I've owned one mechanical winder, all my other watches I have owned have been quartz movements. I've been intrigued by autos but haven't ever owned any until now. These two came in this week. Top one is a Invicta 9110 (
8926A) Pro Diver and the bottom one is a Orient Blue Mako..........
Both of these were had fairly cheap and I got both with the rubber type bands as I am not a big fan of metal bracelets.
The Invicta is from their Pro Diver series and is made of stainless. The case is 41mm in diameter with a 14mm thickness. The strap is 21mm and of Black Rubber. The movement is a 21 jewel Japanese auto and can be seen through the crystal on the display back.......
The bezel on the Invicta is unidirectional and black in color to match the dial face. The bezel is topped with mineral crystal and has a date magnifier. The crown is a screw down type and the watch is rated at 200 meters water resistant. The Invicta came in their nice collectors box with all the associated goods..........
...click on thumbs for larger pics!The Orient is a CEM65005D Blue Mako and is made of stainless as well. The case is 41mm in diameter with a 13mm thickness. The band is 22mm and made of Black Urethane with the raised Mako logo. The movement is the well regarded Orient-built Japanese movement with day and date functions.
The bezel on the Orient is unidirectional and blue in color to match the dial face. The window on this one is mineral crystal as well but does not have a magnifier. The crown and pusher are both screw down types and this watch is also rated to 200m water resistant. The Orient came in their brushed metal-topped collectors box with all the associated paperwork......
Now I have had the Invicta for a few days and have worn it most of that time. The Orient came in yesterday and I only had it on my wrist for about 6 hours. So far they both wear and feel pretty much the same, and their weight is close as well. Fit and finish of both is excellent. They both are lighter than I thought they would be, and while I understood their exact case diameter size they both seem smaller than I expected.
Some differences to note between the two aside from the fact the Orient has the extra Day calender.......unlike the Orient the Invicta has a Cyclops (
date magnifier), and while likely useful for those with poor eye sight I find it unnecessary and actually detracts from what is otherwise a good looking time piece. I will likely be removing this in the near future. The Invicta has a scalloped bezel where as the Orient has a coin edged bezel, can't say which I like better but I will say the Invicta's bezel rotates fairly easily but isn't loose per say. But the Orient is quite tough to rotate. Matter of fact while the watch is on my wrist I really have to bear down to get it it to turn. It's tough.
The only complaint I really have with either of these has to do with the bands, the Orient's one specifically. Both are comfortable on the wrist and unlike some other watches I have owned with similar "rubber" bands, these don't "stick" to your wrist which is good. Now the Invicta has two band keepers that slide independantly of each other and are quite stiff along the band keeping the extra band length when the watch is worn in place real well but the Orient has one single wide keeper and it slides along the band loosely even when holding the extra band length.....and in the short time I worn this watch I had the keeper slip back twice on me popping out the extra band length. I find this rather annoying. I might end up taking the factory band off and replacing it with a Maratac Zulu or something.
Anyway, I have to say I am impressed with both of these. Good solid watches with very smooth movements, able to be had at very inexpensive prices (
I got the Invicta for $68.00 and the Orient for $80.00)....great bargains in my view.
Now.........what watch to get next?
2xTap