I recently picked a mix bulk lot of vintage watches in various conditions and from that lot the most interesting catchy piece is Orient automatic watch. It was missing its hands, the crystal was long gone, the outer rotating bezel was missing too, and it wasn’t even running.
It was the first piece I wanted to tackle of restoring or not given parts were missing and I eventually need to source it out.
A Little History on Orient
Orient isn’t some obscure fashion brand — it’s a true Japanese watch manufacturer with roots going back to 1950, and even earlier if you trace its lineage to a small Tokyo watch shop from 1901. Wikipedia
- Founded: 1950 as Tama Keiki Company; renamed Orient Watch Company in 1951. Wikipedia
- Specialty: In-house automatic and mechanical watch movements. Wikipedia
- Ownership: Became part of Seiko Epson (a division of the Seiko Group) in the 2000s, with movements still produced in Japan. Wikipedia
Orient has been respected among watch collectors for producing reliable automatics at affordable prices, often with day/date functions and rugged cases, making them great everyday watches.
Specifications (As Found)
Because this watch came from a bulk lot and was missing key components, some of these specs are based on direct inspection and typical Orient sport models of the era, rather than factory documentation.
- Brand: Orient
- Type: Automatic, diver / driver-style sports watch
- Era: Likely late 1960s to mid-1970s
- Case material: Stainless steel (unpolished, visible corrosion and wear)
- Case diameter: ~41 mm (excluding crown, estimated)
- Lug width: ~20 mm (estimated)
- Crystal: Missing (original would likely have been acrylic)
- Bezel:
- Inner rotating timing bezel (still present)
- Outer rotating bezel missing
- Crown configuration: Dual crown layout
- One crown for time/date setting
- One crown for rotating the inner bezel
- Dial:
- Blue sunburst dial
- Applied gold indices
- Orient crest and logo
- Three-star emblem above “Automatic”
- Day/Date: Day-date at 3 o’clock
- Hands: Missing
- Running condition: Not running, hairspring looks intact, movement looks complete.
Orient Cal. 46941 – Movement Breakdown
Basic Specs
- Manufacturer: Orient Watch Co. (in-house)
- Caliber: 46941
- Type: Mechanical automatic
- Jewels: 21
- Beat rate: 21,600 bph
- Winding: Automatic
- Hacking: No
- Power reserve: ~40 hours
- Complications: Day / Date
- Quickset:
- Day: crown cycling (push/pull rotation method)
- Date: semi-quickset depending on crown position
SK, Sea King, or Something Else?
After digging through WatchUSeek threads — particularly a long-running discussion on variations of the vintage Orient SK diver — a few key points became clear from the collector community:
Community Consensus (Simplified)
- SK stands for “Super King,” not Sea King — though the nickname stuck.
- Orient produced many sport and diver-style watches using the same cases and movements as SK models.
- Only some of these were actually branded “SK” on the dial.
- Others were regional variants, export models, or simply unbranded sport divers.
- Dial text, bezel colours, star layouts, and branding varied significantly.
- Frankenwatches do exist, but variation alone does not mean fake.
The takeaway:
? A watch can be authentically Orient, SK-era, and mechanically correct — without being an SK model.
That places this watch squarely in the category of SK-adjacent variation, not a Sea King, and not a fake.
Why I Didn’t Restore It
On paper, this could have been a fun project — but restoration reality matters.
By the time I priced out:
- Hands
- Crystal
- Bezel (if even available)
- Full service
…it stopped making sense for a watch I wasn’t emotionally attached to. SK-branded examples justify that effort. A non-SK variant with heavy cosmetic issues? Much harder to justify.
After staring at it and debating, I decided I didn’t want to sink hours and money into a project watch I wasn’t emotionally attached to. I prepped it up to photograph and listed it as-is on Trade Me
The Outcome
The watch eventually sold for $10.50 on Trade Me.
A bit of a bummer — I do think it could’ve fetched more with the right buyer — but I wasn’t attached to it. Sometimes watches aren’t about profit; they’re about learning, handling different movements, and understanding where to draw the line on restorations.
That said, I’m still glad I pulled it out — even if it just funded a coffee ? and gave me a story to share here!