parts.

When dealing with vintage it’s all about movement. You have pallet-lever movements, which are generally more serviceable as something like an ETA has remained relatively unchanged since the 2390 back in the 60s. Pin-levers are cheaper, they are found in things like kitchen timers and alarm clocks, they were amazing for watchmakers from a cost-cutting perspective but they are trash. Even Oris, who effectively rolled these turds in glitter, are not immune to this. This is where it becomes a cost vs benefit analysis. I’ll go back to my ChronOris cal.725, if I may. I paid about £150 8 years ago, way under market price, but it’s a nice looking watch. It died a month back, and a donor movement is at least £600 for a working watch, so where is the sense in that? That is if I could find a watch maker willing to look at it - most don’t. I have this potential issue with my Leonidas Easy Rider as well, and those have proper s**t movements. It’s also the same with a lot of the really cool skin divers you see - they look brilliant but they are mostly lemons inside. There are movement makers you should genuinely avoid.

I wish you luck, I hope you can find the exact parts you may need and someone who can / who is willing to repair a pin-lever movement for you. They do exist, but as the cal.451 is less complicated than my cal.725 I’m hoping it is a more more pleasant experience than mine. I apologise if I sound like I’m trying to ruin this for you, I‘m not, I’m genuinely coming from a good place as I have wins and losses regarding vintage. I have had to walk away from some beautiful watches because they would just die and would be unable to be saved down the line, and I’ve found some absolute belters for peanuts. It’s hard… but it’s all part of the fun.

Not at all, I appreciate any information even if it may sound brutal. I figured at the very least it would be a fun physical restoration project for me to undertake at home if the movement is unsalvageable. I paid an amount of money for it which I won't be too unhappy writing off.

Given that the seller claims the only issue is diminished power reserve, I am hoping it can still get by with a simple mainspring replacement.

I'll be sure to update once I have some progress in servicing, repairing, and restoring this piece :) 

I hope so, like I say your calibre is less complicated as the 725 has a single- pusher stopwatch and date complication, so if it just a mainspring replacement then it has many more years left with you. Sometimes I will buy a pin-lever movement watch I cannot ignore, and pray it works for a while.

Beautiful vintage. Any reference number on this?

It seems nobody has been able to help identify, and I have left it as is - as I've left the watch in my watchbox. Been meaning to get it repaired and serviced, but never came around to it.

Have you tried bringing it to an Oris Boutique?