Another Rolex to the Spa and back...

2 weeks ago, I took my Uncle's Rolex for overhaul and repair. He bought it during the late 70s and have been wearing since. Recently it stopped ticking and he consulted me. A corroded second hand, tarnished hour/minute hands, good deal of moisture in the movement, scratched crystal and bracelet. This Rolex was indeed his beater!

"Full body spa" was done at K2 Watch Co. When I collected the watch yesterday, I was amazed; it looked minty! The crystal and braclet buffed to near perfection. New hands and a spanking clean movement! Of course my Uncle was very happy - he paid only 1/6 the quoted repair price if he had sent the watch to the Rolex agent.

The watch repair Master did it again!

Before "SPA":



After "SPA":

I do not have the before and after pics of the bracelet. In the pic, the scratches on the crystal do not show well. A robust movement for a Rolex this age!

Evergreen Orients - Part 2/2

This is the final dose of my mini two-part series on Evergreen Orients.

If you notice carefully the hologram sticker on the NOS caseback, it shows a crown with the word "ORIENT" beneath. New Orients come with the standard Orient hologram sticker that bears the ORIENT logo.

ORIENT Day-Date Jubilee (NOS)
Caliber 469 Twenty-One Jewels
Zirconia stones as index markers

This unique NOS Orient has "diamond-like" bits, which are in fact Zirconia, as indices. Push button at 2 o'clock sets the Day.

ORIENT 3-Star Automatic
Caliber 469 Twenty-One Jewels
English/Kanji Day wheel

This Orient has a unique blue-dusted dial. The Day wheel is in English and Japanese Kanji, which is never seen on my other Orients.

ORIENT Triple-A NOS
Caliber 469 Twenty-One Jewels
Straight hidden lugs with rice beads-like flat bracelet

I purchased this Orient as I found the yellow-gold dial very vintage in flavour. The case design is different from my other Orients (except for the gold Multi-Year Calendar) with flat hidden lugs.

The rice beads-like bracelet adds to the aged look of this Orient!

Evergreen Orients - Part 1/2

This is a two-parts series where I feature some evergreen Orients.

These timeless design evolved in the early 80s. During the time when Rolex watches were super-luxury goods directly associated with the "rich and powerful". In the late 70s early 80s, watches with Rolex influenced style appear. These watches (some Orients, Seikos, Citizens, Sandoz, Enicar, Octo etc) bear "trademarks" of Oyster bracelet, Jubilee bracelet, Submariner bezel, "bottle-cap" edged bezel etc. Many of such watches can still be seen now and they are priced economically to be used as beaters for the masses.

Here are two of such Orients:


ORIENT Full Day & Date President
Caliber 46E 21 Jewels
Full Day window at 12 o'clock

This is a Rolex-styled Orient. However the most oustanding (and perhaps beautiful) feature is the gold indices, hands and markings against a dark royal blue dial. There is a date magnifier, President bracelet, bottle-cap edged bezel and a 37mm case - a close Rolex homage.






For a period of time, I tried to sell this Orient. But I have long withdrawn the FS ad as I treasure the significance of this watch design on the horological timeline.

Who knows, one day, Orient may decide to produce all watches with clear caseback. When that time comes, steel caseback watches will be a rarity!


ORIENT Day-Date Jubilee (NOS)
Caliber 469 Twenty-One Jewels

This is another Rolex influenced Orient. The 469 Caliber is characterized by the push button at 2 o'clock. This cycles the Day window.


There is a word "Crystal" above 6 o'clock which I believed means the glass is a crystal material?

ORIENT Slide Rule Tool

Slide Rule is a logarithmic scale that assists the user in simple metric conversion and mathematical calculations. This mathematical tool has been incorporated into many watches, the famous and most common one being the Breitling Navitimer. Here we look at some Orient watches that have sliderule functions in them.

