The Watch Thread - Part 16

Kyo_kusanagi86

Kyo_kusanagi86

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Formal Thursday with the GMT Master 2.
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cyrenic

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Picked up a rather unique piece yesterday that has been on my radar for a long long time.. The Orient Star Diver 1964.

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I wrote a FB post earlier today about my thoughts about this piece, it's a bit long, so you can click the spoiler tag if it piques your interest, but I understand that there are only a few pieces available locally at some of Orient Singapore's ADs. Most of the Japan sources have dried up by now.

I have to say the favorite part of this piece are the hands, which are similar style to those on the Weekly Auto Orient King Diver, another watch I used to have and love dearly but reluctantly let go because it was too large for my small wrists. There's just something about this handset that brings out the flavor of an earlier era.

I also love how the 1964 pulls off the all steel look so effortlessly. I think a huge factor in all this is the restrained size. An all steel watch tends to grab more attention (more steel, brighter) on the wrist, so a smaller size balances this element out nicely. It helps that the finishing and play of textures/surfaces on this piece are executed so nicely, after it grabs the eye, there is even more to explore.

I confess that this was one of those cases where I fell in love at first sight (as I'm sure many other owners here did), and the watch has definitely met and exceeded my expectations. One area of concern that I had was the curved sapphire crystal as these tend to turn into a psuedo mirror of sorts, but I'm happy to report that the curvature is not out of control and the excellent AR definitely helps - as you can see here, these shots were taken in 3-4 min with no problem with no trouble capturing minimal reflections.

Being a dive watch, 2 points that are important to dive watch lovers are the lume and the bezel - which we all enjoy fiddling with. The lume is strong and glows with great intensity, which we can always expect from an Orient diver, and the bezel is a joy to turn, just the way I like it - smooth and buttery, yet balancing this with sufficient feedback and no backplay.

The watch is well built and definitely not light or unnoticeable on the wrist but it's perfectly balanced and you do not notice it in wear as it wraps around the wrist extremely well.

Last but not least, for the avid collector who sees a watch as being more than a watch, the watch comes with a beautiful book with close ups of the original piece that this watch takes reference from, place side by side to the 1964, and it is a joy to flip through. I also appreciate that the size of this book is similarly restrained (cough Omega Speedmaster box that can fit 3 other boxes easily) so it doesn't take up too much storage space.

To sum it all up - this is Orient's best dive watch yet, and I'm excited by what more we can expect from the brand.
 
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