Oris 442 KIF

Description

To find Oris movements from the time, when they produced pin lever movements only, is not easy, but especially their late pin lever movements, such as the Oris 442 KIF shown here, are interersting.

With its size of 6 3/4 x 8 lignes, it was perfectly suitable for sporty ladies' watches.

The base plate has got a mirror polish and is difficult to photograph. Nevertheless, it shows, that many ruby bearings were used, an indication for a higher quality.
Since cap jewels were used for the lever and escape wheel bearings, the Oris 442 KIF could proudly put “17 Jewels” on the dials, where it was used.

It is unpleasant, that the movement side cap jewels of lever bearing and escape wheel bearings could not be removed, which makes a cleaning of the bearing rubies impossible.

We have the common gear train here with mainspring barrel, center minute wheel, third wheel, seconds wheel and escape wheel. As escapement, a pin lever is used.

On top of the gear train bridge, there’s the indirect seconds indication mechanism, consisting of a driving gear, the center seconds pinion and a flat spring to stabilize the center seconds hand.

Unfortunately, the Oris 442 is not really service-friendly, everything seems very fragile.

The two-leg anular balance is beared in two KIF Protechoc shock protection bearings and beats slowly with 18000 A/h. Within the ranges of a pin lever movement, it can be adjusted on the hairspring key directly.

On the dial side, you can see the very well made rocking bar winding system with its beautifully shaped setting lever spring. Very nice for a pin lever movement.

You can also see the cap jewels for the lever bearing and the escape wheel bearing. Since the lever-bearing is oil-free, using a cap jewel is technically useless.

In the lab

Timegrapher result

This movement was very hard to regulate, but the results are pretty well nevertheless, especially, when you take into account, that it only a pin lever movement.

Technical data

Usage gallery