More Unusual Royal Orients!

Exactly one year ago, I dedicated a blog post to some unusual Royal Orients from the 1950s, in praise of their distinct (and sometimes truly outlandish) designs. Since then, I came across more special Royal Orients of the same era that appear worthy of posting here – all of which are from recent sale ads! Let's take a look…

This model should be familiar to those of you who watched closely the photo at the top of last year's blog post. It is similar in concept to my polka-dot Royal Orient, having that uniquely textured dial – and here, attached to the original matching leather strap. I find this combination absolutely wonderful.

What is even more amazing, is this – a third design from the same family of dial and strap combinations that did not appear in the Orient Catalog Book!

Again, it features the unusually organic dial texture. What is more surprising, I actually found two samples of this design – and as you can see in the comparison below, the patterns are not identical! No two watches are the same, adding to the rarity and prestige of this piece.

A little more conservative in their use of materials, but certainly quite uncommon in their dial design, are these two versions. Definitely not intended for people who like a clean dial… still, quite nice aren't they.

If you're looking for something cleaner, here are two nice examples. The top one is gold-filled, like most Royal Orient at the time. I like the way the gold markers and outer ring complement each other – the whole thing really looks like proper jewelry.

The watch below is similarly clean but in steel (or perhaps silver, by the looks of it). The concept is the same, the dial even more simple at first sight, but again it's that textured outer ring that makes the thing look special, and far from plain.

Looking for a Royal Orient that's clean but still, quite different from the rest of the crop? Well, look no further than this beauty!

I actually found two variants of this lugless design, one having the usual stick markers, but the one I liked most has these lovely Arabic number fonts (that remind me in particular of the Glashütte Sixties watches). Note that this is a slightly smaller watch, measuring 34mm in diameter, compared to 35mm of most other Royal Orients featured here.

I'll wrap up this lot of Royals with the nice little couple below… a rare bunch having a numeral at 12 instead of the stick markers. However, note that one has the Arabic number while the other has the Roman XII.

 

Pictures that appear on this post were taken from Yokohama's "Fire Kids" online shop, and various other sale ads.

 

Orient's Caliber 46

Orient's 46 family of automatic movements is perhaps the best-documented piece of this brand's history. This probably owes to both the importance of the 46, and to its extremely long life spanning all the way from 1971 until… well, pretty much today, actually!

So while there's not a lot I can write about factually that hasn't already been written and posted before by watch historians, this blog cannot be complete without offering the story of cal. 46, with some added personal perspective.

Origin

Throughout the first two decades of its existence, Orient used numerous mechanical movements. We've covered some of those on the blog, like the T-Type, N-Type, and L-Type. At some point, management must have realized that adopting one architecture and sticking with it, would be more profitable and allow them longer-term planning.

So, Orient turned to the Seiko, their older, bigger neighboring watchmaker, to source some know-how and designs. It has been said that Seiko at the time believed their future lies in the newly introduced quartz movement, and so they figured making a little extra money off of an aging technology made sense.

Orient happily licensed Seiko's latest movement, caliber 7006 (Seiko mechanical movement engineers apparently kept working arduously despite any mocking grins from fellow quartz people!). They added Seiko's old and proven Magic Level winding system and, hey presto, caliber 46 was born.

 

Iterations

During its five decades of production, the movement went through numerous updates, and spawned many variations. These variations offered different dial layouts, additional "complications", and occasional changes to the main plate and bridges, required to accommodate the various new parts.

Some of the functions presented with cal. 46 versions included Power Reserve indicators, World Time indication, 24-hour hands and AM/PM indicators, and more. Some versions included the day, the date, both – or none.

The top-level versions, used in Orient Star Royal and Royal Orient, such as the 46L, 46M, and 46T, were equipped with hand-winding and second-hand hacking. These were also regulated to a higher accuracy of +10/-5 seconds per day, compared to the usual +25/-15 of the regular caliber 46.

The following table contains the different versions of caliber 46.

 

Key Models

It's impossible to list all the significant watches released by Orient with caliber 46 inside. But here are a few highlights…

Orient HiAce, or HA, was one of earliest product lines using caliber 46 (as well as the similar spec cal. 48). Many versions of Orient HA were produced between the early to mid-1970s, offering a great variety of designs.

Another line of watches that's been around since the early 1970s is the SK (Sea King or Super King, depends on who you ask). This was the 46-based heir to Orient's earlier divers (World Diver and King Diver).

The ever so popular Orient "President" or "Day Date" Rolex homage was also a member of the family – specifically the 46E variant, with its full-weekday display.

