The Orange Mako

Following up on the recent announcement of new watches from Orient, I received a nice bunch of samples to review. And while I guess the more intriguing ones are new models – such as the Mako GMT and the 36mm no-date Bambino – those releases will also require a bit more attention.

So, why don't we kick things off with the simpler, yet no less handsome, Mako! Specifically - reference RA-AA0826Y and its lovely orange face. 

Mechanically, this is not a new watch – in fact, it is identical to the "Kamasu" reviewed on the blog more than seven years ago in almost everything except the dial. So what has changed?

Well, first of all, it seems Orient has completely abandoned the Kamasu name in favor of the good old Mako. That has, in fact, been going on for a while now. Makes sense – it's one of the brand's most familiar names, and for a watchmaker that spends way less on advertising and branding compared to the likes of Seiko and Citizen, there's little point coming up with new names. Actually, it's wise even for wealthy manufacturers, just think how many years, models, and generations Volkswagen's been using the name "Golf"…

The dial is mostly the same here too – the markers, hands and overall dial design were useful and legible when it first came out, and they still are.

There are subtle changes in the dial text: the word "automatic" is now larger, and wider than the logo. The term "water resist" at the bottom was replaced with "water resistant" – proper English- to better fill the empty space and achieve a slightly better balance or symmetry between the top and bottom halves of the dial.

And of course – the dial color itself. All new Mako references seem to be nicely colored; and this orange is no exception. It features the smooth, subtle sunburst that Orient seems to be very consistently good at producing. If you like a standout color on your watch, you can't go wrong with this one.

Overall, there nothing new here, just more of what's mostly a good thing. It's not perfect – the bracelet is still the weak link (pun intended) here, luckily it is the part that is easiest to replace. This one, like other Mako versions now in production, are still the same old trusty watches, not professional divers but workhorse beaters for daily wear.

And what about the GMT…? Hold your horses! That one's up for review next, so stay tuned!

The blog would like to thank Orient – Epson Europe for providing us with this orange Mako for review. 

New Orient Star 75th Anniversary Watches Released

Orient has just unveiled three new watches to celebrate the 75^th anniversary of its Orient Star brand. These are new versions of familiar product lines.

 

M45 F8 Moon Phase

First up is this lovely new dial variant of the brilliant M45 F8 Mechanical Moonphase Hand Winding, a model reviewed on the blog last year.

The new watch, reference RE-BW0008B, looks just as fantastic as the one reviewed, while leaning less into clean simplicity and more into elaborate intricacy. In the words of Orient, the new dial captures the quiet beauty of “the moon drifting through clouds,” inspired by moonlight breaking through a clear autumn sky. Its richly layered dial combines nanoparticle metal multilayering, dimensional printing, and a three-layer moon phase display with mother-of-pearl, creating remarkable depth and the impression of moonlight naturally emerging through the clouds.

Mechanically, it is the same as last year's moonphase release: at its heart is the in-house caliber F8A62, a hand-wound movement with a 70-hour power reserve. The 39.5 mm stainless-steel case is paired with a black cordovan leather strap, while the caseback bears the Orient Star 75th Anniversary inscription and an individual limited-edition serial number.

The watch will be limited to just 140 pieces worldwide.

 

Open Heart Pair

In addition, a pair of matching open-heart Orient Star watches was introduced: a women's Classic Semi-Skeleton, and a Modern Skeleton. Both feature a similar dial finish, which appears bluish in the images but which Orient describes as a green-gradient dial inspired by the changing colors of the aurora, transitioning from a lighter center to darker tones around the edge.

The Modern Skeleton combines this gradation with expanded openwork, a larger small-seconds display, and a new sandblasted finish, revealing more of the mechanical movement beneath the dial. The more compact Classic Semi Skeleton uses the same aurora-inspired palette, complemented by rose gold-colored accents around the openwork, crown, Roman numeral markers, and Orient Star logo. Both models also feature the serial number and the 75th-anniversary mark on their case backs.

