Orient Men’s Japanese Automatic/Hand Winding 200 M Diver Style Watch RA-AA08

Why Orient RA-AA081 is top tier
I am going to list why I think the Orient RA-AA081 (sometimes called Kamasu 2) is absolute top tier in the world of watches (Not just “cheap” watches).Case/Band: The finishing on the case and band is excellent I like that all of the band lengths are brushed, without any polishing. Polished links show scratches much more easily. The band links are held together by directional punch pins, and can be easily removed using a cheap tool.Clasp: The clasp has a spring loaded release on each side, and then has an additional flip-down locking tab. It also has four micro adjustment positions that can be set without removing lengths. The clasp works well, and is secure.Bezel: The rotating bezel does not slip or wobble. It is secure with very positive clicks. The coin edge is well cut and gives excellent feel and grip. The rotation of the bezel on a dive watch is extremely important as it has real utility (as a timer), and is not for decoration only.Crystal: The single feature that puts this watch in top tier above almost anything else at this price point is the sapphire crystal. Nearly every watch at this price ($225) has acrylic (plastic), mineral glass, hardlex, etc. Mineral glass has a Mohs hardness of approximately 4-5. Synthetic sapphire is approximately 9. There are very few things that can scratch sapphire, diamond and tungsten carbide being two. Sapphire is found on most watches costing thousands of dollars (Rolex/Omega/etc), but is not often available at this price point. Orient Bambino doesn’t have it. Citizen Garrison (BM8180-03E ) doesn’t have it. Seiko Presage (SRPE45J1) at $500 doesn’t have it. Seiko 5 (SNKL45 ) doesn’t have it. Citizen Promaster Diver (BN0158-00X) doesn’t have it.Screw down crown: The crown is a very legitimate screw down. I agree with other reviewers that it is slightly too small, but it is rarely manipulated. The threads are well cut and smooth. When closing the crown, It is sometimes difficult to know when the crown is properly engaged on the threads, so be careful, LISTEN to it, and don’t force it. It does not take much force at all to close the crown, and it does not need to be torqued at the end, so DON’T over-tighten it. Always make sure you have the crown properly screwed down, or the watch will lose all water resistance.Water-Resistance: Manufacturer claims water resistant to 20 bar. That is approximately 200 meters (656 feet) beneath water. Is it? I don’t know, and I’m not going to test it. I can report that this watch has survived many expeditions to the kitchen sink and rain filled journeys across urban parking lots.Movement: This watch is automatic (self-winding by momentum of wrist), powered by the Orient F6922 movement. This means the watch is fully mechanical, without any batteries, electric, etc. It “ticks” and keeps time using gears, spring(s), etc. This is opposed to a Quartz movement that takes a battery (and actually keeps much better time). You can research mechanical vs quartz, but I have had both, and prefer automatic on analog watches.Accuracy/Precision: My watch runs consistently at about +7 seconds per day against atomic time. COSC chronometer certification (really expensive automatic watches) specifies a precision of -4 sec to +6 sec per day. So my watch, out of the box, isn’t far off from COSC time keeping specs. It is important to note that my watch being consistently +7 seconds per day, every day, indicates my watch is actually very precise. My watch could likely be regulated within COSC parameters if I wanted to open the caseback and adjust the regulation lever.Winding/Hacking: The Orient F6922 movement is both hand windable, and hackable. This means it can be hand wound when not being worn, and the second hand can be hacked (stopped) when setting the watch, so that it may be set to the exact second.Day/Date setting: The day and the date can both be set independently of the hands, so it not necessary to advance the hands around and around to set the date. The day can be set for either English or Spanish. This is somewhat confusing at first, so read the manual very carefully. When the day is correctly setup for English, the day will actually change to Spanish for a little while after midnight, before then changing again to the English day. This is normal and as designed. Basically, the physical day rotor is printed English/Spanish/English/Spanish and the gear train moves the rotor two positions over a few hours at the start of each day, so after midnight a watch set to English will move English-Spanish-English and a watch set to Spanish will move Spanish-English-Spanish and then hold the correct language for the remainder of the day.Caseback: This watch does not have a display caseback, so the gears can’t be seen, the solid caseback is pleasantly thin, and it is VERY quiet.Lum: The hour markers are luminous, charged by light. The lum is fairly good, and is easily legible for at least an hour if well charged before going into darkness.Dial: The turquoise dial on the RA-AA0811E19B is beautiful, and everything is aligned well.Summary: I have not found another watch near this price point that I like this much. This watch is high quality, with a sapphire crystal, a really nice rotating bezel, and a screw down crown. The only criticism I can find is the crown being a little small.———————————————–One year review:Band: I still like the factory band and think it looks great. I did replace mine with a Barton 22mm NATO that is more comfortable and lighter for daily wear.Crystal: The sapphire crystal is still in perfect condition without a single scratch or blemishBezel: The bezel has accumulated little scratches, dings, and other minor damage from daily wear. No stars deducted as this could happen to any watch.Accuracy/Precision: My watch maintained its approximate factory accuracy for a year. I then decided to open the caseback and regulate the speed and beat error myself. This is a very fine process, and there is a real risk of permanently damaging the watch if mistakes are made. I stopped the balance wheel by hacking the seconds hand (pulling the crown all the way out) before making each adjustment. Using a timegrapher app on my phone and the built in microphone, I was able to achieve -1 second per day face-up and 0.1ms beat error. This has been holding fairly stable and my current accuracy is fantastic.——————————Update: The watch has slowly drifted and is currently running about +13 seconds a day.