In 2004 Orient launched its highly successful line of divers, with the release of the Mako and Ray. Both used caliber 46943.

In 2011, Orient paid tribute to its historic movement with the release of the 469 40^th anniversary model. Two references were produced in limited numbers – one in stainless steel, and the other black coated.

And there were, of course many other significant releases. Like the EW00 series running Orient's first Power Reserve movement, cal. 46F; the first generation M-Force with its cal. 46G (and then, later generation); and so on, and so forth. Countless variations, in a line running more than forty years, an ongoing ode to a movement that might not have had the glory of Japan's foremost watches like Grand Seiko or Citizen Leopard, but made the Orient brand a staple of robust reliability.

 

Modern Reincarnations

Like all good things, the 46 lineage too had to come to an end. Perhaps, as no more letters were left in the alphabet (though they only reached the letter "Y" – there was no 46Z)… but more seriously, it was a case of an aging architecture that led to inefficient manufacturing.

In 2012, Orient began work on a new generation of movements, the 46-F6 (or "F6" for short). As the name hints, there was and still is much of the 46 heritage in the new movement. The F6, finally put to production in 2014, utilized the same barrel, third wheel, escape wheel, pallet fork, and balance wheel as the 46. However, Orient engineers produced a new modular "envelope" of plates and bridges that were designed to accommodate the different requirements of various complications without changes, resulting in more economical manufacturing.

Further updates to the movement led to the introduction of the 46-F7 in 2017 (with improved accuracy and power reserve, and even sharper decoration techniques), and the 46-F8 which finally saw the replacement of the aging cal. 46 steel balance wheel with silicon.

 

The top photo and table are copyright of the blog. The table includes info from of WatchManDan's list of Modern Orient Movements. Other photos in this post were taken from various sale ads.

 

Orient Fineness, Hands-On

I've discussed the history of Orient's "Fineness" watches before. As is often the case, getting my hands on a decent sample of this model was just a matter of time. Well, here it is!

The watch at hand is of the second iteration of the Fineness – that is, the 1968 version featuring the rounded case and a cyclops over the day and date.

The case is entirely polished, and as this particular sample is in a very fine condition, the sharpness and glitter of the stainless steel has been well preserved. It has a properly elegant look that goes well with the thinness of the case, and I think works better as a dress watch than the first iteration with its elaborately decorated cushion case.

The lugs are very short and do not extend beyond the edge of the case, so essentially it is 36 by 36 mm, without the crown. The watch is 8.5mm thick from case back to the top of the crystal, not counting the cyclops. It is probably the thinnest watch in my collection, Orients and all.

On the wrist this translates, not surprisingly, to a very comfortable wearing experience. It's summertime now, so it's the lightness of the Fineness that is immediately appreciated. Was it winter, I'd probably be talking about how easy it is to fit under cuffs.

The dial layout here is simple, yet it holds certain unique elements that add character to the Fineness.

The combined day-date display is an uncommon sight. The date and (Kanji) day of the week are nicely enlarged by the effective cyclops. I feel the cyclops also slightly softens the date, which is the darkest element on the dial, helping it match the overall silvery appearance of the watch face better.

The hour and minute hands are quite uniquely shaped on this version of Fineness. Possibly, Orient wanted to make up for the simpler case, compared to the earlier and later versions. Both hands get narrower just before their pointed ends, then go wider again. It's a very elegant design that also helps express the slimness of the watch.

Another singular element here is the stamped "F" logo. While it clearly represents Fineness, it does not appear on any of the other versions of the watch. Note how the stem (to use a typographic term) of the letter F matches the profile of the hour and minute hands.

Presumably this is, again, a way of adding flavor to the simple round case. And it works – the logo combines with the cursive writing of "Orient Fineness" to add a subtle touch of luxury.

One annoyance here is the crown. Setting the time is fairly slow – it's not one of those mechanical movements where a minor turn of the crown moves the hour quickly – and the small crown means more effort is needed to turn it. The caliber 3900 lets you change the day by moving back and forth across midnight, but changing the date requires moving the full 24 hours forward, a rather tedious affair.

Adding the quickset button on the caliber 3991 of the last version must have been of great relief to owners… I'd have loved to have it here! But that final iteration of Fineness is quite impossible to find.

Anyway, I'm quite happy with the watch I got! It's elegant, comfortable, and very special. This version of Fineness is not too difficult to find online, and prices are more than reasonable, generally going at around 300 USD. A worthy vintage dress piece by all means.

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.