http://www.orientalwatchsite.com/co...-aqua-terra-vs-the-orient-star-standard-date/

I like Orient watches for their value, but they're nuts if they think any serious watch guy believes they're nearly or just as good as an AT 8500.

 

Saw that - it was the final straw that caused me to post this.

At least Frederique Constant makes a really good Calatrava homage / rip off. This Orient is not even close..... which may be a good thing.

 

Among affordable watches, Orient is a good brand to choose with strong history as good as Seiko (some say even better, but Orient does not have luxury class like Grand Seiko line)
Comparing them with the like of Omega, Cartier, Patek dan Brietling simply by ticking off features and design similarity is just....ehm... imagination exercise gone too far.
Just by comparing visual case finishing or movement finishing we know it come from two different class.

 

These are good value for the money typically, just don't expect spectacular performance, or "Patek-like" finishing...

Let's have a look at this diver I serviced a while back:



Movement is not finished at all:





I don't think the Geneva seal, or the Patek seal, allow for plastic parts...



Omega is no great guns when it comes to finishing, but they are certainly a notch or two above Orient....



Cheers, Al

 

Just curious Al, with lower value watch like Orient is it still worth to service it or just better to buy new one?

 

Some people would consider this disposable, and others would pay more than it's worth to get it serviced. It's really up to the owner to decide. I get the occasional Seiko owner ask about service costs, but they usually disappear when I give them my pricing (using Seiko because I really don't get asked about Orient's very often). Not that I'm particularly expensive, but these watches just don't have a ton of value in most cases - of course there are exceptions. For watches like the Seikos with movements like the 7S26 you are better off to either get a new watch, or get a donor movement to swap for the old one. You can buy a movement for less than I would charge to service it. If it's a vintage model, then that's a different story of course, and I have serviced a bunch of vintage Seiko divers and chronographs.

Some watchmakers place a higher service price on higher end watches, and offer less expensive prices on cheap watches, which to me makes no sense. The only real justification I can think of is if they screw something up and have to buy a new part, it will cost them more to get themselves out of trouble with an expensive watch. From a labour standpoint, the cheap stuff is just as time consuming, if not more so, than an expensive watch would be.

I service watches often that are not worth the money I am putting into them, but that is usually for sentimental reasons, such as a family piece.

Cheers, Al

 

I can imagine servicing lower quality watches actually consume more time......with more fragile parts and probably not too good design.
Thanks for your explanation.

 

Seiko and Orient: buy, beat, toss, repeat.

 

You can't do that with Seiko Ananta or Grand Seiko...........

 

That's a different breed of watch though. I'm talking the old Monsters, Seiko 5's, or 007/009's.