When it comes to luminosity, it doesn’t fall much short in comparison to the Seiko Prospex or Seiko 5 series dive watches. It has a greenish tone that glows brightly and lasts for several hours. It’s one of my cheapist auto watches but it’s the one that gets the most compliments from the ladies.

I echo the other comments that the crown is too small / difficult to grab, but otherwise there is not much to complain about. However, the bracelet isn’t flawless. The one thing that I noticed was that when not worn tightly around the wrist, the bracelet makes a squeaking noise. Not a loud squeaking, but still noticeable. The newer kamasu watches with the faded dial look good but for me the Red or the green sunburst all day. Mine gained 12 seconds in the first 24 hours, while with the next day, it added another 8. And after a week, the watch was off by +45 seconds. So, my Kamasu runs a bit ahead. Still, for an automatic caliber, it is a good result. Now, when heading to the most striking part of this Kamasu, the dial, it makes me forget the slight letdowns of the crown and bracelet completely.

The Orient Kamasu — a fish for all seasons

In addition, the luminous pip on the bezel is of a decent size and doesn’t get lost between the large hour markers and hands.

Slapping it on a NATO and now a perlon strap and pulling it up just a bit higher on my wrist has eliminated the lug concerns.

Although it’s something I don’t necessarily find to be a big flaw on watches, as long as it doesn’t have a thunderous rattling noise, it is still the case for improvement. What I do in this situation is that I wear metal band watches tightly around the wrist to eliminate the noise. What I also like about the dial is the day-date feature. Instead of the same window for both the day and date, this watch has them visually separately. In my personal opinion, this solution looks way better. I had ignored it up until now because the 47mm lug-to-lug scared me and my scrawny 6-inch wrists away, but when I saw it on sale for the price of a nice bracelet, I asked to try it on and was asking to be rung up within seconds. If you’ve never considered yourself an “Orient guy” before, maybe it’s time to change your stance. Like it happened to me. They don’t sell them in the UK so I got mine from Japan for 210 pounds but the extra money and made in Japan with the Kanji days if defiantly worth it.

The bracelet is not that bad and lest we forget rolex used to use stamped clasps and hollow end links. There are a few common features across all Kamasu watches: a 41.8-mm case, screw-down crown, unidirectional diving bezel, and a depth rating of 200 m (20 bar, 656 ft). The dials have a beautiful sunburst pattern that appears to change color depending on how the light hits it. The bar indices boast a generous coating of luminous material, which guarantees optimal readability under all lighting conditions. While the refs. RA-AA0005B and RA-AA0006L come on rubber straps, the rest of the collection is outfitted with three-piece link stainless steel bracelets. The straps and bracelets are each 22 mm wide. The bracelet comes with a push-button deployant clasp that ensures a secure fastening to the wrist. The clasp is also decorated with the Orient logo. It is easy to open and close, with nothing to complain about. Found this in a Tokyo dept. store on sale at an insane markdown. More than 75% off msrp and 50% below what it is usually going for online. What’s also nice is that there’s not a significant mismatch between the strength of the glow in the hands and on the markers, which typically happens with affordable watches.The positives just keep on coming: nice polished/brushed case, GORGEOUS dial, framed day/date comp., applied indexes, applied logo, great lume, sapphire crystal, accurate (in my experience) in-house movement, 22mm lug width makes it a true strap monster. If they hadn’t bizarrely left out the lume dot on the bezel (no pip!) and the useful minute gradations in the first 15, for god knows what reason, I’d be wearing it now. I actually use my timer all the time, and besides it just looks silly not meeting the ISO and JIS requirements for something so simple. I do have a Mako 1.2 or “XL” , which has the “60” in place of the triangle, and that is just enough out there for it to be its own animal that it doesn’t bother me. But omitting it and leaving a blank triangle….. yeah I’m ocd, but I think it looks cheap. In addition to the crown, my only other recommendation for any Orient employees who might see this would be a version with no day/date comp, so we can see ALL of that beautiful sunburst dial.

There exists a small space in the world of mechanical watches, a space that is occupied by only a handful of brands that are able to deliver solid build quality from a reputable manufacturer at a reasonable cost. Orient is one of those few brands, and the Kamasu expertly exemplifies those abilities. These are the important elements that really matter, and this is how a watch can earn its “cred”, not from shady marketing or murky sourcing. The Kamasu reminds all of us cynics of one thing: sometimes you can believe the hype. About the author ref. RA-AA0002L with a blue dial. Even though it is technologically identical to the previous model, this watch costs slightly more at 280 USD. TheHowever, the most significant reason why the F6922 is so appreciated is that it rarely malfunctions. It is known for its workhorse reliability and its bulletproof construction.