We are now getting into one my most prized watch, because of its beauty, but also because of the story behind it.

IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT

Orient is an "affordable watch" company pretty well known in the sector, and i actually kickstarted my collection with an Orient Bambino in 2020. However, this little beauty has since then supplanted the Bambino in my heart. I think I became aware of that little beauty through an Instagram post. It said that it was quite rare and had been discontinued because when, in 2009, the Seiko corporation bought, it asked Orient to stop producing it and make shadow to its own "affordable" lines.

Long story short... I thought I would never actually see such a gem in person. With its distinctively stunning dial coming in blue, black, white and red, the only hits I got online were on eBay, where it was exchanging for a minimum of 300€! Way too expensive for me. However, this is where I struck luck: investigating a jewelry shop in my town, something caught my eye there and yes, I couldn't believe it but here it was: a red dial "Orient chicane"! How long had it been there? No idea but I only knew one thing: it would become mine!

SUPER LEGIBLE, SUPER CLASSY

The only problem was the price tag in the window: 157€! That was, in my opinion, a little bit too expensive for me... Not that it was not worth it, just that for this price I could get a Chinese hommage watch brand new, recently produced. After all, there was a chance that this Orient Chicane had spent the last decade in that window! So I did what I do best: i agonized for weeks, months, rehearsing some kind of bargain speech in order to convince the shop to dial down the price... And then, by chance, I had an idea and checked the web site of the shop, and you can imagine my surprise reading that online the shop was offering the Chicane for 80€! Half-price! It took me 5 seconds to click and buy it and less than 24h later, I had my new watch!

It's been in my collection for three months now and I must say I don't get tired of its fabulous red dial. I love how striking the dial is, making it super easy to read the time at a glance. It's not minimalist, it's not super sophisticated, but something between both worlds. With its mirrored markers it catches the light like no other in my collection, and there are even rather decent Lumes applied to all the markers (including the dauphine hands), and I give to it as much wrist time as possible, even if I'm a bit wary: it does feel a tiny bit fragile. It does not have a sapphire cristal and can be scratched easily, I assume. For an automatic from the beginning of the 2000, the power reserve is quite solid. It has even an open case back, but I must say there is not much to look out there: we speak of a time when the constructors didn't know how to extract the best from their open-case display.

The metal bracelet is the worst part of the Chicane. It clangs horribly and I decided to try it on on a rubber strap (quite nice!) and even better on a NATO strap which matches its colours, but unfortunately you'll notice the strap is 18mm while the lug width is 20mm. So, I bought on AliExpress new straps for it to make the best of this beauty.

CONCLUSION

Now you want to hear the funniest part? I love that watch so much, that I bought it twice. Yeah, a couple of weeks ago, browsing eBay, I noticed someone was selling the blue version of this same watch for 70€! I decided to jump on the occasion, and won the auction for the exact same prize as the red dial one! I'm not crazy though: i think there is a great opportunity to resell that blue version for twice the prize to some other enthusiast like me. It's currently on its way to me. Can't wait.

DETAILS

Brand	Model	Type	Year	Diameter	Width
Orient	FER1X002H0	Automatic caliber 48743	2009?	39mm	9.4mm

STATE OF THE COLLECTION

⌚PAGANI DESIGN PD-1651 - The Rolex Hommage ⌚
⌚LORUS RXN31BX9 - Super light ⌚

What do you think of this watch? Do you like that red dial?