Orient's best ever watch: a 55 mm skyscraper that will callously swallow your wrist
Beware of the flare
Bros, this is the Orient Saturation Diver Professional 300 metre. The OSD. Cousin of the Seiko Marinemaster 300, and he dwarfs his slightly inferior cousin in every physical attribute. 46 mm wide, 54.5 to 55 mm lug-to-lug, 16.6 mm thick, 22 mm lugs, over 220 grams. Monolithic and undifferentiated, this megalith will callously swallow up your wrist. It's a skyscraper on the wrist. As far as I know only the SBEX is taller. You'd better have a flat wrist of over seven inches or you'll suffer the pain of the clown workshop while everybody laughs at you. I can just about manage it.
Built like a factory
It is not a daily wearer. It's demanding, you always know it's on, it pulls you down gravitationally. Ruggedly built, a tool watch in every way, all the hallmarks of a Japanese diver from the dial to the handset to the crown at four. Screw-down caseback, hermetically sealed, and no helium escape valve because the seals are done so well it doesn't need one. The finishing is the most basic of my three big divers, but very high quality nonetheless: brushed on top, extremely well done, polished sides, the two Orient lions hugging the crest on the back. Next to it, the Doxa Sub 1500T wears much more comfortably. These top-heavy pieces flop. You just let them flop.
Bezel, dial and a green sun
It looks ceramic. It's not. Anodised aluminium, massive embossed painted indices, and the action is superb, buttery smooth. Best feature on the watch. Mine sticks a bit sometimes, most don't. Matte black dial, applied polished indices, a perfectly aligned rehaut (are you listening, Shinji Hattori?), that flash of red 300 metres, and a power reserve indicator, quite rare on a diver. They shifted the date to nine to fit it, and it snaps over perfectly at midnight, not like a Seiko. Deep-dish lume handset out of the delicatessen. And the lume shines like the sun. Some kind of green sun. Lit up like a Christmas tree. Next to my MM300 you can't really separate them.
This is where the Orient falls down
The in-house movement is quite rudimentary: 23 jewels, 3 Hz, 40 hours. The second generation hacks and hand-winds, empty to full in about 30 winds. Mine's never been serviced in nearly ten years and still keeps about plus or minus five, but it's not the most reliable or precise. The oyster-style bracelet, with the titanium Marinemaster SBDX017 clasp and ratcheting extension, is very nicely done, if a little thin for the heft of the behemoth. And Orient scrimped on the box. The coating has gone. The twerp itself? Pristine.
Verdict
Orient's best ever watch, without a shadow of a doubt, and they discontinued it with no follow-up. Why? I don't know. A thousand quid new, I paid £700 used, and it's the only watch I own that's gone up. It is a bargain. Consider it well. One of my favourite twerps, my first fancy twerp, and I love it as much as the day I bought it. But Geth has to sell a twerp to attain a twerp, so it's going on eBay. Stay freaky, never give up.
