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 Orient Black Automatic Dive Watch By: Orient Average Rating: 4.0 Total Reviews: 12 More Information Super Diver Watch  On: 2008-05-31Orient is made in Japan to the highest standards and quality workmanship. This is a great diving watch and is resistant to 200m.. I have no idea that they can sell such a superlative watch at such a low price. This is an automatic so it is nice that you do not have to worry about batteries. Maintenance is at every 5 or 6 years and at the cost of the watch, that should be no big deal. I got the rubber band because it is really confortable and you dont need to worry about links. Great looking, well made, great craftsmanship...I dont see how you can go wrong. By the way it is very accurate. Nice look, poor band  On: 2008-05-25I liked the general look of this watch. Nevertheless the stainless steal band is very poor. Also the watch tends to delay a few seconds per day, resulting in an inexact timing. It is still a good purchase considering the price. Old School Watch On: 2008-05-17Strong, Beautiful, Excellent quality, Very reliable and accutate. Best Rolex Submariner Style Watch for the Money. Exceeded My Expectations. Highly recommended this Watch Great Looks, value, and low maintenance! On: 2008-04-16Ive had this watch now for several months and it has performed well. Ive always liked the submariner look and this one, imho, has it right in terms of detail and looks. The watch, if worn daily, has kept time really well, maybe a couple of minutes per month at the most. My experience with the reserve power is about three days or about 72 hours before I had to re-set it. The watch band seems a little sharp but I either Ive worn it down or formed some callouses because it hasnt bothered me now. I chose it over the Invicta 8926 with coin bezel because it doesnt have a see through mineral glass back. I was buying this watch for the long haul and didnt want a potential break or leak point. The other reason is that I got tired of changing batteries on several watches that I own. (Ive had a Seiko Sports 150 for over twenty years now.) I got tired of the "planned obselesence" by Timex and others: the watch would be be bullet proof except for the Achilles heel of batteries which would last two years at the most and the difficulty in changing them. The magnifier does the job well and have not experienced the magnification too low or useless. The movement isnt as smooth as a Rolex and the glow-in-the dark markings dont last very long. For the price it is a smart looking, comfortable, low maintenance every day watch. Almost a good purchase  On: 2007-12-30Almost a good purchase, except that the date window, bareley magnifies the numbers; never as big as shown in the photo. Besides, the number background is silver, which is a bad choice. White should have been better. Though, a nice watch for the money. Very nice dive watch On: 2007-12-26I ordered this watch myself, but had to wait until Christmas day to actually see it, since it was a gift from my wife. I had shopped on line for the similar Invicta watch, but after reading many good reviews on this watch, decided to get it instead. I have to agree with most of the reviews on Amazon about this watch. The quality of the piece and workmanship is very good. I saw a 5 minute video on a Orient automatic watch being hand assembled and was amazed at the detail they put into each watch being built and then realized that the price for these watches is amazing. I have read the comments about the band being a little sub-par, but you have to take into account the price for this much quality and to me the band is very clean and doesnt add a lot of weight or bulk to the watch. I have only had the watch now a day, but so far the accuracy is spot on. I have checked it with WWV and it may have gained about 1 or 2 seconds in 24 hours, and that is remarkable. Now that I have this Orient watch, the next one I want to get is the Blue Mako. The pictures I have seen of that watch are stunning. If you are looking for a watch with the sub mariner "classic" style and you dont want to break the bank, then I recommend this watch...you wont find a better value for your money. FYI..my watch was bought through Amazon and shipped from Watch Pavilion, not the vendor currently shown here now. Good value for the money, great timepiece On: 2006-11-22After a rocky start to our time together, weve built a solid relationship. I had it for about a week when I bumped it and it stopped dead... Not good. The U.S. service center for Orient handled the problem as promptly as possible while still doing the full range of quality control testing after the services and returned it better than when I got it from Long Island Watch Co. (No fault of Long Island Watches, their service was also stellar; Ill spend a few extra dollars to go back to them rather than risk an unknown retailer). Ive got no shame; I got it because it is NOT a replica of a Rolex Submariner. Yeah, put the two watches side by side and there are some (many) very clear similiarities, but this watch is not a fake anything, it is a genuine Orient. And well under $150 as opposed to $3000 plus for the other watch. Oh yeah, the Orient is accurate, and Ive never heard a Rolex owner brag about accuracy. On to the more substatial part of the review. Pros- -Accurate. This thing has been spot on (+/- 10 sec a month) with inconsistent wear (usually 4 hr a day or more, but seldom all day). Very good for an automatic of, shall we say, humble origin. -Fit and finish. Pretty darn