Orient Watch has prided itself on being able to offer a gamut of watches from all different kind of categories and price ranges. While not many brands have been able to even accomplish this feat, Orient has backed it up with fact that each mechanical watch houses a movement that was completely made in house in Northern Japan. The Orient Explorer is a prime example of the value that Orient brings; not just in the inherent value and robustness of a finely tuned movement, but the versatility and style that it exhibits. Today we’re going to take a look at the Orient Explorer FDH00001W0. This model features a two toned dial in silk black and silver. This is a stark contrast from the more reserved black dials from the other watches in the Explorer collection.

Everything about the Explorer FDH00001W screams opulence. It could be due to the sleek polished case, but we suspect that it has more to do with the intricate dial. From afar, the dial appears to be highly detailed, and to some degree busy. But even a quick ride on the wrist alleviates any kind of confusion. The inner dial features a metallic silver finish accent and guilloche pattern. This exquisite detailing is further embellished with a concentric circling around the edge. Style wise, the black circles for the power reserve and date wheel and black wedge for the dual time not only provide a necessary contrast, but disrupt the silver finish. We could see how this was necessary; the light would easily reflect off the guilloche finish making telling the time quite difficult. The black contrast eases this a bit. The outside track features a nifty slide rule which makes it easy to do simple arithmetic. The lacquered like finish makes it very smooth and silky. Now we couldn’t call this watch the Explorer if it didn’t have lume: The hour markers and all three hands are lumed. Between 8.5 and 10.5 you’ll see a dual time window which allows you to track the time in a different time zone. This way, home isn’t so far away after all.

At 44.5mm, the Explorer is fairly large for a watch that could be worn in a dressy setting. However, the leather strap and deployment buckle insures that it could still look classy when it needs to be. The topside sapphire crystal is definitely a plus and the sloped, trapezoidal case is definitely unique. We find that even though the case is thicker (houses the Orient 48K40 movement which is self-winding and hacking), the design of the case makes it sit plush against the wrist. The Orient Explorer FDH00001W retails at $715.

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