All Japanese Orient watches contain in-house movements, but for 2016 the affordably priced brand adds a new and much-awaited movement for two of their most popular collections. Originally introduced in models like the “super-Japanese-looking” Orient King Master watches, the new in-house-made Orient Caliber F6922 automatic movement adds features such as hand-winding and hacking along with the time and day/date display. Otherwise, the movement has about two days of power reserve and operates at 3Hz.

Orient caliber F6922. Image credit: seriouswatches.com

Fans of Orient have really been wanting movements that are more modern in that they can hand-wind in addition to automatically wind. Sure, this isn’t something new, but it is a seriously missing feature for the otherwise extremely well-priced mechanical watches in much of the Orient collection. I originally reviewed the Orient Mako back in 2009 here, and since then the company has come out with some new versions, and for the American market there is also the Orient Mako USA (reviewed here). Currently, I don’t know if the new caliber F6922 will make it into the upgraded Mako USA watch, but I imagine that it will eventually.

The new Orient Mako II and Orient Ray II diving watches are more or less unchanged but have some small differences. Each of the two models is 41.5mm wide in steel, and only differ in their strap options (the Orient Ray II can come on a black rubber strap versus the bracelet – and the bracelets of each differ slightly), along with the dial/hands design. The Orient Ray II costs $10 more than the Mako II. In addition to the new movement, the models each also get new 120-click rotating diver-style bezels. The cases are still water resistant to 200 meters and the crystals are both mineral. Some of the Orient Mako and Orient Ray models over the years have had sapphire crystals – and while those aren’t currently available with F6922 movements, I am sure that they will be in the near future.

To begin with (at least in the USA), there are six Orient diving watch models with the F6922 movements. These are various combinations of the Orient Mako II and Orient Ray II with black or blue dials, and the latter comes on the steel bracelet or matching rubber (black or blue) straps. Reference numbers for the Orient Mako II are FAA02001B9 and FAA02002D9, and the Ray II models are the FAA02004B9, FAA02005D9, FAA02007B9, FAA02008D9. Prices for the Orient Mako II models are $325, while the Orient Ray II is $335 on the bracelet, and $305 on the strap. orientwatchusa.com