Oris pays tribute to one of baseball’s most enduring figures with the new Lou Gehrig Limited Edition, a special version of the Big Crown Pointer Date created in support of The Lou and Eleanor Gehrig Family Foundation.
The project also aims to raise awareness of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), the disease that came to be widely known as “Lou Gehrig’s disease”
One of the greatest players in baseball history, Lou Gehrig spent his entire Major League career with the New York Yankees.
Nicknamed “The Iron Horse”, he became famous for his durability, playing 2,130 consecutive games between 1925 and 1939, a record that stood for more than half a century.
His career came to an abrupt end after he was diagnosed with ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease.
On 4 July 1939, during his farewell address at Yankee Stadium, Gehrig delivered what remains one of the most memorable speeches in American sporting history, describing himself as “the luckiest man on the face of the Earth” despite his diagnosis.
Based on the Big Crown Pointer Date, the Lou Gehrig Limited Edition incorporates a number of references to Gehrig’s life and career.
The stainless steel case measures 40 mm in diameter, 12.2 mm in thickness and 48.2 mm lug-to-lug, while the dial adopts a silver finish with a vertical brushed texture intended to recall Gehrig’s “Iron Horse” nickname.
Blue accents draw inspiration from the colours of the New York Yankees, with a blue minute track and blue outlines framing the hour markers.
The pointer-date display, a hallmark of the Big Crown collection, features a special detail at the number 4, highlighted in blue as a tribute to Gehrig’s iconic jersey number.
Retired by the Yankees in 1940, it became the first uniform number to be permanently retired in Major League Baseball.
Further period-inspired touches include the combination of Arabic numerals and applied indices, a railway-style minute track and white-on-black date numerals that echo watch designs from the 1920s and 1930s, the era in which Gehrig played.
The dial is protected by a domed sapphire crystal with internal anti-reflective coating, while Super-LumiNova-filled hands, numerals and indices ensure legibility in low-light conditions.
Water resistance is rated to 5 bar (50 metres / 165 feet), and the watch is fitted with a screw-in crown.
Powering the watch is the automatic Oris Calibre 754, which drives the central hours, minutes, seconds and pointer-date display. The movement incorporates a stop-seconds mechanism, fine timing device and date corrector, while providing a power reserve of 41 hours.
The watch is supplied on a brown leather strap with white double stitching inspired by a baseball glove and secured by a stainless steel buckle.
A second blue, white and grey NATO fabric strap, together with a strap-changing tool, is also included.
The story continues on the screwed stainless steel caseback, which is engraved with a depiction of Gehrig delivering his farewell speech, alongside the individual limited-edition number.
The edition is limited to 2,130 pieces, matching the number of consecutive games he played during his record-setting career. Each watch is delivered in a special presentation box and accompanied by a specially stamped baseball card.
The Oris Lou Gehrig Limited Edition (Ref. 754 7785 4091-Set) is priced at CHF 2,400 / €2,400. In conjunction with the launch, Oris will support the work of The Lou and Eleanor Gehrig Family Foundation, which funds a range of public health and educational initiatives. oris.ch
