ok, after Christmas
My 5-y-o Orient Mako, $100 automatic quit on me. My everywhere, all-the-time dip in the bay watch. Scratched up crystal and bezel. Doesn't make sense to to pay my Korean watchmaker $120 to clean it.
So I took my leftover Christmas money and found one of the last Orient M-force divers still available.
This is the same movement, hacking, auto + hand-wind, power-reserve meter and date that's in their $2000 saturation diver, but this is a 200m "air diver" and cost less than $400 with sapphire crystal, and a 46mm beast.
Essentially paid the same price as the Orient Ray II, which doesn't have a sapphire crystal, and has the Mako movement.
showing my favorite 40s50s watches
There are several cool things about these two, the Omega cal was the wartime standard for accuracy.
If you've ever looked closely at your chrono dial, the speed of sound is calibrated to flash distance on the telemeter. Very important for warships and artillery returning fire.
One day my younger daughter was frightened by one of our monsoon electrical storms (and several solid lightning strikes on our hill).
So I handed her this chrono and kept her busy measuring distance from flash (strike) to thunder boom (us).
you know they call a click-pawl fly reel mechanism a clockwork check (compare to disc drag) - mechanical watches have soul
I have more watches to show if it generates any interest.