Orient Sun-Moon Automatic Watch

The Swiss made time-keeping into an art while the Japanese made it into industrial science; offering a cheaper, more accurate time-keeping movement by utilizing Quartz, the Japanese revolutionized the watch industry by storm.

And while accurate time-telling is important, the complications of the machinery lend towards a watch’s beauty – and sometimes prestige. The workmanship involved in crafting and calibrating the hinges and coils and hand movements as well as how beautiful it is furnished (and finished) is, most of the time, what “serious” watch buyers look for. In the sea of famous Japanese watch brands (Casio, Citizen, Seiko), this is where Orient stands out and makes its mark. For a Japanese brand, Orient is more focused in creating its mechanical watches rather than focusing on the mass-marketed Quartz.

But, even with that focus, it’s still a brand that’s easily affordable rivaling the price of other designer-branded quartz watches (likes of Kenneth Cole, Fossil, DKNY, CK, Armani, etc.).

Take this handsome entry-level automatic dress watch, the Orient Sun-Moon Automatic Watch.

ORIENT SUN-MOON SPECS

• Product Code: ET0P004W
• Movement: Automatic
• Mechanical Movement : ORIENT caliber 46B46 Self-winding movement, 21 Jewels
• 21,600/hour vibrations
• Date indicator, Day hand, AM/PM disk-shaped indicator (Sun & Moon display)
• Water Resistant: 30 m
• Dial Color: Gold
• Watch Thickness: 13.29mm
• Glass: Sapphire Crystal
• Case Size: 41.50 mm
• Case Material: Stainless Steel, Screw see-through caseback?(Crystal glass)
• Case Finish: Polished
• Strap: Genuine Leather
• Price: Roughly Php 8,500 – 8,800 credit card with 6-month 0% interest deferred payment

The Orient Sun-Moon is an amazing dress watch at a very reasonable price. For just under 10k, you get a beautiful in-house self-winding automatic watch, a sun-moon complication dial (or rather a day-night indicator; very important when changing dates using the crown), topped with a scatch-proof sapphire crystal glass all housed in a delicate polished stainless steel case.

CASE:
Even if it’s not the top-of-the-line Orient product, I can’t help but grin at the notion of how pristine and detailed-oriented the design of the Sun-Moon is. The casing alone feels like something the mid-range luxury watches would employ. With a thickness of 13.29mm, the added bulk actually adds to the prestige design of the stainless steel case. To add a bit of contrast, the crown is rendered in a polished gold finish. This is then complemented by a glossy crocodile-embossed calf-skin leather strap that’s almost black but has a small tinge of dark brown.

DIAL:
The metallic whiteness of the dial is complimented with a sort of ‘guilloched’ pattern (intersecting-repeating-spiral-ly lines ^_^) of the day complication which adds a sort of three-dimensional effect. Something that you rarely see especially in fashion watches of the same price range. The sun-moon display is elicits a layer of modern-vintage which, again, adds to the lux-quality of the watch.

The hands and the indices are plated yellow gold with outstanding shine and quality you would see in more upscale watches. Clearly Orient does not let its price range give them an excuse for coming up with sloppy products.

MOVEMENT:
This watch is powered by a mechanical automatic movement caliber Orient 46B46. It has a power reserve of approximately 40 hours and is usually accurate to around +25/-15 seconds per day as with most Orient calibers –not really chronometer standards (+4/-6) but not bad for a movement in a watch under 10K pesos. Don’t let the variance alarm you; if we translate this to percentage figures, +25/-15 would mean +0.03%/-0.02% variance on a daily basis which isn’t really a deal breaker.

It ticks at a constant beat rate of 6 beats per second which you can gladly see as you flip the watch over to view the workings of the movement via the display caseback. The movement itself is undecorated and I would love to see at least some form of finishing since this is a dressier watch; however, this does not reduce the luxurious look of the watch at all. It’s still looks amazingly classy.

VERDICT:
Overall, this one is an easy purchase. For less than ten grand a piece, this luxurious-looking mechanical watch from Japan easily rivals the other watch brands within the same price-point. To those who know, Orient actually has better brand equity than the likes of other commonly-known designer-branded watches like Kenneth Cole, DKNY, CK, etc. This is because of Orient’s established history in horology. Established in the 60’s and focusing most of their efforts in the pursuit and perfection of Japanese Mechanical watch-making, it’s clear that these guys know what they’re doing. With movements being created in-house instead of purchasing from Citizen or Seiko, they’ve established a proud heritage in the watch-making industry. If you’re looking for a pristine dress watch that has a solid design structure and brand history then we suggest you pick yourself an Orient. It’s about time to distinguish yourself from the crowd, anyhow.

The Orient Sun-Moon comes in various colors and style. It is available in Citizen Watch Emporium (SM Manila), Time Trend & Hour Glass (SM Megamall).

Pro Tip: A lighter brown leather strap aesthetically works better than the one this variant comes with.
Pro Tip2: You get further price reduction if you opt to pay in cash. Just haggle with them. ?