Orient's Direct-Read Watches

When one looks for unconventional watch designs, one usually need look no further than Orient. Historically, "Jump Hour" watches provided a cool alternative to the standard hour-hand, minute-hand setup – and Direct Read provided a simpler substitute to Jump Hour movements.

Before continuing, it might be worthwhile to clarify the distinction: while both types of display show the hours and minutes using rotating discs with digits printed on them, Jump Hour keeps the hour indication more or less immobile until the minute disc returns to zero and pushes the hour forward. With Direct Read, the hour wheel just keeps turning, in the same way as the hour hand would normally.

While a Jump Hour mechanism is easier to read, as the hour is steady, and more akin to digital displays, Direct Read watches are simpler to build, since they just use regular movements and replace hands with discs. Orient typically leans toward simpler movements, at least in non-Star models – so when looking to provide a "mechanical digital" design, sometime in the mid-2000s, it adopted the Direct Read approach.

Reading this display is, well, fairly direct and simple – though it requires some getting used to. In the picture above, for instance, the time is about 10:08:36. You can see the thin red horizontal line pointing between 5 and 10 on the inner circle; look more closely and it's just past the 8. Those are the minutes. The thicker red line you see is actually the second hand.

It's funny as this would be the time you'd normally see a watch in Orient catalogs – with the hands arranged in the "smiley" configuration. Of course it's quite meaningless when no hands are involved…

The date wheel is standard, appearing here as the outermost disc. The date is read as usual through the small window at the bottom.

During the roughly ten years of producing direct read watches, Orient made three main models, each having numerous versions differing mainly in colors and choice of strap/bracelet. All of them have been discontinued a few years ago.

The most familiar model, and the one that's easier to find online nowadays, is the lugless design also known as the "Orbit" (a nickname given to it by Orient USA I believe).

The Orbit's case was 35mm wide and 40mm long, and 12mm thick. Fairly modest dimensions that were given enhanced wrist presence by its 28mm lug width, fitted out of the box with a double-hole strap that did not taper too much.

Inside the Orbit was Orient's caliber 48743, a reliable and robust movement that had no problem turning those discs around. Cal. 487 variants are typically identified in Orient's references as "ER". When searching the web for this model, you could look for codes including "ERAM" or "ERAK", as well as "Orbit".

The same movement was placed in a more conventional case to produce the "Masquerade". It had considerably larger dimensions – 35.5mm width, 47mm lug to lug, and 13.5mm thickness. The strap was narrower than the Orbit's though, at 25mm, enabling a single-hole structure.

When searching the web for this model, you could look for codes including "ERAP" or "Masquerade". Note that some sellers incorrectly refer to all Direct Read models by this name, so you might find some Orbits that pop up when looking for the Masquerade.

Another important note (that is, if you care about these things…) concerns the movement. Apparently, at some point, this model was mistakenly advertised as utilizing Orient's 46S50 movement, and this mistake was repeatedly copied onto various articles and publications. That is not true – 46S50, recognizable by having "FH" in the reference, was a completely different, no-date, small seconds caliber, used solely in semi-skeleton watches.

Orient also produced a smaller version of the lugless model, a "mini-Orbit" if you will, designated as a women's watch. This model looked almost identical to the larger Orbit, having similar proportions and dial layout. It was, however, only 28mm wide and 31mm long.

This model had a lug width of only 20mm – narrow enough to allow for wearing it on a bracelet. The watch was indeed offered having both a steel bracelet and a leather strap, similar to its bigger sibling.

Orient fitted the watch with its caliber 557, a smaller movement typically reserved for ladies' watches (and which, despite its age, is still being used in some current models). Cal. 557 has the same 40 hour power reserve as the larger caliber 487, however its accuracy is not so impressive at +40 / -30 seconds per day, compared to the 487's +25/-15.

Caliber 557 is identified by the letter "NR", and this model's reference would typically include NRAK. When searching or shopping for an Orbit, make sure you're looking at the right model – so you don't end up ordering a watch that's too small, or too big.

