2ER00004D

This is my second Orient watch, and I must say, I am very pleased with it.  It very obvious homage to the Rolex 16613, which is probably my favorite Rolex ever made.  That being said, the real deal costs as much as a good used car.  So, what do you do when you love the look of a watch, but hate the thought of buying a fake?  Get an homage from one of the most respected watch makers outside of Switzerland,  Orient Japan.

Now, off to the actual review:

The case is solid stainless steel with a solid case back.  The edges are crisp, but not scratch you sharp.  The sides and bottom are buffed to a perfect mirror finish and the top is brushed.   The overall workmanship is exceptional for a watch in this price point, around $110-$120.   It is not an exceptionally heavy watch and wears easily.

The crown is large and easy to grasp.  It turn with ease and has a good 5 to 6 threads of engagement on the stem.  I am really impressed how well the screw down crown works.  It is buttery smooth to screw and unscrew and is probably the smoothest screw down crown I have ever experienced, at any price.  The crown is unsigned.

The bezel is a 60 click bezel is unidirectional and easy to turn.  It clicks precisely to the 1 minute marks.  There is very little sloppiness that is often seen of inexpensive pieces.  Again, much better than would be expected for this price point.  The gold plating is even and matches other parts of the watch.

The face is a deep blue, with a hint of purple radial sunburst pattern that shifts and changes with lighting.  The markers are the classic Submariner style are have luminous paint applied.  Under a 10X jeweler’s loupe, the face is flawless with no dust or debris.  The luminous paint is perfectly applied to each marker, perfectly on center.  The gold plating is very consistent over the whole watch, with the markers, hands, bezel, crown, and band all the same yellow gold color.  The lume is adequate, but not exceptional, on par with my Seiko 5’s, but not with my true divers.  The date wheel has a silver/champagne look to better match the dial markers.

The hands are also the classic submariner Mercedes style with even gold plating and lume.  The second hand has a large lume pip.  It is easy to time with a simple glance.  The crystal is mineral glass with a very effective magnifier, which I would guess is 2X.

The band is solid stainless steel with gold plating down the center of the links.  It is well made, but a little light.  There are no squeaks or rattles.   The clasp is a simple flip over with safety lock.  It is stamped with Orient and their two lion logo.  There are 7 mirco adjustment holes, so an perfect fit is very easy.  I had to remove 3 links for my wrist.  I like a small feature, a little rubber retaining sleeve that hold in the spring pin for the micro adjustment holes.  This particular spring pin just loves to get away from you on every other watch I own,  so, thank you Orient for that little feature.

The movement is an Orient 21 jewel, ER aka 487 movement.  The movement automatically winds quickly and quietly.  It sounds like it has a variation of the Magic Lever winding system, but is quieter than Seiko’s implementation.  Accuracy is excellent so far, +1 second in 24 hours and +3 seconds in 72 hours!  This exceeds COSC specifications, and probably my most accurate mechanical watch so far.

Conclusion:

Overall I am very happy with this watch.  It has the look I really wanted, feels and looks great on the wrist.   It is just a little flashy, but it really works.

Features:
Case: 39.5mm diameter, stainless steel, 10ATM water resistance.
Back: Stainless Steel, screw down, Orient Hologram sticker.
Crystal: Hardlex, flat with 2x cyclops magnifier over date.
Movement: Automatic,  ER00,487,  Orient In house design and manufacture, Japan Made .
Complications:  Date.
Other: Solid, stainless steel bracelet with gold plating, 60 click Unidirectional Rotating Bezel, Screw Down Crown, Luminous Hands and Markers.

I finally made myself a light box (also known as a light tent)  for taking some better photos of small objects, particularly watches.  I would rather spend money on watches than photographic equipment, so I followed these instructions.

So, I finally took some photos of my setup.  I have the light box, a swing arm lamp and my camera on a tripod.  If you ever want to take really sharp photos, you really have to have a tripod AND a remote shutter release.  Why a remote shutter release?  Even the act of pressing the shutter button sets up vibrations in the camera which can last a second or two.  This is just long enough to mess up your photos.   The total cost of the setup is follows:

Florescent swing arm lamp, Ikea: $19.99

Box: Free

Paper: $0.25

Velbon T-3500 Tripod: $25

So, overall less than $50 without the camera.  Considering most people already have these items, the cost is almost nil.

The results, however, are pretty amazing.  You can take photos of small objects and get very professional looking results.

Everything is very evenly lit and glare can be controlled easily.  Considering a professional light tent can cost well into the $100’s, this jury rigged setup works just fine for me.

Here are 5 watches under $500 that I really like (and don’t own):

Orient 2ER00004D

This one is just calling to me. I know it is a Rolex Submariner homage, but it is a pretty one.

It is an Orient 2ER00004D, a hair over $100, just $110 on Amazon.  It looks remarkably like the Rolex 16613.

As you can see, on the wrist, they look almost identical.  For your bank account, the Rolex list price is $9300, on-line price is $7626.  The list price for the Orient is $220, most on-line sellers have it for $120 to $130, saving you about $7500.  Both have in house movements.  The Rolex is a true diver’s the Orient, just 100M water resistance.  It is about as close an homage can be without being a ‘replica’ aka fake watch.  It has a bit of bling, but I like two tone watches.

