Orient's June Releases: New Bambino V4 and Divers

Orient is presenting a bunch of new watches today – a new "diver design" model, and some new color options for the trusty old Bambino V4, which is the 42mm model. In other words – a smaller diver, and a bigger (compared to recent Bambino releases) dress watch. Orient is covering all bases.

New Diver Design

The big news is the small diver. While modern Orient dive watches were 42mm (Mako / Kamasu) or larger (Kanno) this one is a 40mm case – 39.9 if you insist. With this, Orient are adjusting to the changing market trends, as more consumers are now looking for smaller watches.

The new model ditches the day-date display of its predecessors in favor of a date-only window. This is obviously a design choice derived from the smaller diameter, but it also makes the dial cleaner, and presumably many owners will be happy with this choice.

Another differentiator here is the raw steel bezel – no colored inserts here. This brings the watch closer in appearance to the Orient Star 1964 divers, offering a look that both resembles vintage divers, and seems more tool-watch-like. That's two things we (and presumably, many buyers) like.

The hands are unlike recent Mako/Kamasu versions, perhaps also trying to look a bit more like the Orient Star Diver, or the M-Force. A bit less stylish than previous diver-design Orients, but cleaner and probably more legible. In fact the entire dial seems to be geared toward legibility and clarity.

Orient offers five references that should satisfy most buyers, having both classic (or "serious") and trendy colored dials:

·         RA-AC0Q01B – black dial and steel bracelet.

·         RA-AC0Q02L – navy blue dial and steel bracelet.

·         RA-AC0Q03S – white dial and steel bracelet.

·         RA-AC0Q05P – salmon dial and brown leather strap. Yes Orient call this color "apricot" but come on, we all know what the market wants!

·         RA-AC0Q07V – Lilac (you can just call it purple, it's the trendiest color of 2023) dial and grey leather strap.

The new watch makes use of the familiar caliber F6722, with 40 hours of power reserve. Lug to lug length is 46.5mm, thickness is 12.8mm, and lug width is 20mm. The front crystal is sapphire, the crown is screw-down, and water resistance is 20 bar (200m).

Bottom line – a good looking watch that hits all the current nails on their heads. No prices announced yet, but assuming Orient's usual decent pricing strategy these should be the brand's next big hit.

New Bambino V4

The smaller news are the bigger watch, which is the Bambino V4. This version was reviewed on the blog before, and while we generally accept the notion that this watch works best in smaller diameters, 42mm is still a viable option favored by people of larger wrists, and retains most of the technical advantages and visual attraction of the Bambino.

Four new references are presented by Orient:

·         RA-AC0P01E – light green dial (looks like olive in photos) and synthetic leather strap.

·         RA-AC0P02L – navy blue dial, and grey leather strap.

·         RA-AC0P03L – "sky blue" dial and grey leather strap.

·         RA-AC0P04Y – rose gold color plated case, with bronze color dial and synthetic leather strap.

All the new references look handsome, the straps that accompany them seem to made with plenty of attention to details, so this announcement – while not being very dramatic – is definitely positive.