Prices for pre-owned Orient direct-read models typically range between USD 100-250. Personally I think paying up to USD 200 would be sensible, for a watch in mint condition.

 

Photos in this post were taken from various old Orient publications and sale ads.

 

Orient Dipping Its Toes into the Customization Game

Orient announces a new line of "iO" watches today, but more than just a bunch of new models, this a new step for Orient – into the space of watch customization, which is growing in popularity.

From tiny micro-brands to the mighty Rolex, it seems like everyone is looking to offer watch buyers the experience of customization. A few manufacturers really present a choice of components, such as different bezel inserts, markers, hands, and so on; most, and particularly larger watch brands, simply let you combine a few dial colors, band styles, and maybe decorations like adding some diamonds etc. This limited form of customization seems to satisfy most buyers – and it's the path Orient has taken.

This also comes as a logical next step following Orient's recent launch of its online store. While currently limited to local buyers in Japan, it wouldn't be a huge surprise if the store would soon open to more markets along with more customization options. There are plenty of regions in the world where Orient is not present, or is represented by distributors who only offer a limited selection of models. Allowing buyers in such locations to shop online, directly from the brand instead of unofficial shops or private sellers on eBay, would definitely be a wise business move.

Anyway, let's look at the new watches now. The iO line was originally launched as a range of fashion watches for women, but is now being re-positioned by Orient as a unisex collection. All new iO watches are solar (light-powered) quartz movements, and the models announced today all feature sapphire crystal.

The new collection includes two chronographs and four time-and-date models – and nine different leather straps. The chronographs are 38mm wide while the non-chronos are 36mm; however, all have the same 18mm lug width, so all straps fit all watches.

It's interesting to see Orient chose very calm and neutral colors for the watch dials, and a choice of both neutral and brighter shades for the straps. On one hand, this minimizes color clashes, allowing most of the available combinations to be viable choices; on the other hand, it does not provide much room for really "crazy" combos, which is something I do like to see in custom watch building – particularly when looking at what's essentially a fashion watch.

The new iO watches are around USD 100 plus tax for just the case, plus around USD 20 per strap. If you're not in Japan, you'll probably also need to pay for international shipping and service fees to one of the numerous services offering global delivery of JDM items.

 

Orient's L-Type Movement

Orient's started manufacturing the L-Type movement in 1961, as a replacement to the N-Type. It was engineered to enable lower production costs, and easier regulation and maintenance, while offering more flexibility in adding complications and components.

While the N-Type shaved off 0.60 mm from the thickness of the T-Type movement that preceded it, the L-Type base (no-date) caliber was a further 0.55mm thinner. At 3.65mm it allowed Orient to produce thinner watches, and add more layers, such as a week-day disc, or even a battery.

Calibers from the L-Type family were produced in a great variety of price levels, with jewel counts starting at 19 and going up to 30 in "normal" watches (and lots more in the Grand Prix models).

The L-Type was celebrated by being introduced along with a new family of quality watches, the Olympia. All Olympia models that followed used some variation of the L movement or other. Yet, this caliber was also implemented in a number of other models.

The first version of the new movement was simply, caliber L. A hand-winding, time only movement, that powered the new Olympia watch – at that stage still an elegant yet simple dress watch, very similar to N-Type driven models that preceded it.

Note that 19 jewel version at that time generally did not include the latest shock protection mechanisms, these were added to higher jewel-count models.

In 1962, Orient presented the Olympia Calendar, and the new caliber LC. "C" would henceforth indicate the calendar function, or date disc, in L-Type movements.

Caliber LC would become Orient's most widely used movement of the 1960s. It was initially used in both dressy and sportier models, like the Olympia Calendar Swimmer, and later on in Orient's first proper dive watch, the 1964 Olympia Calendar Diver. In also featured in various other special models, like the triangular case, or the lovely trapezoid at the top of this post.

