Orient 60th Anniversary Watch Review

The Orient Watch Company is one of Japan’s largest mechanical watch producers and has been in the business since July 1950. But the company’s roots go back even further when Shogoro Yoshida sold wholesale watches in 1901. Having been in the watch industry for over 60 years, the Orient Watch Company has also had a few of its own innovations. Innovations such as developing the power-reserve indicator which allows the user to see how much “power” is left in a mechanical watch. Orient is also known for having their own in-house movement on the low-end watches in the hundred dollar price range. Having in-house movement is fairly rare in the entry-level watches.

To mark the 60^th anniversary of the company, Orient released two limited edition watches, the SDT00001S (gold case) and SDT00002W (silver case), only 1,500 pieces were produced in each color and they’re both now sold out.  We got our hands on the gold watch and what a watch it is!

When I saw the pictures of the watch on Orient USA’s website, I was impressed but not as impressed as when I actually got to see the watch in person.  The pictures on the website don’t do this beautiful watch justice and the box it comes in is almost as nice as the watch itself, I’ve bought a few Swiss watches and this box comes very close to matching their quality, but this post is not about the box, it’s about the watch.

In the Orient website pictures, the watch case has a yellow gold look to it but in person it doesn’t look as yellow, at least indoors, it has a very subtle look to it.  The watch is lightweight and very elegant with retro styling; after all, it is a celebration of the 60^th anniversary of the company, and the design is executed very nicely. The watch comes in a 40mm diameter case which is a perfect size in my opinion, this is a dress watch and it doesn’t need to be massive.  The mineral glass covering the dial is domed; much like the watches from the 1950’s and gives the watch quite a bit of character.  The watches are 13.5mm thick and come with either a dark brown leather strap (gold version) or black strap (silver version).  The straps are pretty soft and feel comfortable but Orient could have used a slightly higher quality material.

The watch face is ivory colored with “Orient 60^th Anniversary” engraved between the 5 o’clock and 7 o’clock position, each watch comes with the limited number etched on the back (No. 0507/1500).  There are 12 hour markers (gold or silver), a date window at the 3 o’clock position, and the 40-hour power reserve indicator between the 11 o’clock and 1 o’clock positions.  The watches come with the classic three hand configuration with the second hands being the longest almost touching the edges, very Swiss watch like.

The Orient 60^th Anniversary watches are extremely beautiful and elegant, most people I showed the watch to thought it was a far more expensive watch than what Orient has it priced for and they really liked the simple retro styling of the watch.  I caught many men and women taking a peek at the watch as I walked through busy downtown streets.  I have owned several Orient watches and their quality is top-notch and is far ahead of other watch manufacturers that compete at the entry level price points.

Orient USA is providing a 40% discount for Unfinished Man readers on any of the watches available on their website(click here); all you have to do is enter the code “UnfinishedMan40”.  Every time you use this code, we do get a small affiliate commission from Orient Watches USA.