Orient is a brand that can sometimes be a hit-or-miss affair, at least for me. Some of their designs are spot on (and are available at amazing prices), and others look like something that you’re going to see in a late-night infomercial, and that price begins to look a little suspicious. One of their more recent models, the Bambino, is in the hit category, and their latest iteration to the lineup takes it in a very nice vintage-inspired direction.
Of course, the simplest way to get a vintage “look” is with the color of the dial, so here we’ve got a light beige color (they call it dark cream) which does give the look of a once-white dial that has seen better days. It’s unfortunate, then, that the date window itself has a white background. This is a scenario where it would have been especially nice to see a color matched wheel (though, that would break some of their normally low pricing, I suppose).
On top of the dial, you’ve got polished silver-tone Roman numerals, around the outside of which you’ve got the minute track in black. Rounding out the complement of colors, you’ve got a very vivid blue for the handset. As their own PR points out, this isn’t necessarily a true-to-period coloration, but it does help the hands to stand out quite nicely. The case of the watch comes in at just a hair over 40mm, and is made of stainless steel. They’ve given it a matte finish, which, along with the styled crown, furthers along the vintage look that they’re going for on the piece.
I find this to be one of the more compelling designs that have come out from Orient as of late. At an MSRP of $260 (that’s before any of the discount codes you can normally find) for this FER2400CN0, I think you’re getting a nice bargain on a modern “vintage” mechanical (unfortunately, it looks to be out of stock as of the time of this writing). As with the other times I’ve written on Orient pieces, I’ve got no idea about their reliability or fit and finish (guess they don’t want us doing hands-on reviews for some reason), but they do have quite a positive reputation in the online watch world.
If you’ve gotten one of these Bambinos into your own collection, feel free to reach out (either in the comments or via email (mailto:[email protected]) and let us know how the watch is doing for you.
