The Zodiac-Wheel Royal Orient

Exactly 3 years ago, I posted my review of the Polka-Dot Royal Orient, a beautiful rare timepiece, which was among Orient's finest products of the late 1950s. And now, somewhat surprisingly, comes along another member of that famed lineage – the Zodiac-Wheel Royal Orient.

As blog followers may have noticed, I do not tend to acquire multiple versions of what is, essentially, the same watch. There are just so many different models to choose from, why get a duplicate?

Well, that's the rationale, but to every rule there's an exception, and the whole idea of collecting old mechanical watches has little to do with logic anyway, so – here goes! I saw this lovely thing in excellent shape, and bought it.

Mechanically it is identical to that old dotted specimen. At its heart, a 19 jewel N-Type manual wind movement runs smoothly and – as far as I can judge – happily. It's a simple time-only movement where very little can go wrong, and indeed very little does.

On the outside, it uses the same gold-filled 36mm case, with the same lean, long lugs. The hands also appear to be identical to its sibling watch.

So, what's different?

The zodiac wheel is a pretty reasonable decoration for a watch dial. If you're searching for a set of 12 simple images to enhance a dial that already speaks in twelfths, look no further than the astrological signs. It might make more sense in a watch that actually includes a date and month complication, but to be honest that might be too much to ask for. Very few watches actually present a date-accurate zodiac.

The zodiac also seems to lend itself to designers in a fairly unrestricted manner: it seems you can start almost anywhere on the wheel (although I understand "Aries" is the more common starting point), and go different directions – historically, northern hemisphere wheels would go counter-clockwise, but since people got used to watches, you would see many diagrams where the signs are arranged clockwise.

I mean, look at the following image – the version that appears in the book is as legitimate as mine – apparently there were a few variations on the zodiac theme. Neither starts with Aries at the top; in fact, the one in the book starts with Capricorn, which kind of makes sense as that coincides with January, and continues clockwise. The wheel on my dial looks like it has Capricorn in the first position but mine actually goes counter-clockwise, and starts with Aquarius.

None of this matters, of course, unless you take astrology seriously (I don't, although for my grandma this was hard science). But it did force me to spend time on verifying the authenticity of the watch I purchased, making sure the dial was not tampered with in any way.

And the dial is absolutely fine! More than fine actually. The small details are lovely, and most of the decorations withstood the test of time very well.

Just like the other vintage Royal Orient, and like most old Orients, it's a sweet piece, ticking reliably and accurately, and still works great as a dress watch.