Oris goes into bat for the MCC
The august cricketing institution has taken on its first ever timekeeping partner, as both parties look to the future. By Chris Hall
Two hundred and fifty years ago, on 24 and 25 June 1772, in the Hampshire village of Hambledon, a cricket match was played between a Hampshire XI and an England XI. Its significance is not the age, specifically – cricket in some form is known to have been played for at least 150 years before this occasion – and nor is it the apparent mismatch in the opposing sides. (If county versus country seems oddly unbalanced, consider that Hampshire won, by 53 runs.) Its significance derives from the fact that we know the score at all – the presence of three complete scorecards from this and two later matches from the same year is enough to deem them the official origin of first-class cricket.
A mere 15 years later, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was founded and it wasted no time establishing itself as the arbiter of the game, taking responsibility for the laws of cricket the following year. And now, 235 years after its inception, it is still open to new experiences, as it has shown by taking on its very first timekeeping partner in the form of Swiss watch brand Oris. The two have signed a three-year deal that will see Oris take a prominent position at Lord’s and collaborate with the MCC on a number of initiatives, according to Oris’s CO-CEO Rolf Studer, although intriguingly there is no word yet on a limited-edition watch to commemorate the union, as is the custom.
Indeed, the arrangement is probably best seen not as that of a traditional timing partner, functioning as, say, Omega does at the Olympic Games, but as a meeting of like minds. Guy Lavender, MCC chief executive and secretary, points out that time is still of the essence in cricket, both to a batsman facing a 90mph delivery and to a captain making strategic decisions, but no one is expecting Oris’s team to be camped out under the pavilion with fingers on chronographs.
“As organisations both steeped in history but with progressive outlooks, we wanted a partner that has heritage but that continues to innovate,” said Lavender. “Time is a fundamental component of cricket, and Oris can amplify those moments, as well as celebrating the great achievements and milestones within the game.”
Lavender went on to hail Oris’s commitment to gender-neutral design. “We wanted to find a partner who had quality at their core and whose products and values were accessible and appealed to a wide audience,” he says. “Cricket as a game was historically created for both genders; however, in recent times it has been more male-focused. Over the last decade, we have seen exponential growth in the women’s and girls’ game, and it continues to be a huge growth opportunity for cricket.”
Growth is on the agenda geographically as well. Despite cricket’s status as the world’s second-most followed sport, with around 2.5 billion fans, its limited popularity in Switzerland has seen watchmakers cluster around other games instead. It’s also likely that Oris’s popularity in the US played a part in cementing the collaboration, as cricket continues to find a foothold in the States.
Studer, meanwhile, was quick to praise the MCC’S support of conservation and sustainability, two causes close to his heart at Oris, but dwelt on a less tangible correlation between his brand and the home of cricket.
“Cricket is a sport with a very passionate and enthusiastic following on a global scale, that brings people together from all walks of life,” he notes. “It is a form of escapism that comes with a sense of enjoyment, much like our watches. Our main goal at Oris is to make people smile, and we find cricket to have the same purpose.”
Any followers of England’s test performances will know smiling isn’t always guaranteed, but recent results against New Zealand have certainly given us cause for cheer. Studer, like his company, really does possess good timing. oris.ch
‘Time is a fundamental component of cricket, and Oris can amplify those moments’