Orient Flight ref no. ER2A003B Review

Shots of thoughts was the first to bring to you the latest offering from Orient Watch co. that pays homage to the B-uhr watches of the past.  And now as a follow-up, it is only fitting that we give you an in depth review of the Orient Flight ref no. ER2A003B.





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.

Recommended Watch: Prometheus Sailfish

What I love about some independent watch companies is that they operate in a niche market and try to target a few and focus on making their customers happy and even devoted.  Well that may seem a quote from a marketing book but its very true for these small watch brands who don't belong to big Watch Company conglomerates and I even have a perfect normal example for such.

Prometheus is a watch company that just started in 2008 and sells quite good line of watches mostly divers, pilots and dress watches to which for me is a normal complete everyday style watches. And just a couple of weeks ago, they have started pre-orders of a new watch on their collection.  What's so neat about this watch?

The Prometheus Sailfish, the upcoming diver model from the brand and pays tribute to a very interesting and powerful sea creature, the Sailfish.  And the design of the Sailfish is a combination of two historical watches from the past, mainly the Blancpain 50 Fathoms for the bezel, while dial and hands design from the Longines HS watch during the second world war.  And for us, it is one simple and unique combination of design that we can't wait to see in the metal.

Underneath the hood of the Sailfish is Seiko's latest automatic movement NH36 to which for Seikoholics out there, the upgraded version of the 7sxx movements, the 4R36.  Which of course, has already the hacking and handwinding functions that were absent of its predecessor.  This is also the same movement that powers the new Seiko Monsters and baby Tunas.

Below are the complete technical details for the watch.
316L Stainless Steel Case with Brushed finish
Matte Dial
Seiko/Time Module NH36/4R36 Automatic Movement
Domed Sapphire Bezel with 60 clicks and applied luminous C3 Superluminova in numbers and markers
316L stainless steel bracelet with 22mm width including high quality ratcheting buckle suitable for precise and easy adjustments
case diameter: 42.00 mm without bezel, 43mm with bezel
lug width: 22 mm
signed screw down crown with Prometheus logo
water resistance: 300 meters or 30 ATM
sapphire glass with anti-reflective coating inside

watch hands with C3 Superluminova application (hours, minutes, seconds)

And another point I'd truly want to raise out is that they have other color combinations of the watch aside from the usual black face.  Two combinations of which were contributions of their fans from their Facebook page.  Talk about listening to the customer.  I've never seen that in any watch brand before.

Here are the computer generated pics of what the Prometheus Sailfish will look like when it swims out this August.

Blue Model

The the fan suggested models through facebook page.

Here is where customers can pre-order the Sailfish.  They are accepting 300 orders in total for whatever model the customer wishes.

Here are some updated 3D renders.

The case back

And some technical details on the dimensions of the Sailfish's watchhead.

                                 

The Promethus sailfish pre-order price
410 EUR for Residents in European Union including delivery via Fedex and VAT Tax
339 EUR for Residents in Rest of World including delivery via Fedex

If you are looking for a classic looking diver that isn't as common as big watch brands but offers the same quality and satisfaction of wearing a real divers watch, the pre-order link has still numerous slots for you to choose from.  And though many may say that what we see are just 2d and 3d renders of the Sailfish, what I count on is the ability of Prometheus to deliver, to which I have seen been successfully executed in their previous offerings.

Recommended Watch #38: Crepas Cayman 3000 with Jacob Straps

When we speak about leather straps, we always associate it with dress watches, pilot watches or the ever popular PAMs.  And in that note, we don't always associate the classy and delicate strap for dive watches and the salty water where it resides.  But yet we see leather straps of any kind strapped on to dive watches, adding class and elegance to the timepiece that in turn merits it to be invited to an offshore formal event.  And though this seems to be inappropriate in terms of function, but definitely matches like a dress watch considering a diving watch that can actually impress.

Of course, the almighty king of watches, the Submariner would fit this story as historically demonstrated on screen by the world's favorite secret agent way back in the 60s.   

But my 38th recommended watch for this week is from an independent watch brand that is practically unknown to everyone and offers limited edition watches only.  And just like the Sub, it damn looks good with leather.

Below is the Crepas Cayman 3000 with a black leather strap from Jacop Straps specifically made for this watch.  Note Crepas brand on the back if the buckle.

