A Day at Yankee Stadium With the Oris Lou Gehrig Limited Edition

There's nothing quite like the crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd in a packed baseball stadium on a perfect early summer day. I'd be spending this one with a watch on my wrist honoring the Yankee who almost never missed one.

We arrived at Yankee Stadium in the early afternoon of June 2, which is celebrated annually as Lou Gehrig Day in Major League Baseball. We were greeted by representatives from the Yankees, handed wristbands and Yankees caps, and walked in through the halls of the ballpark. Even though the current stadium was built in 2009, you can still feel the history of the 123-year-old ball club resonating in its walls. The watch we were there for was the Oris Lou Gehrig Limited Edition, and the day opened with a press conference to introduce it.

Gehrig, nicknamed 'the Iron Horse', was one of the most legendary players in baseball history, playing 17 seasons for the New York Yankees. He set two nearly impossible to break records: 23 career grand slams, which stood for 74 years until it was broken in 2013 by fellow Yankee Alex Rodriguez, and 2,130 consecutive games played, which stood for 56 years until it was broken in 1995 by Cal Ripken Jr.

Sadly, many folks know Gehrig for the tragic illness that ended his career and, ultimately, his life. He was diagnosed in 1939 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, an incurable neuromuscular illness that became widely known in the U.S. as Lou Gehrig's disease. He had pulled himself from the Yankees' lineup that May, and his farewell address at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939, the speech in which he called himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth, is what fixed his name to the disease in the public memory.

Once it was in front of us, the references started to add up. The Oris Lou Gehrig Limited Edition watch that was released on Lou Gehrig Day is a beautiful expression based on the brand's Big Crown Pointer Date model, with lots of small details that nod to both Gehrig himself and the game of baseball. In an edition of 2,130 pieces to honor Gehrig's consecutive game streak, it has a 40mm stainless steel case, a brushed silver dial, black outer date ring, and a hint of blue on the pointer date indicator and on the number 4, which was Gehrig's uniform number and the first number to ever be retired in Major League Baseball.

The details don't stop at the dial. The watch comes with two straps: a brown leather strap that is double-stitched like a baseball glove, and a blue, white, and gray NATO strap, echoing the Yankees' uniform colors. The caseback of the watch is engraved with the limited edition number and name, and an image of Lou Gehrig giving his farewell speech.

Oris has a history of partnering with nonprofit organizations and causes that have meaning to them, and this limited edition is a great example, supporting global awareness of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). The brand will also contribute a portion of the proceeds to benefit the Lou and Eleanor Gehrig Family Foundation.

The Foundation is a private foundation that doesn't accept donations from external sources, but they "partner with trusted organizations such as Oris for special projects that support the foundation," said John Howell, President of the Lou and Eleanor Gehrig Family Foundation at the press conference. "We are delighted to partner with Oris. Their support means a great deal to families facing ALS and other public health challenges."

After the conference, Rolf Studer, CEO of Oris, presented Yankees Manager Aaron Boone with his personal watch. Oris had brought pieces for the rest of us to wear, and I strapped one on before we all headed down for a tour of the iconic corners of Yankee Stadium.

First up was Monument Park, where legendary figures from the team's history are showcased. There are tributes to Gehrig and other notable Yankees players and managers, and it was quite a treat to see it before the gates opened, when we had most of it to ourselves. Standing in front of Gehrig's monument, with that same blue number 4 reading back at me from the watch on my wrist, the detail Oris had chosen to single out stopped looking like a design flourish. His was the first number any team in baseball ever took out of circulation, and Oris had put it in the one spot you glance at a hundred times a day. I quickly found my uncle's favorite Yankee player, Thurman Munson, who also tragically died young, and snapped a couple of photos before we moved on to the Yankees Museum.

The museum itself is on the main level of the stadium, and has some remarkable tributes to the team's history, the most visually arresting of which is its centerpiece, the Ball Wall, which features statues of pitcher Don Larsen and catcher Yogi Berra recreating the final pitch of the 1956 World Series perfect game. The arc of the top row of the wall recreates the exact trajectory of the ball as it left Larsen's hand and landed in Berra's glove. There are 870 autographed baseballs displayed in the wall, representing approximately 45% of players, managers, coaches, and broadcasters from the baseball franchise's history, including ones signed by Gehrig, Munson, Mickey Mantle, and other legends of baseball. Somewhere in that wall was a ball Gehrig had signed; the watch carried him too, his farewell speech pressed into the caseback against my wrist.

In the museum, we were also treated to glimpses of other memorabilia, such as World Series rings and trophies, bats, shoes, gloves, uniforms, and other player memorabilia, and an impressive collection of baseball cards. The most striking and emotional permanent exhibition in the museum is Thurman Munson's locker. Munson was a popular player for the team in the 1970s, rising from Rookie of the Year in 1970 to team captain in 1976. He died in an aviation accident in 1979, and the heartbroken team retired his uniform, no. 15, and announced that his locker would never be reassigned. It stood unused in the clubhouse for 29 years, and was relocated, fully intact, to the museum when the new Yankee Stadium was completed in 2009. It contains game-worn artifacts including Munson's jersey, mitt, shin guards, and Yankees cap.

After our indoor adventure, we went down to field level to catch batting practice and warm-ups, dodging fly balls and enjoying the perfect weather. The watches came down with us, and the leather strap's double-stitching, the kind you'd find on a fielder's glove, suddenly looked right at home. The group was full of watch journalists, who have all seen what one might consider a ridiculous number of watches in our time, and we all agreed that not only was the watch a really lovely tribute to Gehrig, but that its design stands on its own. It's a great-looking watch, with nods to vintage design and a color combination that would look great on anyone's wrist, whether they're a baseball fan or not.

And if someone is a baseball fan, and particularly a Yankees fan, it has even greater meaning. "The Lou Gehrig Limited Edition is meaningful to me for several reasons," said V.J. Geronimo, CEO of the Americas at Oris. "First, as a lifelong Yankee fan from a family that originated in the Bronx, to be able to do something with the Yankees is extremely special," he continued. "More importantly, to be able to use the heritage of Oris to create a unique design that gives back to the Lou and Eleanor Gehrig Family Foundation is priceless."

We moved up to our seats on the suite level just before the game started, enjoying some traditional ballpark fare while watching the Yankees take the lead against Cleveland in the third inning and hold onto it for a while. There are 2,130 of these watches, one for every consecutive game Gehrig played, and the figure reads like trivia until you are sitting in his ballpark watching a single game stretch across three hours. Then you start doing the math on what playing every one of them, season after season without a day off, actually asks of a person. (I tried to refrain from making references to the movie Major League, in which Cleveland and the Yankees are big rivals, but I failed. There are too many good Bob Uecker quotes not to.)

Though the Yankees ultimately did not win the game, the watch came off my wrist meaning more than it had that morning. A tribute is easy to admire in a press release; it reads differently after a day spent in the ballpark where Gehrig earned his, and the fact that the piece gives back to the foundation in his name only adds to it.

Oris has donated a Lou Gehrig Limited Edition watch that is being auctioned to benefit ALS United Greater New York, Her ALS Story, I AM ALS and MAC Angels Foundation to provide comprehensive care, resources, and support to individuals and families impacted by ALS. These organizations are dedicated to improving the quality of life for those living with ALS while remaining steadfast in their commitment to advancing research toward effective treatments and, ultimately, a cure. Bidding closed on June 11, 2026, but donations are still being accepted at the bottom of the GiveSmart page here.