The Rarest Orient Of All?

We've
covered some rare and unusual watches in the blog before, but the model we will
be looking at today is probably the
rarest of them all. It is the Royal Orient reference WE0011DU.

The
Royal WE0011DU was among a few models released by Orient ten years ago, in
celebration of the brand's 60th anniversary. It was, of course, the most exclusive (and expensive,
by some margin) of the lot: a limited edition of just 12 (twelve!) pieces.

The
specs of this beast were impressive enough, certainly close to the top of
Orient's all-time releases, both in their mechanics as well as the esthetics.

The
movement was caliber 48Z40, a uniquely skeletonized variant of the 48 family,
similar to caliber 48B56 found in other, "standard" Royal Orient
Skeletons (as much as these can be called standard). However, looking at the
finish and unique bridge construction of the movement, it is obvious a lot of
effort had gone into making this piece stand out.

Similar
to other 48 calibers, the movement is hand-winding only, boasting 50 hours of
power reserve and stated accuracy of +10/-5 seconds per day, at a frequency of
21,600 vibrations per hour.

The
case of the WE0011DU was 38.5mm wide, 45.5mm lug to lug, and 10.1 mm thick.
Both front and back were covered by sapphire glass, not surprisingly. The watch
case and dial feature plenty of finely finished surfaces, both mirror- and
satin-polished, achieved through much more manual work than even most Royal
Orient models.

Looking
beyond the specs, this unique Orient must have been quite a sight, and it's a
shame that so little information and real-life photos of it are available! But
it makes sense that costing close to 6,000 USD (roughly 2.5 times the cost of "regular" Royal Orient skeleton models!) and being produced in such a
small quantity, it has become a safe-queen for most of its owners.

I
do like to set some fairly tough targets for my collection, and as followers of
the blog must have noted I have succeeded in acquiring some models that are very
hard to get. But to be honest, I'm not even aiming at finding the WE0011DU! I'd
be happy to even see some photos of this watch. Just to be sure the legendary
beast even exists…