The Modern Skeleton, reference RE-AV0140E, features the cut-out design presented earlier this year. Mechanically, it is the same, 41mm case housing the brand's automatic caliber F6F44. It will be limited to 1,600 pieces worldwide.

The Classic Semi-Skeleton, ref. RE-ND0024E, uses the old (but apparently still fitting) small cal. 55C22. This automatic movement features a 40-hour power reserve. This one is limited to just 800 pieces.

 

New Orient Mako GMT, Bambino 36mm No-Date, and Mako 42mm

Orient today unveiled its Autumn/Winter 2026 collection, led by an entirely new Mako GMT family, accompanied by a new no-date Bambino 36mm collection and four colorful additions to the Mako lineup.

All three collections are being released under Orient's 75th anniversary celebrations. Interestingly, while the company has traditionally referred to 1950 as the beginning of the brand, the Orient name itself first appeared in 1951, as discussed in our recent article about the first Orient watch. So from the branding perspective, 2026 is indeed the 75^th anniversary.

 

The First Mako GMT

The most important release in this collection is undoubtedly the new Mako GMT.

While Orient has produced GMT watches before, this is the first model to carry the Mako name while offering GMT functionality. It is also the first entirely new GMT platform introduced by Orient in many years, and debuts a new movement developed specifically for the purpose.

The new caliber, designated F6P22, is closely related to the familiar F6922 found in many current Mako models. Orient removed the day display, retained the date display, and added a fourth hand together with a 24-hour scale, creating a cleaner dial while introducing dual-time functionality.

Like the movement's predecessor, the F6P22 offers hacking, hand winding and a 40-hour power reserve.

The new movement operates as a caller GMT rather than a traveller GMT. The GMT hand cannot actually be adjusted, and instead uses the rotating 24 hour bezel to track a second time zone.

The watches are slightly bigger than the regular Mako, and measure 42.8mm in diameter, 49.5mm lug-to-lug and 13.4mm thick. Like the regular Mako the GMT offers 200 meters of water resistance and comes attached to a stainless steel bracelet.

Five versions are being introduced:

·         RA-BC0001B – Purple

·         RA-BC0002E – Black

·         RA-BC0003L – Green

·         RA-BC0004Y – Orange

·         RA-BC0005L – Gradient Blue (Limited Edition)

The orange version is perhaps the most striking of the regular production models, while the limited edition combines a deep gradient blue dial with a matching blue-and-grey GMT bezel.

 

A New No-Date Bambino 36mm

The second major release is one that many collectors might find particularly appealing, as it is the closest that the Bambino range has come to the most canonic definition of a pure dress watch.

Earlier this year Orient introduced a no-date Bambino in 38mm. Longtime readers may also remember the 36mm Bambino introduced back in 2019. The new collection combines those two ideas, resulting in the first no-date Bambino in the 36mm case size.

The watches use the familiar Bambino architecture, featuring a domed crystal, slim bezel and elegant proportions. The dial follows the popular V4 Bambino layout, with simple applied baton markers and dauphine-style hands, now presented without a date window.

The case measures 36.4mm in diameter, 42.2mm lug-to-lug and 12.3mm thick. Inside is the F6524 automatic movement with hand winding, hacking and a 40-hour power reserve.

The collection includes four references:

·         RA-BB0101S – White dial with gold-tone case

·         RA-BB0102E – Green dial

·         RA-BB0103S – White dial

·         RA-BB0104Y – Ivory dial

Among the four, the ivory dial may be the most interesting, paired with blue hands and a warm vintage-inspired tone that suits the Bambino particularly well.

 

New Colors for the Mako

Completing the collection are four new versions of the standard Mako.

Unlike the GMT models, these watches are primarily a refresh of an existing platform. They retain the familiar 41.8mm case, F6922 automatic movement, day-date display, 200-meter water resistance and overall specifications of recent Mako generations.

