Orient "World Map Revival" RA-AA0E03L19B Review – Living Legacy of Orient

Tags: Review | Orient | Men's | Classic | Traditional

1.4.2022 | 7 MIN | 1x comment

I noticed that Orient has somewhat of a peculiar status in the watch community. Their (kind of "hipster") fashion, a bif of retro and playful bizarreness – that either has to speak to you or you would rather keep your hands (wrists) away from them. In this clash of tastes, there is also Orient AA0E03L19B with its unique display of time zones. And you know what? There is something really appealing about them.

I have heard claims that Orient is an overlooked brand. And well, it depends. It certainly has its dyed-in-the-wool fans, and if you are one those who are partial to these so-called niche pieces, Orient definitely has something for you. The japanese Orient has been merged with Seiko Epson Company for the past few years, yet it still preserves its distinctiveness. Orient also uses in-house movements and considering both the quality and the price, a good many mainstream brands could be only envious.

Niche is the effort a company puts into setting themselves apart from the mass production by producing original, distinctive products that are not aimed at masses but rather at a specific segment of customers.

Orient piqued my interest already back in 2020, the year of their 70th anniversary, when they duly used the opportunity as a fantastic way of revealing a piece of their history with a new, modern attire. That is when I told myself that this is a brand, whose watches I won't let slip under my radar.

As a celebration of the seven decades, Orient came out with "Revival Collection", a collection where they reworked their own models from the past. We could see icons such as King Diver, Retro Future Camera and so on. And one of the Revival models presented in 2021 is the Orient World Map, the subject of our today's review.

When, where, how and why? 

Before the half of the 60s, visiting outside countries was strongly curbed in Japan. Those restrictions were then, thankfully, lifted in 1964 and the Japanese were almost called upon to travel past the borders, and that is the exact time when the model Calendar Auto Orient Swimmer World Trip was born, a direct forerunner of World Divers, which served as a reaction to the newly gained freedom.

The World Diver watch was introduced to the market in 1969. What made them unique was a dial with a coloured map of the world and a simplified display of 24 hours. The watch was meant to become a symbol of those, who dreamed of travelling abroad.

The new Revival Collection World Map from 2021 also contained an accurate reconstruction of the original model with the coloured world map, which Orient limited to mere 1200 models worldwide. Alongside this limited edition watch, three other models were created. There Orient laid bets on one-colour scheme: World Map with an ivory dial and golden bezel, and full metal ones with either a green dial or a blue dial, which is the model I had available.

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Shine (and shame?) of the new World Map Shine

Now, if we look away from the dial, the main star of this review, which we will leave as a cherry on top for later, the next thing you surely notice is the eye-catching shine. They really did not hold back when it came to polishing the entire surface of the case and the bracelet. The case back especially, should you really want to, you can even use it as a small pocket mirror.

And that surely adds on the elegant, luxurious look, which needless to say, is a very good look indeed. However, keep in mind that due to such excessive polishing, all the fingerprints and other smudges will be more prominent than on a matte surface. But sacrifices must be made sometimes.

Next thing that I would like to focus on is the bracelet and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. Let's be honest here, the processing of Orient's bracelets is usually not the greatest and I have a feeling that it is always that one thing we have to put on a line in order to keep up the production of well-made and design-wise interesting watches for an affordable price.

However, each of the links appears solid and the bracelet seems to be composed individually with World Maps. Orient also chose to intersperse the shiny links with matte ones, where the brushed finish visually breaks the overall shine of the watch. The clasp is then deployant and signed (similarly as both of the crowns).

Let's look at the front of the watch again. That dial. That blue! And yes, I know that there are probably more conservative individuals who would consider this a kitsch already. But I may be a little simple in regard to these effects. They just know how to catch my eye and delight me.

When you look at the dial under sunlight, you will see how the shiny blue reflection changes in gradation across the dial. I'm sure you will catch yourself hypnotised by this interesting sight for minutes on end here and there.

The dial is meant to evoke a picture of this "mysterious land that honors the depth and beauty of the nature and sea". Besides having the same depiction of the map as the original 1969 model, there is also a day-date function. But be careful, setting up the date on mechanical watches has its rules:

And finally, there is the inner rotating bezel with a 24 hour scale which can be moved via the crown at 4 o'clock. The scale then shows us the time in different timezones.

So how does it work? 

You would think that figuring the world time has to be some complicated mechanism when you look at the 24 hour scale and the depiction of the map, however, in reality it's more finding where you are located that's challenging.

Upon looking at the map, you need to imagine that the hands are set on the South Pole ( and Japan, where Orient comes from, is of course at the top near the 12th hour).

Now you have to find the place where you live on the map and turn the scale so it corresponds with your current time. Once you've done that, the hour scale will match the time of other places on the map. For example, it's 22:00 in Czech Republic – therefore you turn the scale so the number 22 is where Czechia lies. Thereafter you will be able to see the time of all places around the world, accordingly to the hour scale. And then with just one look, you find out that it's 6:00 in the morning in Japan.

I think it's evident why most of the worldtimers have the names of the big cities written out. This unusual "cartographic" display of the time zones may be incredibly captivating, but the same can't be said about its precision, or utility for that matter. However, in the end that may not even be the purpose of this re-edition, since it's more likely the interesting design that is luring people in.

About the basic parameters...

In pursuance of modernisation of the original model, Orient slightly increased the dimensions of the case, which is what commonly happens with modern re-editions anyway. The watch ius now 43,5 mm (lug to lug 46 mm), so it's no dainty watch but it still keeps its unobtrusiveness.

The water-resistance was also increased, now marking depth up to whole 200 metres, which is a quite high of a value. In connection with that, you might be surprised that the crowns are only screw-downs (the case back is screw-in also). Nevertheless, I have no reason to believe that the watch wouldn't live up to the premises. After all, not even divers Weekly Auto King Diver had a push down crown.

There is in-house movementent F6922 running inside, which Orient happens to use quite often. It's a mechanical with automatic winding and hacking, the accuracy being about -15 to +25 seconds per day. Fully winded, the watch will be fine to run for about 40 hours at the frequency of 3 Hz (21 600 bph) and has 22 jewels.

Two reproaches

The first one is for the mineral glass... I usually go easy on some of the sport models that have the mineral glass, mostly for the resilience and durability compared to the sapphire crystal, or for its lower reflectance (therefore making the contents on the display more readable). Though I, even despite its water-resistance to up to 200 m and the attempt to seem sporty, still do not perceive World Map Orient as too much of a sport watch (maybe because of the high shine and striking focus on the style and design).

The second thing that kind of irks me is the luminescence. The lighting is very good, no shade there, but since the indices with luminous paint are placed on the rotating bezel, it might be a little tricky to read the time in the dark here and there. You can use the double indice at the 12th hour as an indicator of where is up and down, however once you rotate the bezel... The crown is not screw-down either and so the bezel is relatively easy to accidentaly rotate.

But in the end, these are just details that may or may not be the "deal breaker" when it comes to deciding whether you will get a model of your own or not. You might've noticed that this watch is not for somebody, who is after purely practical and functional instrument. Rather than that, it is an interesting watch with stunning, incredibly unusual and playful design, which will delight you anytime you catch a glimpse of them on your wrist.