Very Underrated Wrist: 6.5ish inches
I have owned this for a year now. have collected a lot of watches. Seiko Skx, Seiko Turtle, Seiko Chronographs, Seiko Dress kx, Chinese San Martin watches, Hamilton Mechanical, Hamilton Intramatic Chronograph, gshocks, microbrands like Baltic Aquascaphe, invictas, and the Rolex submariner to name a few. None of them have enamored me like this one. It’s a size that looks good whether I’m hungry, cold and shriveled or hot and puffy. Perfect weight and comfort. It’s extremely accurate, I only ever have to set it twice a year, for daylight savings because it stays accurate to the correct minute for the duration of the year. I only take it off when I sleep. It has handled fishing, snorkeling in Cabo, a thousand showers, runs, bike rides, slams, violent hand movements, shadow boxing, playing catch, holding vibrating massage guns, flights, jacuzzis etc etc. I use the timing bezel every day for various purposes.Heres what I’ll say about the bezel: it’s awkward at first. It’s like a pair of Red Wing Iron Ranger boots, stiff at first and then lovely once you break it in. It offers wonderful grip and it sounds better with time and use despite sounding icky at first. Beauty: this watch has a dial that draws you in. It has a lacquer style shine with a dark grey center to black gradient as you reach the edge. The day-date window is neatly framed and convenient as I often lose track of what day of the week it is. I find that a day display is more useful than a date display and yet they’re so hard to find in a good watch. The hands and indices have excellent lume that lasts. I find that it’s less important how bright your lume is and more important how long it lasts and how well it contrasts with the dial, in this case both aspects are flawless. The indices are a slight creamy beige but this does not sacrifice aforementioned lume or contrast. This layout lends to instant readability as you can quickly discern which hand is the minute and hour and thus what time they are suggesting. There is no chapter ring and that’s nice. The watch wears thinner than the SKX and 5KX.I suggest putting this watch on an aftermarket bracelet or strap and you will be set up nicely. I have opted to purposefully scratch the bezel with a kitchen knife to add a vintage look. But I found that the aluminum bezel is actually far harder to scratch than the dorks on the internet might suggest. All in all this watch is a 9.6/10 for me. It would be perfect with a Rolex style bracelet but this is not a luxury watch and so I cannot justify knocking it down without proportionate accordance.

I wear this as my everyday work watch. I absolutely love it. I’m a general contractor and it takes a beating but it shines through day by day. I have watches that cost triple but this watch continues to impress me constantly.

One of my absolute favorites! I’ve had it for about 4 months now and never get bored with it’s look and feel. There is probably no other watch with a better value. High quality timepiece at a discount price. Simple yet stylish. Winding crown is small for my sausage fingers but I don’t use it that much anyway. The precision is pretty good, so only have to adjust it about once a month.