We recently had the opportunity to take a look at some pieces provided by Orefici. For those not familiar with the brand, they trace their roots back to 1933 in Italy, though they’ve only been in the U.S. market since September of 2011. Today’s post will cover one of their dressier models, the Classico WorldTime.
On the surface of it, this is a fairly standard-looking dress watch – black leather strap, steel case and black dial. What drew me to the watch, initially, was the use of Roman, rather than Arabic, numerals. Not something I’ve seen in many watches, let alone in the dress class.
Second, I liked the exposed date wheels. I have never quite understood how 31 numerals fit in under the dial, but now I better understand – after playing around with setting the time. Rather than there being a single disc that contains the date, you’ve actually got two. The first one contains one through fifteen; the second contains the remainder. Simple, once you know how it works!
Now, to the 24-hour indicator. Try as I might, I could not figure out a way to set this independently of the main time display. So, really, it’s just indicating the 24-hour time of what your current time is. Interesting, perhaps, but perhaps not as useful as the watch would initially appear (especially given that some world city names appear on that sub-display).
With it’s 48mm case, this is definitely not a small watch (though, surprisingly light feeling). And though it is the thinnest in their collection, I did find it a tight fight under a shirt cuff. These two points together make it a less-than-ideal option for a dress watch, in my opinion – it’s just too big. Of course, there is one small aspect – the seconds hand – to its detriment, though – with the black tip, it all but disappears on the black dial.
For me, the third strike comes in terms of the price – $650 for a quartz (Top grade Miyota OS11) watch just seems steep. At that price, I really wish that it contained some sort of a mechanical movement, perhaps something in keeping with the Italian heritage of the company. Of course, if that’s not an issue for you, and you want a “large and in charge” dress watch, this may be the one for you.
