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During my mid-teens, I started to appreciate watches in a whole new way other than just having and wearing one. This was roughly 2003, the watch internet was in its infancy, and my primary way of absorbing watch knowledge was via promotional materials from the brands – many of which were out of my price range. Everything changed when I discovered forums, and the affordable and interesting watches they championed – specifically the Orient Mako.
This watch was an absolute darling of the early-aughts online dive watch community. It looked nice enough and featured an "in-house" movement, and like most neophyte enthusiasts I valued in-house manufacturing a lot more than I should have. The Mako was the perfect watch for a high school student; I funded my purchase by doing odd jobs like power washing salt trucks on the weekends, and then graduated from it not long after acquiring it. But it was the perfect way in.
The Orient Kamasu is spiritually the Mako of today, affordable, interesting and at less than $300, a watch that most anyone can swing. But Orient now has another watch in the line-up that might even be more intriguing for those with a taste for the history – a modern re-issue of the Weekly Auto Orient King Diver. The name of the watch alone lends it a bit of personality that you'd be hard-pressed to find under $500, but that's not all it has to offer.
To understand what makes the re-edition attractive, we have to look at the original model from 1965, and the culture that gave rise to the model.
Japan's Golden Sixties
The Allied occupation in Japan had come to a close in 1952. Breaking up large conglomerates left behind a free-market model, and that, coupled with a focused post-war economic restoration effort, paved the way forward for Japan to become the second-largest capitalist economy in the world by 1970. Japan's explosive growth in the '60s gave rise to not only social and cultural change, but a newfound wave of consumerism and exciting products, including watches.
The Weekly Auto Orient King Diver was one of them.
It featured a mere 40m of water resistance, which seems insignificant today, but it wasn't aimed at professional divers. Instead, this model belonged to a class of dive watches designs called "skin divers" that featured more than enough water resistance for free diving and light recreational diving.
Globally, recreational SCUBA diving was on the rise, and Japan followed the trend. The SCUBA agency NAUI was created in 1960, and PADI in 1966. Product nomenclature enjoyed the benefit of loose interpretation and Orient was free from the International Organization for Standardization (the group that polices product naming conventions) and fewer rules made for a less standardized and more interesting design. Today to be called a dive watch, it needs to meet the ISO 6425 international standard, but in '65 this wasn't the case.
Watches, Printers, and More
Orient Watch Company was founded in 1950, out of Tokyo as an independent brand.
Today Orient is part of Seiko Epson, and Seiko Epson is one of three large companies that the conglomerate known as Seiko Group has a controlling stake in (the other two are Seiko Holdings Corporation and Seiko Instruments). Orient Watch is a subsidiary of Seiko Epson, but the Orient offerings share little to nothing with Seiko's range of products.
Yes, Seiko Epson, usually seen only as "Epson," is known for making printers, but through Orient, they make watches too. So you'll see an "Epson" logo – the same one you'd see on an office printer – on the caseback of the Weekly Auto Orient King Diver. And I think all that's pretty charming. It can be confusing if you aren't familiar with the structural nuances of the Seiko Group, but it also points to the interconnectedness that exists in Zaibatsu (Japanese conglomerates) and the Japanese watch industry at large. After all, around the same time I was power-washing for extra cash, I used a Casio calculator and wore a G-Shock without thinking twice.
Watch on the Wrist, Money in the Bank
The King Diver features a 43mm compressor-style case with a design seemingly borrowed from EPSA-cased divers of the '60s and '70s. You won't find the typical cross-hatching on the crowns at 2 o'clock and 4 o'clock, however. Instead, the crown is signed with the "O" from Orient. Every millimeter of its 43mm case size is noticeable on the wrist. It's not small, but the original watch was sized similarly at 42mm.
Almost all Orient watches are a decent value proposition on paper. They all have in-house movements, they're a brand truly focused on horology with a noteworthy history, and they're all priced right. But visually, not every model is a home run. The Weekly Auto Orient is a home run. If you like Super Compressor-cased divers from the '60s and '70s, then this design will certainly resonate with you. There isn't another new watch featuring a Super Compressor case from a brand as significant as Orient at this price point. With the Orient priced at just over $400, the Longines Legend diver costs a tad over five times as much.
While the original was rated at 40m of water resistance, this 2020 version clocks in at 200m of water resistance. A lot of that is owed to the new mineral crystal instead of acrylic crystal from the '60s. The Weekly Auto Orient King Diver is the perfect combination of specs at the right price point to beat up, you can toss it on and not worry about putting it through the paces.
The bracelet, in typical Orient fashion, is incongruent to the quality of the actual watch. After months of wearing it on the bracelet, I switched over to a period-correct Tropic strap and it made the watch sing. It's become the watch I throw on when I'm going out to sea to wet lines and clean the catch. 2003 me would be proud.
The Weekly Auto Orient King Diver retails for $405. Learn more here.
Photography by @which_watch_next
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