Orient Place

Orient Place

Sunday 5 January 2020

How It Started


A new year, in fact a new decade has just begun. Outside it's raining cats and dogs (maybe even cows, by the looks of it). This gets me in the mood for reminiscing, how it all started… my interest in Orient watches, that is.



Collecting watches is usually a hobby one picks up as a grown up, when fascination with mechanics (or history, or design, whatever it is that drives one into watches) is met with sufficient income. For me this hobby did not start with Orients… I must have had at least a dozen other watches before getting my first Orient, a vintage Chrono-ace.



It was actually much later that my renewed interest in the brand brought up distant childhood memories of my first real watch, even before the ubiquitous Casio calculator… yep, that was an Orient, given to me by my dad when I was around 10 years old or a little later – and if memory serves me right, it was his watch that he gave me once my wrist was large enough to accept.

Large wrist or not, it was a massive piece for a kid. I remember the heft of its steel case very well. While watches were quite small back then, compared to today's case sizes, to me it seemed big enough.

One other thing I remember well, is the lume. The thing had some serious lume on it. I'd stay up well after lights-out just to watch that Orient shine in the dark in blue and green (markers and hands were different shades). That image, in fact, must have burned deep into my mind, as it kept coming in dreams years after. Yes, it's true: I'd dream of watches. Weird, wonderful complicated ones with plenty of buttons and functions.

So it came to be that memories of my old Orient crossed paths with this new hobby. I like many other watch brands of course, but keep a special place for Orient.

And now, that it's not just a new year that is starting, but it's actually Orient's 70th anniversary, I wonder: what new models will 2020 bring? I guess we'll have to wait and see! Stick around and keep following the blog, it will surely be interesting!

8 comments:

  1. Orient is less appreciated compared to Seiko but it's quality is undoubtly good

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  2. I am an orient star fan boy! Aside from its unique dial designs, it really feels comfortable on my wrist...dont know why but seiko just didnt really speak to me...

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    1. Seiko has its share of great watches... But I really feel that Orient have a more focused, better sorted collection. Less "what were they thinking" models, less versions and reiterations of the exact same design. And less quality glitches. So it's definitely easier to like Orient as an entire brand and not just specific models.

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    2. definitely in agreement with you....my friends call me a watch snob as i cater to orient star too much....hahaha....

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  3. Btw i have a gold orient star with blue dial (WZ0341PF), its the only orient star that comes in gold and i had to just get it...please correct me if i am wrong about it...i saw a few orient in gold but not orient star.

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    1. Gold was rare when that PF came out but there have been quite a few since. A few that come to mind are current OS classic and skeleton, retrograde, and Somes model, all of which had a golden version.

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    2. Really; including the case and the bracelet???

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    3. They're all on leather as far as I recall. I'm talking gold PVD of course, not solid. So you might be right that the PF is the only one on a gold bracelet! Needs further research...

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