Orient's Triple and Double Movement Watches

Watches that contain two (or more) movements can turn out rather funky. And Orient, as a brand never shy of going funky, definitely had made a few attempts at producing such watches, with varying degrees of success.

 

The Mecha-Trenics

The beast that started the trend was the 2004 "Mecha-Trenics", and a beast it was! That was a 50mm-wide case, housing no less than three independent mechanical calibers "55", a fairly small movement primarily used for women's watches.

The implementation of the movements was rather curious, though that was probably mandated by the crowdedness of the dial. You had one movement driving the "1^st time zone", a dub-dial with a full set of hour, minute, and second hand. Another movement drove the "2^nd time zone" with the hour and minute hands; and the third one moved only an hour hand, representing a "3^rd zone". All three zones had their own date display though…

The "Tre" in the name indicated the trio of movements, by the way – it had nothing to do with (elec)tronics, as the watch was indeed purely mechanical.

Two models were produced, each a limited edition of 999 pieces: Reference WV0011NT had a black dial, while ref. WV0021NT had a white dial.

 

"Stylish and Smart" Dual

Throughout much of the 2010s, Orient pushed forward with their "Stylish and Smart" line, an eclectic collection of watches that featured a modern, mostly young and fun kind of styling that avoided conventional time-telling designs. It was there where in 2012 the company introduced its new "Dual" concept.

The Dual watches combined an automatic movement along with a quartz movement to show two time zones. The first two releases, ref. WV0011XC and WV0021XC, were constructed using rectangular cases, measuring 31mm across and 49.5mm long (fairly big for a lugless design). The automatic caliber presented time digitally, using rotating discs, at the top – and the quartz running normal hands in a lower sub-dial.

In 2013 Orient presented the "Dual II", this time in a round 43mm case. Four models were produced in different colors. It's fair to say that the Dual II was a much better design, and these are some pretty cool watches.

Also, note that Orient being Orient, they would not just settle for squeezing two movements and two dials into one reasonably sized case; they also added an internal rotating "calendar" bezel – the kind where you align the weekdays and dates at the beginning of a month to enjoy a daily calendar for the rest of the month.

 

"Moussy" Watches

No historical review of Orient oddball creations would be complete without an even more oddball creation coming in from leftfield, would it? enter Moussy.

Moussy is a Japanese women's fashion brand. Orient started cooperating with Moussy in 2013, when it launched a bunch of quartz watches – including some dual-movement releases.

One style of dual watches consisted of a couple of small cases lined up together on a strap. A few references in different color combinations were presented, and they actually seem to have been very nice and wearable items.

The other type of dual Moussy watches was the real deal: a 50mm satellite-dish of a case, providing plenty of room for a couple of quartz movements to show the time on fairly legible sub-dials; legible, if it weren't for the cartoon dial, that is.

And this, more or less, is it. Today Orient is not producing any new dual (or triple) movement watches.

Photos were taken from official Orient advertising, except the photo of the two mecha-trenics versions, taken from Watch Tanaka blog.