First the abolition of the Swiss Watch Statute, then a last-minute rescue from closure: Rolf Portmann prevented the demise of the heritage brand Oris not once but twice, and built it into one of the most successful makers of innovative timepieces. But who is the man who joined the company as a young lawyer in 1956 and remains with the independent manufacture to this day as honorary chairman? Let's travel back to the 20th century and get to know one of the most important figures in the Swiss watch industry.
Expansion and Pioneering Spirit: The Early Years in Hölstein
The famous brand's success story began more than 50 years before the Portmann era: founded in 1904 by Paul Cattin and Georges Christian in the small town of Hölstein, home to some 2,500 people today, the company already employed more than 300 people by 1911, producing pocket watches across six sites.
Specializing in wristwatches from 1925, Oris unveiled its first in-house escapements in 1938, along with the first generation of its famous Big Crown pilot's watch. By the mid-1940s, the manufacturer, renowned for its outstanding accuracy, had grown so influential that it ran its own fleet of buses to transport its employees – its rise seemed unstoppable.
Portmann's Breakthrough – The Turning Point of the Sixties
Despite all its triumphs, which included its first automatic movement, Caliber 601, in 1952, the company suffered increasingly after the end of World War II from an outdated law: the Swiss Watch Statute. Enacted in 1934 to protect the domestic watch industry, it prohibited the introduction of new technologies without official approval. For Oris, this was especially devastating, as the brand was not permitted to switch to the modern lever escapement, which was far more efficient than older escapements. The brand's future seemed in jeopardy: how could it hold its own with outdated technology against competitors who, fortunately for them, had already adopted the new mechanism before 1934?
Rolf Portmann, who joined the company as a lawyer in 1956 and was hired to fight the Swiss Watch Statute, faced a grueling task.
After devoting his first ten years in Hölstein exclusively to this problem, the long-awaited breakthrough finally came in 1966: with the abolition of the Watch Statute, the brand was quite literally unleashed, and just one year later it presented its first chronometer-certified automatic movement – thanks to the newly introduced lever escapement. Portmann and his work paved the way for Oris's golden years: in 1969, the company employed more than 800 people and produced over 1.2 million movements.
The Threat from the Far East: The End of Oris?
But with the start of the 1970s, the harmony in Hölstein was soon to evaporate: the company, by then part of ASUAG (the forerunner of today's Swatch Group), was struggling like every Swiss manufacturer against a flood of cheap timepieces from Asia that threatened to destroy the country's watch industry. Things got even worse when ASUAG planned to break up the heritage brand – action was needed, and fast.
Rolf Portmann, by then managing director, and then head of marketing Ulrich Herzog prevented the closure of Oris in 1982 through a management buyout, which amounted to refounding the company. Now it needed ideas for the future: how should the brand position itself from here on?
A Passionate Visionary: Rolf Portmann at the Helm
After the risky takeover, Portmann made another decision that was very bold at the time: every watch from Hölstein, without exception, would be powered by a mechanical caliber. But rather than betting on unaffordable luxury models, he and Ulrich Herzog had a different vision: Oris would become the world's leading maker of moderately priced automatic watches.
The project kicked off with the Pointer Calendar, introduced in 1984, which revived an ingenious complication from the 1930s – a separate hand for the date display. The following 30 years would shape the company's current product portfolio: from its signature red rotor to the classic Artelier collection, and from the pilot's watches of the Aviation line to the world-famous Aquis dive watches, the company enjoys the strong positioning it needs amid the fiercer competition of the 21st century. However different the individual watches may be, anyone who knows the brand's history will recognize Rolf Portmann's innovative spirit in every one of its timepieces.
Looking Ahead: Portmann and the Future of the Watch Industry
Today, after more than 60 years with the Swiss heritage company, Portmann is honorary chairman of Oris and looks back on a remarkable career. But it is not only the past that occupies him – so does the future of the watch industry: he is convinced, for example, that mechanical watches hold a special place precisely in the digital age. Because they create a connection to the past, they will continue to be cherished in the decades to come and can by no means be replaced by modern devices.
With this, Rolf Portmann captures the entire fascination of horology in a nutshell. After all, it is precisely the timeless character of an automatic watch that makes it so much more desirable than other objects. In any case, we need not worry about Oris: its eventful history, its range of advanced masterpieces, and its constant drive to keep evolving will secure the manufacture a firm place in the watch world for years to come.