ORIENT Slide Rule 24-hour Pointer Day
Caliber 46B 21 Jewels
Inner rotating sliderule
24-hour indicator subdial at 10 o'clock
Pointer Day at 4 o'clock
Date window at 7 o'clock

This is a massive Orient at 44mm! excluding crown. I am especially attracted by the blue dial and the case shape. As bracelets never seem to work on my small wrist, I am looking at changing to a blue croc leather strap. Orient is indeed making some handsome watches!

This one has a clear caseback. Orient seems to be making some of her newer watches with see-through caseback and some in the normal solid caseback.




ORIENT Slide Rule Date Pointer Day
Caliber 46W 21 Jewels
Inner rotating sliderule
Arrow Pointer Day at 6 o'clock
Date window at 3 o'clock
Flat crystal glass

This Orient has the instrument pilot look. The blue dial looks more like a blend of charcoal grey and blue. Due to the thin bezel, the watch looks huge at 42mm. As you can see, I did not remove the plastic on the steel bracelet as I believe a pilot leather strap will fit her better!


This watch has a solid caseback which I personally prefer.

ORIENT Slide Rule Date Full Day
Caliber 46E 21 Jewels
External rotating sliderule bezel
Full Day at 6 o'clock

In my quest for Orient watches, this one stopped me in my tracks as I have never seen this model before. The cream dial, sliderule bezel and cushion case make this an all-rounder. The red wordings on the inner sliderule and the red-tipped second hand contrast against the cream dial. The solid stainless steel bracelet is of a down-to-earth design and nothing too fancy.



Another clearback cased Orient showing the Caliber 46.



But this Orient was sold shortly after I bought her. Why?

As of all true blue WIS, we sell watches to fund other watches! I reckoned I can give her up (temporary I hope) as I needed to pull trigger on a discontinued NOS Seiko during the same period.

Some old stock SEIKO 7009

SEIKO5 Gold Tone
Caliber 7009 - model 8840 Twenty-one Jewels
Laser-etched "5" symbol on crystal at 6 o'clock mark

I picked up this old stock Seiko5 by chance at a watchshop. Coincidentally I had my loupe with me (now I always carry a loupe when I go watch hunting!) and the loupe revealed the 7009 movement number on the left of 6 o'clock. The full cased steel back with "Japan" on it confirmed her identity and age! Unlike the new gold plated watches commonly found these days, early Seiko watches are plated a dull matt finish with a brushed look and feel. This cuts down the bling effect of the watch, making it an easy choice for a daily beater.



The Seiko5 from this period has the Seiko5 "5" logo etched onto the crystal. It adds a nice touch to the watch, giving it an authentic flavour of the yester-years.

SEIKO5 Steel
Caliber 7009 - model 3160
with Inner 24-hr bezel on sunburst dial

This is another 7009 but in brushed steel finish. I bought it in another old watchshop. There were two of these 7009 lying in the showcase but passers-by simply ignored these "old-fashioned" Seikos?!? What a waste to be distracted by the new Kinetics! I bought both and sold one to a Singapore collector.

The inner black 24-hr bezel (which cannot be turned) contrasts the watch beautifully with the silver sunburst dial and gold indices and hands. The case shape is also from the retro days!

Saturday Night Fever, anyone?




One unique feature of the 7009 is that the day is changed by pushing the crown inwards. Another wonderful movement design by the Seiko engineers!

An Old Citizen from the drawer...

CITIZEN Ladies Hand Winding
Caliber 0180A 17 Jewels
circa 1979

My Mom was packing her drawer when she chanced upon her old Citizen watch she wore during her working days some 30 years ago. I gave it a few wounds and it sprang to life. Very strong crisp ticking can be heard through the steel caseback.

I was tempted and had to open the caseback. Although the inner case seemed badly tarnished, I am welcomed with a very clean manual movement, 17 jewels. The rear of the caseback has some blurred wordings and I make them out to be "Hong Kong". So this Citizen may have been cased in Hong Kong although the movement reads "Japan".

Once again a fine example of the durability and reliability of Japanese movements. Maybe I will have to take this watch for an overhaul. With some cleaning, a new crystal and a fresh leather band, she will be good to go for more decades to come!