One of the things that captured me with this independed beautiful diver is its classic vintage inspired design.  The sexy thin case and lugs, the crown at 3 o'clock w/out any crown guards, the coin ridged bezel grips and the simple bezel insert with the 15 minute markers only and 5 min indices.  The case is 43mm while the bezel outgrows it measuring at 44.5mm and supports the straps with 22mm space between lugs.


And what completes it the most is that even though the case is vintage in design reminiscent combination of the original Submariners and Seiko 62MAs, the dial is independently minimalist modern black dial that the hands are simply sporty yet elegant.  For dive watches, 4 liners on white font is the max in achieving a classic and timeless look. And aside from this modern look, the technology and capability is definitely in this generation.


The '3000' number for the reference of this Crepas isn't just a fancy number but is a true representation of how deep it can go by meters.  Yes, WR to 300atm or 3000 meters.   It is also antimagnetic to 70A/m.  Movement is ETA 2824. A helium escape valve at 9 o'clock.



Here's a breakdown form saphire to caseback.

Here are more pics plus its original stainless steel bracelet.

Notice the lume on the dial, bezel, and caseback.  Impressive.

Recommended Watch #37: Glycine Incursore III 44 Automatic ref. 3900/3922

I've been away for a couple of weeks during the year-end holidays and now I'm back with with hopefully more goods to contribute to Shots of Thoughts.

To be back on track, here is WWR# 37.

There are some designs that we most of the time ignore the first time we laid our eyes on them, but came to appreciate the 2nd time around.  A love not at first site.  And one of those pieces or kind of pieces that was not love at first site was the so called 'California Dial'.

What is a California dial you say? It is also called the High Visibility or the Roman-Arabic dial.  It is basically Roman Indices on the upper portion of the dial and Arabic on the bottom.  With the 3-6-9-with rectangular markers and the 12 o'clock military symbol.  Its kind of an art-deco style dial that first appeared on Rolex bubble backs way back in the 1940s.   Where did the name California came from? Based from web sources all over and account of vintage documents and watches, this style of a dial was patented by Rolex in 1941, but got it's famous name from an LA based dial refinisher Kirk Rich who did this kind of this design on some vintage watches he worked on, to which became popular to a point that watch dealers already referred it to the "California Dial". 

Images grabbed from Jake's Rolex World blog.

Now in relation to this art-deco dial design, This watch caught my eye while just lazily browsing over the web.  Now you may say, PAM 424 is a great tribute to the vintage 3466 with a faithful revival of the California Dial, but I wanted something on a regular shaped watch case that may not be as 100% homage to the bubble backs back then but can stand on its own.  And this is what Glycine is for me.

Glycine has quite a reputation from collectors of having well balance and clean designs on their watches with minimal striking features that makes them interesting.  And with the Incursore, the execution of a California Dial on a round military watch case and indice set like hands is clean and humble yet remarkably striking to those who now about the design.  The two below are what I would choose from the Incursore line. 

Ref 3900 with brown leather strap with just the name Glycine on sans the logo

 

And the ref. 3922 with black strap and Logo on.  Both have automatic movements.

 

Here are the specs from Glycine website.

Movement
Caliber:	Swiss automatic movement
Functions:	hours, minutes and seconds, date display in window
Size:	11 1/2"
Jewels:	25
Power Reserve:	38 hours
Hz:	4/28'800 vibrations per hour
Finish:	nickel coated oscillating weight on ball bearing, decorated "Côtes de Genève"
Case, Dial & Hands
Material:	stainless steel
Diameter:	44mm without crown
Height:	9.95 with see-through back
Finish:	polished / satin
Waterproof:	10 atm
Back:	screwed see-through sapphire glass
Glass:	sapphire
Dial:	black with 4 roman and 4 arabic figures with SL, black and dark brown with 4 arabic figures and strikes with SL
Hands:	white with SL or steel with SL
Crown:	screw-down
Leather strap
Material:	calf
Colours:	calf sewing: black, brown, light brown, blue calf croco style: black, brown, light brown, blue
Width:	22mm horns / 22mm buckle
Buckle:	belt
Bracelet
Material:	stainless steel
Finish:	satin
Length:	190mm incl. endpieces
Width:	22mm horns / 18mm buckle
Clasp:	diver

There is also a manual wind Incursore 44mm version and has a cool second hand at 6 o'clock which is true to the Rolex patent as seen above.

Prices of these models hover around $900-$1100 which is a good deal for a well built "Intruder" watch with High Visibility and art-deco dial.