good. The bezel has the tiniest bit of play, but other than that the appearence and fit of the parts is superb through out. -Durability. Since the trip back to the service center, its been great. Of note, it put up with extended swimming in salt water with no problems. A little disappointing that it wasnt better out of the box, but hey, it travelled at least 8,000 miles to get to me, and Orient took care of the problem without a fuss. -Style. I like for daily and casual wear. Its too big for a professional setting, but for anything without a tie, its great. Cons- -Vibration. Although the vibration is modest compared to other automatics, it takes getting used to after quartz watches. -Weight. This sucker is heavy. I dont really mind, but even I sometimes hesitate before putting this one on. -Luminousity. Petty, I know, but it could do a lot better on the glow in the dark stuff. The shortcomings are minor and its resembalance to the Rolex at such a modest price appeals to my warped sense of humor. A great value for money and good enough to wear regularly. Simply perfect On: 2006-08-15Since I lose my Rolex Submariner four years ago, I ever desired to see on my wirst another beautiful watch like that, but buying another Rolex is simply impossible for me at this moment... until I discovered the Orient 2ER00001B... obviusly it is not a Submariner, but its high quality and the similar design looks good enough for me, and what I like is that this watch doesnt aim to be a Rolex replica. Now I have the nice sensation of seeing a beautiful watch on my wirst again... perhaps Ill buy a Rolex some day, but this Orient will ever be an special piece for me... Beautiful timepiece Poor accuracy  On: 2006-06-29This watch looks great but the bracelet is cheap and has a sharp edge that at the end of the day makes you wrist feel as if its been cut with a knife. I literally tood a wet-stone to the edges of it to in order to smooth it down. Dont get me wrong, its a beautiful timepiece and the first few weeks I had it, it kept fairly good time. I assumed it would eventually adjust or settle in as a previous reviewer has claime. However, it has gotten worse to the point of needing corrected daily. Im a train commuter and need accuracy. Yesterday alone, it lost three minutes! I wear it at least 16 hours a day so they cant claim that it isnt being worn enough to self-wind. I like the way it looks and actually get compliments on it, but the constant adjusting is a real pain. Hope you have better luck than Ive had with mine. Beautiful timepiece Poor accuracy On: 2006-06-28This watch looks great but the bracelet is cheap and has a sharp edge that at the end of the day makes you wrist feel as if its been cut with a knife. I literally tood a wet-stone to the edges of it to in order to smooth it down. Dont get me wrong, its a beautiful timepiece and the first few weeks I had it, it kept fairly good time. I assumed it would eventually adjust or settle in as a previous reviewer has claime. However, it has gotten worse to the point of needing corrected daily. Im a train commuter and need accuracy. Yesterday alone, it lost three minutes! I wear it at least 16 hours a day so they cant claim that it isnt being worn enough to self-wind. I like the way it looks and actually get compliments on it, but the constant adjusting is a real pain. Hope you have better luck than Ive had with mine. Bang for the buck On: 2006-05-02I have always loved the R***x Sub-date model. I looked around the net for one for awhile. I considered the Sandoz subs, the seiko skx031 model and the orient that we have here. There was something about the Sandozs I didnt like, I cant put my finger on it. They also have to be ordered from overseas. The seiko only slightly resembled the famous R***x, but it has a certain look that I like, might be my next watch. It too has to be ordered from overseas (possible customs). I picked the orient because of the almost dead on looks, the price, the legendary accuracy of their movement, and it could be ordered from the states. My orient came from Long Island Watch packed well. Cardboard outer box, peanuts, and the orient package itself. The orient box is white with an silver embossed ORIENT JAPAN logo. The watch box itself is dark blue with an inlay on top thats metal, with the orient japan logo. Open, the box has white lining, a polishing cloth was included inside with the island watch logo and info printed on it. Two books are included, one is the instruction guide, which, if I remember correctly, wasnt in the orient outer box, but in the brown shipping box. The other book is the international guarantee, which was in the orient box. The guarantee was hand signed by island watch giving the serial #, the model#, the purchase date, and the dealer info. All of this was on the last two pages of the guarantee. The watch itself is nice. I mean, what can I say? Looks like a sub, which is exactly what I wanted. Like the other reviewers said, the band is a little bit light weight, but certainly wearable. Everything works as it should. The bezel is uni-directional, the date magnifier works, but isnt as strong as a real R***x (Im going to order a stronger one from ofrei.com). The crystal seems pretty hard, Ive bumped it a few times already with no damage at all. Im getting -4 to -5 seconds a day, which is outstanding for a brand new auto watch (it should get better over a couple of months). The diameter is 39.5 by my measure, the lugs are 20mm. The lume (glow in the darkness) is pretty bad I have to admit. You can see it, but you have to look