Most helpful client reviews
7 of 7 persons found the following review helpful.
Dressy, Sporty, & Refined Watch at an amazing price!
By C. Kelleher
The Orient brand has a outstanding reputation amongst watch fans and it deserves to be a more widely known brand to the public at large. This watch, commonly called “Planet Orient” due to it is resemblance to an Omega design called “Planet Ocean”, is meant to be a sporty even though stylish watch, less of a beater than the entry level Makos, but more beautiful and unique.
In truth, the Planet nickname is not in truth that exact a measure of the model’s appearance. The Orient model includes a very dissimilar graphic style and dissimilar complicatednesses than the Omega Planet Ocean series, and the Orient likewise sells for with regards to 5% of the price of those Swiss watches. The Omega of course is made of higher quality materials, uses the revolutionary co-axial escapement, has the COSC certification (explained later), and retains a significant share of it is value over time.
The Orient is regarding the same size as the more spectacular Omega Planet Oceans (that is, 46 mm) and in galore cases uses an orange bezel and highlights on the face as some models of the Omega do, but these are slight similarities. I will use the nickname “Planet” all around the review for convenience, as equated to say “CFM00001B”, but for better or worse, be conscious that you are not buying a watch that would pass for an Omega Planet Ocean unless in the eyes of the most unobservant admirer.
Orient is a little Japanese company that is partially owned by Seiko. They’ve been around for more than 50 years, and their assert to fame is that they are a mechanical watch producer that designs and makes 100% of their movements in-house. The in-house identification is significant as it means the company does more than just buy off the shelf designs but rather is directly involved in creating and tuning the mechanical heart of their product. Rolex is know for their in-house work, but even such costly brands as Omega, TAG Heuer, and Breitling have most of their movements made for them by other companies (ETA for the most part). To have a finely crafted automatic watch in this price range that has been designed and fabricated by the company retail it is rare to say the least. The watches are likewise hand made, and in Japan as well.
As noted this is an automatic watch. The watch cannot be hand wound so you need to shake it to begin it, and then it winds itself as you move your arm for the duration of the day – no batteries needed. The timekeeping is a tad less precise than a quartz, and for this motion (Orient’s 469 series) the manufacturer states you may commonly suppose to lose up to 15 seconds or gain up to 25 seconds each day. (More on this later.)
Two affiliated points: if you want to keep reasonably precise time, you need to reset your watch each week or so, and if you are utterly sedentary for the duration of the day (i.e. drive to work, sit at a desk, drive home, sit in front of the TV) the watch may not get sufficient winding to stay working. You hardly need to run a marathon, perhaps 15 minutes of walking total allround the day will probably keep your watch (and yourself!) functioning well. Max power reserve on this model is in regards to 42 hours, which figure is supported by my own tests. (This is the time the watch will take to stop after you take it off when it is to a complete degree wound up.)
The watch has a date complicatedness in the form of a circular dial with an indicator hand that points to the date. This dial is found in the 6:00 position on the face. The manual cautions users that the day and date ought to not be adjusted from the hours of 9 PM to 4 AM as the gears are in the routine of tardily rotating both day and date dials in that time frame.
More interestingly, the watch also has a power reserve meter at the 12:00 position on the face that lets you recognise the number of hours that the watch will run for if you were to take it off and discontinue charging it. This feature, a utile one, is commonly found only on European watches costing 5 to 10 times more than the Planet. The 469 motion is applied in some other Orients, and the variant here is called the 46U40, which I believe designates the 469 series with the circular date and power reserve complications.
Minor botheration for precisonists: the second hand cannot be “hacked” – that is, when you set the time by pulling the crown out, the second hand proceeds to turn. That means getting an precise time sync is a challenge, as you will be always be fast or slow by nonetheless some seconds the third hand is away from 12 o’clock when you push the crown in. Unless you are leading a commando team on a raid, this probably will not be a major issue, but more pricey Swiss movements like those by ETA do offer the hacking feature as do a heap of pricier Seikos. This and the accuracy issue is the biggest negative divergences amid quartz ownership and owning an automatic.
As to accuracy — Orient wards off building your hopes up as the manual tells you to suppose +25 to -15 seconds of time loss of gain per day. However, over 3 weeks of testing, my Planet keeps time to within +11 seconds per day. This is in the realm of the Seiko 7S26 and Citizen 8215 movements. OK, but my two other Orients, the much for less Mako I and the Mako II, which is in the same cost range as the Planet, both keep much better time with what appears to be the same movement. (+5 and -4 seconds per day respectively). These higher levels of accuracy are within the realm of COSC standards (the costly and honored Swiss timekeeping standard that watches that cost twenty or more times as much as the Makos are tested to). The Planet, though, at +11, is off the COSC scale altogether, and this accuracy, though typical of most inexpensive autos, is disappointing when equated to it is brethren. This variance may just be examples of the satisfactory build quality variation for the movement, or may be related to the somewhat dissimilar complicatednesses added to this model. You, of course, may get a higher or lower level of accuracy with your own example.
