Holding Out for a Hero. IWC’s Time Well Shared & Oris’ Local Heroes campaigns are the need of the hour
There is really no need for us to bum out anyone on this sunny morning in Sydney, Australia. People are already saddened with the horrific global stats of COVID-19’s spread. Let’s just leave it at the fact that we are living in strange times.
Now, let’s look at something positive
As if in an attempt to answer the question in Bonnie Tyler’s immortal lyrics “Where’s the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds,” a part of the luxury watchmaking industry is doing their bit with campaigns that are the need of the hour.
In this article we are simply giving a thumps up and a shout out to the members of the luxury watch industry that are showing their support to fight the COVID-19 crisis.
Here’s a look at two separate campaigns by two different brands.
IWC Schaffhausen
The Swiss brand recently announced its “Time Well Shared” initiative. In early April we talked about how the watchmaking world had elapsed into a pit of doom and beaming a ray of positivity was IWC with its “Time Well Shared” initiative .
Now as part of this campaign IWC has introduced a new volunteering program.
They are promoting a personal volunteering program for their employees who in their own free time, and on an individual and voluntary basis, can offer online tutoring support for schoolchildren in subjects such as mathematics or foreign languages.
A nice initiative, it’s been established with the goal to support young people and their parents who are studying at home.
The free online tuition service will be facilitated by Good Tutors Finder, an international Tutoring Services company.
“As a mother, I know how challenging the current situation can be. Therefore, we want to encourage our employees to offer online tutoring support in their own free time. With this personal, voluntary commitment, we want to reinforce our promise to contribute to society, and help to ensure that no child is left behind and the burden on parents is reduced.”
Franziska Gsell, CMO IWC Schaffhausen
Photocredit @Studio Willen (David Willen_Tania Willen)
In addition to this, IWC will also be organising: online lectures, speeches and webinars that IWC will publish on digital channels during the following weeks along with contributions from IWC brand ambassadors like Tom Brady, Fabian Cancellara, David Coulthard and Maro Engel and partners such as Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1, Tottenham Hotspur, Laureus Sport for Good, Antoine de Saint Exupéry Youth Foundation, Solaris Yachts and Orlebar Brown.
To find out more about this, head to their website here.
Oris
Isn’t there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Oris is on a mission to thank the world’s ‘Local Heroes’, and justifiably so. The brand is inviting its online community to nominate the men and women fighting the pandemic at the front line and pledges to gift them 50 watches.
As the community & emergency workers have been doing an inspiring job globally, the brand believes that a crisis has a way of bringing out the best in people.
Oris recently began posting Instagram Stories using their Oris Bear which is a symbol of warmth, joy and hope in an attempt to help unite everybody and to make people smile.
According to Oris: “Local Heroes like never before. Doctors, nurses, carers, teachers, bus drivers, sales clerks, food producers, mothers, fathers… So many people are going the extra mile, sometimes even risking their lives to treat and care for the sick and the dying. We wanted to say thank you, so we invited the Oris community to nominate their Local Heroes. We asked people to post a picture of their hero and their story, tagging #InThisTogether, @Orisbear and @Oris. We said we’d give 10 of them an Oris watch. Within 48 hours, we’d had more than 400 nominations from all over the world. Here in Hölstein, we’ve been deeply moved by the astonishing example of these courageous individuals.”
Empowered by the encouraging support, the brand has decided to run Local Heroes every week while the fight continues (with a total of 50 Oris watches).
For those of you who would like to help tell the Oris Local Heroes story, you can send it to: [email protected] or post it on Instagram tagging #InThisTogether @Orisbear @Oris.
To find out more about this head to their website here.
While we wait and watch on how things turn out globally, here’s the opening lyrics to Bonnie Tyler’s Holding Out for a Hero song. Love and peace from our side.
Where’s the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?
Isn’t there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Late at night I toss and I turn
And I dream of what I need
I need a hero
I’m holding out for a hero ’til the morning light
He’s gotta be sure
And it’s gotta be soon
And he’s gotta be larger than life!
Larger than life…