By the way, the photos of the Orient are from this site.  Very nice blog about Orient watches.

Alba Riki AAAA101

It’s the Riki AAAA101.   The lines are so simple, yet elegant.  It is also powered by Seiko’s 7S26m which really makes it a very fancy Seiko 5.  Modern, but not to big 37.5mm across.  It is modeled after Riki’s industrial clock designs, with rectangular hands and easy to see across a room markers.  It also comes in black and a rose gold face.  About $200.

his one is just calling to me. I know it is a Rolex Submariner homage, but it is a pretty one.

It is an Orient 2ER00004D, a hair over $100, just $110 on Amazon.  It looks remarkably like the Rolex 16613.

As you can see, on the wrist, they look almost identical.  For your bank account, the Rolex list price is $9300, on-line price is $7626.  The list price for the Orient is $220, most on-line sellers have it for $120 to $130, saving you about $7500.  Both have in house movements.  The Rolex is a true diver’s the Orient, just 100M water resistance.  It is about as close an homage can be without being a ‘replica’ aka fake watch.  It has a bit of bling, but I like two tone watches.

By the way, the photos of the Orient are from this site.  Very nice blog about Orient watches.

Riki Watanabe is one of the most famous industrial designers in Japan.  He worked with Seiko/ALBA (yet another division of Seiko) to create this watch:

It’s the Riki AAAA101.   The lines are so simple, yet elegant.  It is also powered by Seiko’s 7S26m which really makes it a very fancy Seiko 5.  Modern, but not to big 37.5mm across.  It is modeled after Riki’s industrial clock designs, with rectangular hands and easy to see across a room markers.  It also comes in black and a rose gold face.  About $200.

Thanks Riki for a tempting timepiece.

Although the 2 or 3 handed watch/clock on a center pivot is the most commonly accepted form of time keeping, this was not always the case.  There are other ways to tell time.  My wife, Tiffany, and my older brother got me thinking about what else is out there.  Here are a few interesting examples.

This is an automatic, mechanical watch with a digital display, including seconds and date!  It has wild, funky looks for less than $75.

This interesting piece is one my wife Tiffany brought to my attention.  It is called “The Infection”   I really don’t quite get how you read it without really fuzzy timekeeping, but it sure looks cool. I wonder what the battery life is like? $183 from Japan.

This is a binary watch.  A true geek tool.   One of my Co-workers actually spotted one in the wild (he is a watch geek as well) and was impressed by how it looks.  A rather reasonable $69.99 on ThinkGeek.com.

Another ThinkGeek watch. This one goes all out, you can do digital, binary, octal or hex.   Only 200 were made and the quality looks pretty nice for $149.99.

This is a classic Casio Mudman with an integrated chronograph.  They are shock resistant, and can have more features than a Swiss Army knife.   It is a simple, low power LCD with backlight.   It is also very much a tool watch.  It tells time and does not look pretty doing it.  They can cost into the hundreds, with all the bells and whistles.

Finally, we have retrograde watches.  There are some which are quite reasonably priced (less than $150.) to well into the $1000’s to $100,000+ range.    Not a huge fan of retrogrades myself, but some do like the look.      The Alpina take on retrograde is my favorite.

I finally made myself a light box (also known as a light tent)  for taking some better photos of small objects, particularly watches.  I would rather spend money on watches than photographic equipment, so I followed these instructions.

Ironically, I have not taken a photo of my light box yet, but here are some of the resulting photos.   These are very quick and dirty, but I like the results so far.  What do you think?

[View with PicLens]

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Here is a balance wheel from a 7S36.

I upgraded to the latest version of Wordpress (2.9), which also required me to update from msSQL 4 to 5.  Hopefully everything looks and works the same.

I pulled this old friend out of the junk heap and decided to give it another chance.  I put is on a $5.00 nylon band which does 2 things.  1)  It keeps the base metal away from my skin, making it wearable again and 2) it gives it a really military look, which compliments the watch well.

Another important change is that I polished most of the huge scratch out of the crystal, making it look years younger.  I will keep this watch as a beater until the battery goes, then it is just not worth it.

Welcome back old boy.

I was looking at my “Speedmaster” and I think I finally found out what the movement really is.

Mine

It is definitely not a Seagull movement, but a DG3836 from Man Power Technologies, Guangdong Province, China.  This is around where the watch was made and has all the features of the movement.  Automatic, with day at 9, date at 3 and 24 hour dial at 6.  Looks like it is about a whopping $17 wholesale.  It looks like it has 17 jewels, since there are only cap jewels on the balance wheel.  If it was a 21 jewel, cap jewels would be evident on the escape and 3rd wheel.

It is 21,800 BPH, with only a 32 hour power reserve.

You can see from the wholesaler’s photos, this movement looks identical.  I thought only my example does not have +/- or F/S on the regulator, but they seem to omit which direction will adjust the speed of the balance.