A non-Olympia model was also introduced – the "Freshman", which replaced the previous "Youth" model targeting younger clients. It carried the simpler, 19 jewel version of the LC.

In 1963, Caliber LCY was first to include a week-day disc on top of the date, paving the way to Orient's first day-date model – the Olympia Orient Weekly. Alongside it Orient also introduced the Freshman Weekly – the only Orient that had just the week-day window, but not the date.

The LCY was also presented in the form of a Swimmer model, as well as a rectangular version.

Innovation did not cease in 1964, when the Orient Flash went on sale. This model took advantage of the relative thinness of the base L caliber, to create a watch containing a battery and LED lights that enable night-time visibility and basically, just make for a very cool looking piece of gear.

However Orient’s development of the Type-L movements did not stop at complications and gadgetry. Alongside the aforementioned variants, Orient was working on more important stuff – automatic winding.

Orient introduced its first automatic movement in 1961, as the “Super Auto”. The following year, as it became clear that the L-Type was the way to go, Orient simply borrowed the Super Auto’s efficient self-winding mechanism, and added it on top of the new LC movement to create the caliber LCW – with “W” obviously representing Winding.

You can read more about the LCW’s development into a high-end movement in my blog post about the Grand Prix series. There, you will also be able to read about the LCYW caliber – clearly, a self-winding, day-date movement – which was reserved exclusively for the Grand Prix.

Towards the late 1960s Orient was already developing and manufacturing a new generation of movements. In 1970, production of the L-Type calibers ceased.

 

Pictures of the L-Type movements that appear on this post were taken from the 1999 Orient Watch Catalog book.

 

Orients with Rectangular Cases

I posted some stories before about Orients with particular case shapes: triangular, cushion, and barrel cases. Now how about rectangles? They're angular and sharp, not soft like cushions, and harder to swallow than round watches (there's a reason why no one's making square pills!). Love 'em or hate 'em, square-cased Orients exist. Let's look at a few examples.

 

The Good Old Days

And by "good old days" I mean, the 1960s. Round watches were the more popular option back then, just like nowadays, but Orient did produce a few rectangular models.

In the early-to-mid 60s, it was the Olympia model that ruled the Orient line-up. Orient produced a bunch of square Olympia Calendar models, as well as Olympia weekly versions (which included the day wheel in addition to the date).

A few years later the "AAA Deluxe" joined the party. AAA's were actually made in a broad variety of shapes, and naturally, a rectangular case was introduced as well.

If you are looking to buy any of these vintage models, keep in mind they were quite petite: the Olympia cases were around 30mm, and early Deluxe models around 29mm; later models, like the one with the black dial above, were around 32mm. Narrow rectangular cases in modern watches work when lug-to-lug is longer, 40mm or more, but these older models were not that long.

 

Quartz

In the 1980s quartz became dominant in Orient's product range, and among those quartz watches it seemed rounded cases were almost falling out of fashion. Many had tonneau cases, some almost square, and some – unashamedly rectangles.

In particular, it's worth noting the EQ line of quartz models. There were some pretty cool designs there, including this very fancy-looking piece. Do note, though, it too is a small watch, and while back then it was designated as a unisex model, today it would be clearly seen as a women's watch at 26mm.

Later, more modern models with larger cases joined – like the nice chronograph at the top of this post.

 

Return of The Machines

Toward the late 1990s, the automatic movement took back its position as the centerpiece in Orient's line of products. Over the next two decades, numerous designs were introduced that featured rectangular cases. Such were (shown below, from left to right) the "Galant", the "Noble", and the "Producer".

The versions featured above are only a few examples – each of these models was available in a number of dial colors, strap options, etc. They were not small watches, with the common case size around 36mm wide and 45mm long – which, for a bulky square shape, wears pretty large.

More recently, however, rectangular cases have almost completely disappeared from Orient's catalog – along with cushion cases and most non-round designs. The only two square cases now listed on Orient's global website are a couple of Multi-Year Calendars.

 

Pictures that appear in this post were taken from old catalogs and sale ads.