hard. To me, the most un-R***x looking things about the watch are the non-laquered, dark grey/black dial, which doesnt look bad at all, and the crown, which is a little too big. I dumped the factory bracelet for a hadley roma rolex replacement oyster band ($39.99) ordered from strappedfortime.com. This band uses the same thickness links as Rolex. I did use the factory end pieces and springbars, as the hadley romas didnt fit quite right (meant for rolexes). The band gives the watch a heafty appearance. Overall, Id say this is a great buy. Islandwatch.com through amazon was great. I got my order in 3-4 days. For $140.00 plus $40.00 for the band, I got the look (almost:0) of the famous watch Ive always wanted. Make no mistake though, this is no crappy knock off. This is a Japaneese made watch from a maker that is more highly rated in Japan than Seiko. Rolex Submariner Like Looks For A Tiny Fraction Of The Price On: 2006-03-09I received this watch from the Watch Pavilion. Shipping was ultra fast, only four days, and it came very well packaged - no chance to get damaged. Kudos to the Watch Pavilion! The watch is gorgeous! The watch (minus the band) feels heavy and sturdily built. The rotating coin bezel rotates firmly and evenly with no loose play. The details fit and finish on the watch is outstanding, no sloppy workmanship or any obvious flaws. All the applied number markers look nice and white and evenly applied to the face of the watch. The painted number markers on the black part of the bezel are painted flawlessly and evenly spaced out. The magnifier for the date magnifies very well and clearly. The crown is nice and beefy and screws, unscrews easily but firmly. The size of the crown makes it easy to manipulate time and date functions. The watch keeps outstanding accuracy, no more than 4 seconds per day difference by my testing. For an automatic, thats outstanding. Orient uses their own in-house movement that is comparable to what you find in Seikos. However, I think Orients in-house movement is better and more accurate. The only parts of the watch that can be improved are the band and the luminousness of the markers. The band feels a little light and cheap, not as thick as other bands. Its still decent and comfortable. I just think a little thicker more quality band like what you can get on an Invicta would suit this watch more and make it even look better! The luminous markers and hands are almost useless in the dark. They just dont hold light even if the watch sat in the sun all day. Aside from these two little gripes, the watch is an outstanding value for the money! It gets 5 stars considering the price I paid for it - $140. Its definitely worth more. However, if this watch sold for $250 or more, I would give it 4 stars deducting for the cheaper band and lack of luminousness. Anyway you look at it; this watch is an outstanding value and definitely will nicely decorate your wrist. Itll even fool people to think your wearing that other way more expensive watch. High quality and beautifully made On: 2005-12-05I ordered my Orient 2ER "Submariner" from Watch Pavilions link on Amazon.com, on Nov. 11. The watch was delivered exactly one week later, on Nov. 18. I dont consider this bad at all for "standard shipping". The watch was wrapped in protective plastic, with the Orient hang-tag, and nestled inside an attractive black-and-silver Orient box. The box itself is interesting in that it appears to be covered with leather (or something resembling leather) with a brushed aluminum top panel riveted onto the top. This box was enclosed in a plastic wrapper, and these items were contained by an "outer" box of cardboard, with the Orient logo. This entire assembly was contained in an Orient "shopping bag", black-and-silver just like the inner box, with the Orient logo on it, and with black rope "handles". The bag also contained instruction manuals and an international guarantee. The watch itself is fairly impressive looking, especially to those who consider the Rolex Submariner attractive. The overall effect is one similar to some 35 mm cameras of the 60s and 70s, or high end audio equipment of that era, that of a precision tool with just a little bit of added styling, enough to make it look nice, enough to be a little bit more than merely functional, but not so much as to make it impractical to use, or to make the product appear gaudy in any way. It is an timeless, classic look which adds greatly to pride of ownership, and which one would be hard pressed to improve even if given the opportunity. The case is tastefully executed with highly polished sides and bottom, and a lightly brushed finish on the top surfaces. Measuring diagonally across, the case is 39.5 mm wide, and 43.9 mm when measured straight across to include the crown. The uni-direction rotating bezel has a highly polished coin-edged rim just slightly wider than the case at 39.75 mm, to give wet fingers an easier purchase. It rotates easily in the anti-clockwise direction, yet not so easily as to accidentally be moved. It makes a satisfying mechanical ratchety sound while turning. The bezel insert is black with silver numerals, and a triangle with a luminious dot at the "zero" position. The watch sits 12.4 mm above my wrist. The gracefully tapered and curved strap lugs extend 46.3 mm tip to tip, and are 20 mm apart. The screw-in back has a brushed, flat bottom and a polished, beveled edge, six notches for an opening tool, and bears the words "All Stainless Steel Orient Water Resistant". The crown is also screw-in type, 6 mm in diameter, and polished