As for durability — the face and back of the watch are made of solid homogeneous inorgani substance crystal, not sapphire. The bracelet is solid filled links, and feels and looks costly. The watch itself is water immune to 100 meters, and features one screw down crown for time and date setting. The bezel is steel, and turns comparatively easily; it is scalloped, not coin-edged (i.e. needs your thumb not your fingernail to turn). The bezel has both a countdown set of numbers as well as a tachymeter. Lume is on the dial numbers, the hour and minute hands, and on the second hand. The 12 o’clock position of the bezel nonetheless has no lume on it, different from the Mako Is or other diver watches.
The lume is highly visible at first, and the face looks striking when the lume is totally charged. But the luminance fades rapidly and without delay than the NY Knicks’ playoff hopes this season, nowhere as good as say the Seiko Monster series, and likewise worse than the Mako I – Planet’s darkness visibility seems to last for possibly 2-3 hours of visible light after sustained exposure to bright light.
Warranty is one year through the manufacturer. Packaging is mundane, the manual supplied was the rectify one for once. ( The Orient tradition is to closely always ship the faulty manual with the watch.) As with all autos, the watch will in all likelihood need a lube and tune up once each 3-5 years, my estimate.
The watch is beautiful and bold in style, and is eye-catching. The band and face look and feel high quality and the design of the face is imaginative and unique. The 45mm size is decently shown in the huge expanded FACE of the watch, rather of the big rectangular FRAME of the watch that the face sits in, a stylistic miscue that Orient and numerous other watch mfgrs ordinarily make with more spectacular watches. (Take a look at Seiko Kinetic diver to see what I mean.) The hour and minute hands are decent sized swords, and the second hand is a nifty little orange needle. There are Arabic numerals on the face for a few numbers and hash marks for the rest. The watch may look dressy, particularly with it is black or white faces, and the orange bezel is very striking, even though orange may or may not be a color that stands the test of time in men’s watch styling.
The neatest thing when it comes to this (or any other good automatic) is watching the sweep of the second hand. The watch mainspring beats 6 times per second (21,600 bph), and the second hand has 6 distinct stops amongst each marked second on the face. This slow majestic sweep is far more graceful that the clunk-ka-chunk precise once per second motion of a quartz analog. The back of the watch is an “exhibition” design, which shows the motion inside. The motion is agreeably diverting to watch for a bit, but it is more of a showpiece and a novelty than anything else.
Upshot: The watch itself is superbly made. Everything feels solid, from the bracelet to the crown to the bezel. There is an Orient logo on the face and on the bracelet that is not problematic due to it is subtlety. This doesn’t look like it is namesake Omega, but the aesthetic is as good or better, and the level of quality is immensely impressive given the price. Most observers will think this watch costs three or more time more than it is actual price due to the level of fit and finish realized. is a cheap watch by just looking at it.
All in all, for a dressy even though sporty office watch, you can’t go faulty with the Planet in one of the more conservative variants. The orange highlighted model may be more of a transient fad, as Omega has arguably overused that color to death for men’s sports watches recently. This is not much of a “beater”, due to low water resistance and poor lume, but it is somewhat sturdy and handsome, yet also inexpensive sufficient that if you in some manner did harm it, you wouldn’t be crying the same tears that you would if you mashed up your $4,000 Omega Planet Ocean. You probably would not want to use this as a regular water sport watch, altho an occasional dunking would probably be OK as long as you weren’t swimming vigorously for an extended period.
The Planet Orient is a handsome watch, superbly made, and all in all, is a fine value. The only downer is that my queer example of the breed is a reasonably intermediate timekeeper and does not reach the high points of accuracy set by my other Orients. Still, if you want a unique, attractive, and well made automatic at a fraction of the price charged by the European makers, this is one of your better options.
2 of 2 humans found the following review helpful.
Great watch but can’t wear it because the band is crap!
By AB
I had this watch a few months before the band fell apart. The distributor sent me a substitute which was outstanding until the alternate band fell apart. Because of the design, it is nearly inconceivable to find a alternate band without getting it from the distributor. So now, they want $40 for another band.
This is a GREAT watch, except that I can not wear it, and don’t feel like spending an additonal $40 for a band that is basically a very beautiful piece of junk, beautiful until it falls apart.
See all 2 client reviews…