The new references are:

·         RA-AA0824L – Blue

·         RA-AA0825S – White

·         RA-AA0826Y – Orange

·         RA-AA0827V – Purple (Limited Edition)

 

Stay tuned, as I was able to receive samples of all new models, and detailed hands-on reviews will follow in the very near future!

 

Eastern Arabic Numerals on Orient Dials

In watch terminology, an “Arabic numeral dial” normally means a dial using familiar numbers such as 1, 2, 3, and 4, as opposed to Roman numerals or simple hour markers. However, this common description creates a certain irony: the numerals most watch collectors call Arabic are not necessarily the ones they would encounter on signs, documents, and clocks in much of the Arabic-speaking world.

The symbols ٠ ١ ٢ ٣ ٤ ٥ ٦ ٧ ٨ ٩ are generally known in English as Eastern Arabic numerals or Arabic-Indic numerals. Their familiar Western equivalents are 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. Both belong to the broader Hindu-Arabic numeral system, which originated in India and was developed and transmitted through the Islamic world before reaching Europe.

The term “Eastern” is important because the numerals are not used uniformly across every Arabic-speaking country. They remain common in the Arabian Peninsula and the eastern Arab world, while Western numerals are widely used in parts of North Africa and are also frequently seen alongside Eastern numerals elsewhere. There is also a related Persian form, in which some of the characters differ slightly. A watch described simply as having an “Arabic dial” may therefore require a closer look at exactly which numeral style it uses.

On a watch dial, Eastern Arabic numerals offer more than a change of language. Their rounded and flowing forms give a familiar watch design a noticeably different character. Depending on the typeface, they can appear highly traditional, almost calligraphic, or surprisingly modern. Even collectors who do not read Arabic can usually learn to recognize them quickly, since their position around the dial provides an immediate reference.

Such dials are often associated with watches made for the Middle Eastern market. Rolex is probably the best-known historical example. The company produced watches with Arabic-language day and date displays and Eastern Arabic hour numerals for prominent customers and regional markets decades ago, particularly within the Day-Date collection. Modern Eastern Arabic numeral Rolex models have helped renew international collector interest in the style, although the idea itself is far older than the current fashion surrounding them.

Part of their appeal comes from rarity. In many cases, an Eastern Arabic dial was offered only through particular distributors, in certain countries, or as part of a small regional edition. This can turn an otherwise familiar watch into a much less common variation. At the same time, the numerals should not be treated merely as an exotic design theme. For many buyers, they are simply the natural local way of displaying numbers.

All this information comes to mind following a recent batch of Eastern-Arabic versions of the Bambino, which popped up on Orient USA website (but not on the international / Japanese site). I can only assume these are also available on certain local distributors in the Middle East.

The watches released include reference RA-AC0035E with a green dial and golden markers and hands, ref. RA-AC0036L with a blue dial, RA-AC0037R with a red dial, RA-AC0038S with a white dial and gold-colored markers and hands, and reference RA-AC0039Y with an ivory dial.

Mechanically, they are identical to standard 40.5mm Bambinos and use the same F6724 movement. Hence, the date wheel still features standard "western" numbers, which is not surprising, although it would have been nice if the dates were also printed using Eastern Arabic digits.

Older appearances of Eastern Arabic numerals on Orient dials are quite rare – ignoring, of course, various cheap re-dialed watches you can find online. However, a number of Tristar models with Arabic dials do exist, and interestingly, those watches, which feature a day-of-week disc as well, were sold with the days written in Arabic.

Eastern Arabic numeral dials have never been a major part of Orient's catalog, making releases like these all the more interesting. Together with the earlier Arabic Tristars, they show that while uncommon, the style is by no means new to the brand. Hopefully, this won't be the last time Orient revisits it – perhaps next time even extending the treatment to the date and day displays for a truly complete Arabic dial.

 

Photos were taken from various current and old Orient publications and sale ads.