Gonzo—Yes, the Muppet—Inspired This $10,000 Watch

Google “Gonzo” and you’ll get a lot of disparate results: Hunter S. Thompson books; some terrifying Urban Dictionary entries; and, of course, a funny-looking blue Muppet with a pendulous nose. Now, thanks to Oris, your searches for the latter just got even more exciting, because the Gonz is the inspiration behind a psychedelic new timepiece.Since first teaming up in 2023, Oris and the Muppets have been a surprisingly successful duo both creatively and financially. The initial release, a lime-green Kermit watch, remains “one of our most popular and best-selling watches ever,” says VJ Geronimo, Oris’s CEO for the Americas. Hot on the heels of the world’s most famous frog, a pink Miss Piggy edition came strutting in two years later. And starting today, the partnership is back with its third and most ambitious release yet: the Oris ProPilot X Gonzo Edition.The new ProPilot X Gonzo Edition on my wrist At first glance, you’d be hard-pressed to tell that this is a Gonzo watch at all—which is either great or terrible news, depending on your fondness for the canonically weird Muppet. His funny face only appears laser-etched on the watch’s mainspring (the coiled power source of a mechanical timepiece). It took the guidance of an Oris rep, his phone’s flashlight, and the better part of a minute for me to finally spot it. The other nods are much subtler. There’s a chili-pepper-shaped hand on the power reserve, which refers to one of Gonzo’s favorite shirts, and the phrase “10 Great Days” is printed on the dial, a reference to the character’s stage name “Gonzo the Great.” And frankly, this is the best way for watchmakers to utilize oddball inspirations: through killer color choices and abstract design details, rather than hitting you over the head with overt graphics and symbols.Because Gonzo aside, this is just a great, powerhouse watch. The Pro Pilot X’s skeletonized architecture looks fantastic doused in Gonzo-inspired tones. The 44-millimeter, titanium-cased model boasts 10 days of power reserve, meaning you won’t have to wind the watch for basically a week and a half after a full charge-up, which is hilariously powerful for a piece inspired by a fuzzy blue puppet. I also love the ProPilot X’s bracelet. It’s comfy, sleek, and looks like a suit upgrade from Halo. The Gonzo Edition is already available for sale on Oris’s website for a cool $10,500.“As a brand, we don’t take ourselves too seriously,” Geronimo says. “With Gonzo, we wanted a watch fitting of that spirit. We want to make people smile, and this is what these watches do.”That’s a commendable sentiment, but in my opinion, Geronimo is underselling what’s actually at play here: a skeletonized watch with a gradient color-shifting dial, 10 hours of power reserve, a heavy-duty case and bracelet. This is a brand using an unserious inspiration to make an extremely serious timepiece.