Orient Place

Orient Place

Thursday 29 October 2020

Orient Watches and "Town and Country"

Have you ever come across a watch labeled "Town and Country" where the ad also said "Orient"? Or wondered why that watch's reference looks suspiciously like an Orient's (but with "WS" at the beginning instead of "WV"…)? Well, here below are some answers.

"Town and Country" is a Hawaiian surf brand, a surfboard manufacturer at its core since the early 1970s, which evolved into a lifestyle brand selling a wide range of clothes and accessories. They are known for their "Yin and Yang" logo.

Since the mid 1980s, and as late as around 2014-15 (but not at the moment), Orient has been producing T&C branded watches. Let's take a look at some examples.


This is one of the more special T&C models, in that it's one of very few that were automatic. Released soon after Orient introduced its first modern movement with a power-reserve indicator in 1996. Two variants were produced – one that had the orange dial as pictured, and one having a blue dial. Hard to find and not 100% Orient is it, but still a true collectors' item!

During the 1990s and 2000s, Orient produced numerous chronograph models for T&C. While the information on the earlier models is scarce, it looks like the ones with horizontal layout (sub-dials at 3, 6 and 9) are the older ones offering 1/10th second timing. The ones with vertical layout are newer, and offer 1/20th second accuracy.

The stream of T&C releases continued throughout the 2000s and 2010s, with mostly simple inexpensive quartz watches – analog, as well as digital. Here are some more examples…

A 2010 ad for "Town and Country Street Mix" models, probably among the more serious-looking T&C branded watches:

The following ad from 2012 shows "Town and Country Play" models. Here, as in most other T&C models, the designs used the characteristically fun and cheerful color schemes one would expect from a surf brand.

Another line of models from 2012 was "Town and Country Swim" models, offering 10 bar water resistance…

And here are a few more "Play" models from 2014.


So… no conclusion here really, other than these are real Orients, and if you're into collecting fun, cheap watches but prefer to know they've come from a respectable watchmaker – you can do worse than getting one of these Orient T&Cs.


Watch photos taken from Orient official catalogs and press releases, except the photos of the power-reserve model and the chronographs, obtained from old sale ads.

9 comments:

  1. So, If I have one of those, is it really worthless?

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    1. The quartz ones are mostly inexpensive - but definitely not worthless! They should be reliable and reasonably well made watches, and some of them look really nice. And of course if you got one of the rare automatics, these are quite valuable.

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    2. saya mempunyai 1 jam t&c surf designs dail biru laut mempunyai moonphase tide range high low..adakah dia bernilai?????

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    3. That's a quartz models and would not sell at a high price. I'd keep it!

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  2. still trying to date and get info on my watch - of many years ago.. not sure how to upload a photo here.. i cannot find anything online even close - and the people at t&c surf - def no help - and i guess asking the big guy was too much bother..
    so rotating bezel w every 10 #'s, yin-yang small ctr face blue and a digital window lower center - tach.. any help

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    Replies
    1. Hi, you're welcome to message me with a photo via the blog's Facebook page, perhaps I can help!

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  3. Tenho um t&c com o mostrador laranja como na foto acima, mandei para restaurar, mas até então não tinha conhecimento do achado, um amigo que sabe que tenho exemplares diferenciados tinha essa peça abandonada em uma gaveta e resolveu me presentear !

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  4. Fun fact: The orange T&C watch, was the very first model equipped with Orient's power reserve indicator.

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