but unsigned. The case tube onto which the crown screws has impressively sturdy appearing threads (unlike my old Fortis) and turns three or four times before sealing. The crown is mounted on a stem which appears to be quite sturdy, and doesnt wobble at all when extended to set time or date. Nicely sculpted guards stand on either side of the crown and flow together to partially enclose it on the dial side as well. The face of the watch appears to have been brushed in a radial pattern, which lends a satiny black finish which shows attractive highlights when a bright source shines upon it. "Orient" "Automatic" and "21 Jewels" are printed in three rows of text just above the hands, while below are printed "Water Resist" and "10 Bar" in two more lines. Hands are shiney chrome "Mercedes" style with luminous material applied. The hour indices are a familiar collection of geometric shapes in which12 is represented by an inverted triangle, 6 and 9 are rectangular bars, 3 is a window for the calendar, and all other hours are circular dots. Each of these appears to be "chrome" or similar near the edges, with a luminous center. Luminosity is nothing to get excited about, and the less said about it in this instance, the better. Nothing beats Timex Indiglo in this respect, although it might prove difficult to include this feature on an automatic watch. Suffice to say that if viewing in very dark places is a high priority, perhaps a small keychain-sized flashlight should be considered as an accessory. Minutes are shown by fine white radial lines around the perimeter of the dial. The dial meets the inside edge of the case, which has a natural machined or brushed finish, giving an precision finished look to the face. The crystal is mineral glass, flush with the bezel, with a lens properly centered over the date window. The date window itself thankfully has no white "frame" around it, and the date wheel appears to have a silvery grey background, with black printed numerals. IMHO, this presents a "balanced" appearance to the dial, although some might argue that the silver colored date wheel has less contrast with its black numerals. The bracelet which came attached to the watch is all stainless steel, with solid links (except for the end-pieces which fit between the lugs), and looks to be of good quality. I cannot offer further evaluation of the bracelet, as upon opening the box I immediately removed it and installed a thick rubber Citizen diving strap, my favorite means of attachment for my wristwatches (no offense intended to those who like Seiko straps, Ive just never used the Seiko product). When I removed the bracelet, I was pleased to note that the case surface between the lugs, normally not seen, had been given the same gleaming mirror polish as the sides and bottom of the case. The movement of this watch is said to be made by Orient themselves. Ive not seen it because the back is not see through. I chose this watch over the Invicta 8926 (and paid a few dollars more) partly because I prefer the solid back for functional reasons. The movement runs at 21,600 oscillations per hour, so the seconds hand isnt quite so smooth as on my ETA-driven Hamilton, let alone a Seiko Spring Drive, but neither is it objectionable. In fact, the seconds hand moves with the same rhythm I remember from some hand-wound watches I owned when in middle school. As an experiment, I tried tapping the crystal of the watch with my fingertip, and did not observe the seconds hand "pausing" as some have mentioned occurring with their early-model Invictas. Also like the Invicta, and most Citizen and Seiko automatics, the seconds hand keeps moving when setting the time. There is a technique of causing it to stop by applying very slight torque to the crown while it is in the time-setting position, for those who simply must set their seconds hand. Additionally, the movement apparantly cannot be hand-wound, however the automatic winding is quite efficient, and mine remains wound up sufficiently, even with being off my wrist when I sleep, and during most of my workday (some jobs are just too dirty, or too dangerous, to perform while wearing a watch on your wrist). Automatic watches are inherently less accurate than quartz models, simply because the balance wheel swings back and forth much more slowly than a quartz crystal can vibrate. Automatic watches also vary from one example to another, some may gain a few seconds each day, others may lose a few seconds, while even a cheap quartz watch can easily remain within 1 second each day. So, an automatic watch is probably not the best choice if you are obsessed with absolutely perfect timekeeping. My own example runs slightly slow. What I do is to set the watch a couple of minutes ahead at the beginning of the month, and it slowly loses time until it is a couple of minutes behind by the end of the month. By then, its usually time to adjust the calendar anyway, so it is never very far from actual time. In sum, the Orient 2ER appears to be an attractive, well engineered product which also benefits from a high degree of quality control. It works well, and is in fact hard to fault (aside from luminosity of the hands and dial). It is comfortable to wear, looks good and draws admiring looks and even spontaneous compliments. Products such as this disprove the expression "You get what you pay for", implying that one must spend a great deal to obtain high quality. While one can certainly spend much more than the reasonable price of the Orient 2ER (I paid $142, shipped), they may not always get a better watch. |