Case
The case measures 42mm wide, 48mm long and around 11mm thick. In today's generation of watches, this is just about what many say the "Perfect Size". Minimum nowadays is 40mm, anything lower than that is somewhat unacceptable anymore unless its an oyster case labelled with a coronet, and 44mm is the maximum, and anything above that is only understandable if its a PAM or a professional dive watch.
The Orient Pilot neatly slides into your cuffs without any hesitation, and the probabiltiy of dinging the watch is almost nil in moving on with regular watch life. The case is also water resistant to a 100M as it features a screw down crown, a definite plus for an everyday pilot watch.
The finish of the case is mostly brushed on the sides and lugs. And the screwback case back is minimal in writing without any logos watsoever.
The case is fitted with a mineral crystal that doesn't have any AR, thus lighting reflections from the sun or indoor bulbs disturbs the visibility of the watch easily.
Dial
Well, the dial is the real star of this watch. It's practically the first thing that we made us notice this watch. The classic B-uhr type B dial is such a dashboard tool design but with Orient's execution, it made it more of a casual and balanced look. Why? The minute and hour markers aren't that far. The dial has a sunray finish around the area of hour markers and matte finish on the minutes. The hour and minutes hands are all white that matches the white lume then hase the black color through the center. The second hand is painted all white without any lume, and ticks around the dial cleanly. The minute and hour markers are all white, leaving only the red "O" on the orient logo. It also has an italic Automatic and Water resist logo up front. Though some have views that a steril dial would be nicer, but that wouldn't bean Orient if it is. At first, the logos and writing seem cluttered and busy, but actually grows on you and you find it appropriate to have them, considering the character that is consisten in almost all Orient watches is still augmented on this one. The lume is okay. Well I can't say superb nor bad, but just right.
Crown
The screw down crown is pretty short but wide. Even wider then the Mako XL which creates an easier grip for time and quick date setting and the flawless screw down operation. Would have been better if the crown was signed similar to the Bambino but since this is more a utilitarian tool, hence probably the sterile design.
Strap
The lugs on the case has a width of 22mm, pretty standard for men'z watch straps nowadays and definitely a big plus for interchangeability to leather or nylon straps. I don't think this will good with rubber. Below are a few examples with different straps. But the OEM leather strap is good enough for the job. 5mm thick, genuine black leather, signed buckle. A complete design even if it means strapping it over a pilot's overall/jacket.
Movement
Orient's own in-house 48743 calibre powers the Flight. its a 21 jewel, 40 hour power reserve automatic movement that doesn't have hacking and handwinding capabilities. The handwinding is kinda of a novelty with automatic watches and who necessarily uses them if you have a screw down crown? With a month of wearing, i can cross my heart swear that it's still accurate to within a minute still. It's about +4 sec I rest it in the drawer face up, and -4 sec/day when worn or lying crown up in the drawer. So I guess that positioning of how you rest it breaks the variance in accuracy in comparison to your quartz watches. For the price, i'm highly delighted with its performance. Other drawback is the rotor is loud and noisy, I can even hear it rolling around while wearing it, but the good sid is that the excapement is loud too. If I just rest my head with my hands, standing on my elbow, during boring meetings, I can hear the movement ticking away. Neat!
And what is a review without loads of live pics?
on black nato...
On military brown zulu
On croc patterned leather
and on two rivet pilot strap...
Pilot B-uhr watches in general have stood the test of time with its utilitarian and classic design, ever inspiring big and small watch brands to make their own versions and continually get a huge following along side divers watches. And now that Orient has finally entered into this Swiss/German populated foray of B-uhr watches, the quality and exceptional bang for buck value that only the horologists from Japan can offer has finally checked-in with the Orient Flight.
