Orient Place Blog's 6th Anniversary

So, we pulled through and made it to another anniversary – the blog's sixth! And as I like to do on this annual event, it's high time for some stats and thoughts.

Let's start with the stats, shall we?

The blog website itself, has had more than 182,000 views in the past twelve months – an increase of about 29%, almost twice last year's growth in percents (and much more, in absolute numbers)! Pretty impressive, isn't it. Looks like people's interest in Orient is still growing – or that more of them have discovered this blog. Or both.

Thirty two (32) stories were posted on the blog during this time, about the same volume as in previous years. This includes five reviews of new or older modern models, a couple of vintage model reviews, three articles related to Orient's old calibers, nine new watch announcements (most covering more than a single new model), and the rest discussing various other topics.

The most popular stories during this time were our coverage of the release of New Diver and Classic Models From Orient (basically Mako versions and Bambino with sub-dials), Orient Mako 40mm Hands-On Review, and Orient's June Releases: New Bambino V4 and Divers (that also covered the release of the Mako 40).

Together with Comparing the Mako 40 to Citizen's Promaster, articles about the 40mm Mako received more than 9,000 views from direct links – that is, excluding viewers who read those stories when they were fresh at the top of the blog page – definitely making this watch the most interesting new release of the past year. This is despite the odd issue with the minute markers in the early production batches, which has since been fixed.

In Social media, too, the Mako 40 seemed to get most of the attention. The top two most liked photos posted on my Instagram account (which is largely, but not solely, blog-related) were of this piece.

The other three, which completed the top five popular IG posts, actually had little in common. They showed a bunch of Orients against a Rolex catalog, the lovely Orient Star ref. WZ0221ER, and an AI-generated mock-up of some souped-up watches.

Now, some may say that if a fairly conventionally designed diver is the most exciting thing that came from Orient during the last 12 months, they'd be disappointed. I mean, obviously we've seen really lovely new models announced, but they are all at the highest price point of the brand, well above what 99% of Orient customers are looking for.

To be fair, I think most of what fans of the brand would put on their wish list would be high-end too – whether it's a new saturation diver, a new GMT, or anything more innovative than what the basic F6 movements currently provide. Plus, it seems that with its recent enhancement of the range of smaller models (not just the Mako but also Bambino variations), Orient was really listening to its customers.

If we look at last week's Watches & Wonders event in Switzerland, we'd see that this was actually the same trend for almost all other brands – Swiss and others: very few novelties in the accessible range, with innovation mostly focused on the very high end of each brand.

So, no reason to be disappointed really. Let's just hope the brand keeps its VFM and ensures quality is in line with the recent price updates (in truth, I've seen some watch brands do the exact opposite), and maybe come next year's anniversary, there will be more cool stuff to look back on!

Until then, thanks again to all blog followers, here and on the various social media channels, keep following, commenting, and providing feedback!