New Orient Star Divers Announced

Now that is some big news! It's been quite a few years since we've seen
diver-style watches in the Orient Star line. And considering Orient's ability
to produce really good divers on a budget, combined with the familiar quality
of Orient Stars – there's much to look forward to with these new models!

In fact, Orient announced two new diver lines today, one being a classic
full dial, and the other – a semi
skeleton.

The semi-skeleton line-up looks more attractive and unique, based on the
catalog photos. Six versions are introduced, two of which are Prestige
Shop limited, and the rest should be widely available.

The different versions are in the 800-900 USD range. All of them are stainless
steel 43.2mm wide, 49.2mm long lug-to-lug, feature sapphire crystal up front
and mineral glass back, and are rated to 200m depth. Some are equipped with a
steel bracelet, some – a leather strap, all fitting that Orient-favorite 21mm
lug width.

The bezel is steel, and uni-directional. Orient did not mention whether
the crown is a screw-down, but most likely it is (like most Orient diver
watches). Inside, is the semi-skeletonized caliber F6R42, latest generation
movement, with hacking and hand-winding, and as usual – specs are +25/-15
seconds day difference.

The blog's verdict: very well done! At least on paper, that is,
until we get to see one in the flesh… the watch seems well proportioned, and
specs are decent. Our favorites are those beautiful teal dial models – particularly
ref. RK-AT0106E (the one on a bracelet, alas being the limited prestige shop
model). The non-limited brown dial RK-AT0102Y is great looking too! 

The other model range announced consists of more traditional looking,
full-dial watches. These are slightly cheaper than the semi-skeletons, and also
a tad larger at 43.6mm wide and 51.1mm long. They do feature the more popular
lug width of 22mm.

The movement here is F6N47, with very similar specs to the aforementioned
semi-skeleton counterpart. Here the case-back is solid, so you won't be able to
view it from either the front or the back…

The best deal here is probably (again) the Prestige Shop model, which
while costing a little extra does come with both a steel bracelet and a silicon
strap – hopefully it is of good quality, as it does have a very bland
appearance.

The blog's verdict: hmm… we'd have to see some more real life photos of
these divers, but they seem a lot more generic and less, well, Orient-ish than
the semi-skeleton ones. These are probably addressing more mainstream buyers.