Orient Men's CEM65002D 'Blue Mako' Stainless Steel Dive Watch

I picked this up through Amazon on a Christmas deal for an astounding 98 bucks. I see it has gone up in price since then, but for a watch that typically retails in the 150 to 200 range, it is entirely worth it. I tried to breakdown this review into component parts - Packaging, Bracelet, Dial, Bezel, Crown(s), Movement, and WearabilityThe Packaging The Blue Mako arrived in a very nice presentation box. On this note, Orient gets credit for a nice boxer design than Seiko. Otherwise, the watch came on a standard presentation "pillow" and included a manual and warranty card underneath.The Bracelet As usual with just about every watch I've gotten, I had to remove one link and make a small sizing adjustment to the clasp for a comfortable fit on a 7-1/2" wrist. The bracelet is really nice. It is solid links with pins. It has a nice weighty feel to it that leaves the impression that it is ready for business. The links are brushed chrome which I think was a wise choice for this particular dial which, as discussed below, is very noticeable. The clasp is a solid push button with locking clasp. I did notice that the locking clasp on my example does not have a solid "snap" to it, but it does lock in place and stays snug.The Dial The dial on the Blue Mako is one of the prettiest I own. The blue is dark, but with this wonderful iridescent effect when light hits it. The markers are lined hashes on the 5's and small ticks for each seconds (on the chapter ring). Modern looking Arabic numerals are at 12, 6, and 9 (with 3 being taken up by the day/date complication). The minute and hour hands are a "sword" design, tapering out to a point, and are almost entirely taken up by lume. The second hand is a chrome arrow design with the tip painted red. It is left unlumed. Overall, and in contrast to the flashy dial, the markers are very business oriented and easy to read. Again, I think a good design choice by the Orient team. About the only thing I do not care for with the dial is the italicized style letting for "Automatic" and "Water Resist". It is a personal preference, I suppose, but it just doesn't work for me in light of the more business nature of the other lettering (including the "200m" and "Orient" lettering).The Bezel The bezel is unidirectional, rotating counter-clockwise in one minute increments (a tad disappointing as compared to Seiko Divers in this class, which give you half second increments). The bezel is also a bit on the tight side to turn (again, when compared to say a Seiko Diver in this class). I'm not sure if that is because of the bezel design or the choice of 60 clicks, rather than 120. Fitting with the dial design, it is finished in blue with silver lettering and a lume dot at the "0" mark.The Crown(s) Both crowns are screw-down. The main crown controls the hands and day. It has the Orient crest on it. As is pretty standard, the first stop sets date and the second sets time. What is not standard is the spring which snaps the crown out once it is released from the threads. It also causes the crown to require an affirmative push in order to get it started on the thread, otherwise it will simply snap back out of the first thread before you get it started. The spring action seems unnecessary to me, and I haven't really come up with a reason why it was designed this way. The secondary crown controls day. Once you unscrew the locking mechanism, you push the crown in (rather than turn) in order to move through both English and French date options. This is also a design choice that I don't understand. It seems to me that a "dive" watch should minimize the way water can enter the case. It would have made more sense to me to make the day setting a counter-clockwise turn on the main crown, rather than it's current design. But Orient smartly also made it screwdown and I suspect they went to great lengths to test the design for water resistance.The Movement I like that Orient makes its movements in-house, not that it matters, I guess, but it feel as if it adds a bit of prestige. Citizen (Miyota) makes some great, inexpensive watch movements that are very accurate, probably just as good, and used by several manufacturers, including some small, boutique watchmakers. The automatic winding "sounds" less smooth than other watches I own (specifically, a few Seiko 5s), but this particular example has been one of the most accurate automatics I own straight out of the box, besting two of my Seiko 5s in terms of accuracy. This might seem geeky, but I test my watch movements against an atomic clock over 3 separate 24 hour periods. The Blue Mako ran an astounding '2 seconds, '4 seconds, and '2 seconds for an average time difference of '2.6 seconds! You absolutely cannot ask for more than that out of an automatic movement.Wearability For a dive watch, the Mako wears dressy to me. Perhaps it is the iridescent dial and the italicized script, but I see it more as a dress casual to dress diver. I think it certainly can be worn casually or recreationally (it is a dive watch, after all). But it looks simply magnificent under a blue dress shirt and plays well with any blue attire in your wardrobe. As with a lot of watches, a different strap or bracelet can change the look, and I suspect a rubber strap would be a nice way to "dress down" the watch for casual wear. Along with the strap, a different choice of dial color would also change the formality (and Orient has run the gambit of dial colors - black, blue, orange, and yellow).Conclusion The negatives to this watch are too minor for me to rate it less than 5 stars. Beautiful dial, accurate in-house movement, fantastic lumes, and solid metal bracelet makes this watch a must own in my opinion. I would be happy if it were my only watch, and it certainly should be in the stable of any watch collector, whether that collection is 5 or 500 watches!

The Orient Mako is a phenomenal choice for the sub $150 price point, but it has some flaws. It was my first automatic and I'll always look fondly at it.Unlike most affordable dive watches which are homages to the Rolex Submariner, the Orient Mako is an homage to the Omega Seamaster. This makes the watch stand out a bit more among a sea of Submariner look-alikes. Orient is a company heavily tied to Seiko, so you can be sure that the automatic movement powering this watch is affordable but rugged and effective. If you're new to watches and don't understand automatics (as many first-time Orient buyers are), let me explain a couple things.First of all, the watch is powered by motion, not a battery. That means if you don't wear the watch (or put it on a watch winder) for a couple of days, the watch will stop (depending on the length of the energy reserve in the movement). Second of all, automatics are much less accurate than quartz. If they're less accurate, why would one want an automatic? Well, not having to change a battery is an obvious benefit, but there's a certain je ne sais quoi about automatics. It's just a different feeling wearing the watch to know that your movement is helping power a series of rotors and gears to power a timepiece with absolutely no electricity. Automatics also have much smoother second hand than quartzes, which have very jagged "ticks." The sweeping second hand is very addictive once you notice it!Opening the watch for the first time, I was quite impressed. The dial is a very nice shade of blue. Indoors it can be mistaken for black, but outdoors or in high-light situations, it's a beautiful light royal blue, similar to the hue on the picture here. The watch has a nice weight to it. It is 43mm in diameter, but wears smaller than that to a nice medium size.DIAL, CRYSTAL, AND LUMELike I said before, the watch is a Seamaster homage, with the large 6 9 and 12. It also shows the date and day, which can be adjusted to either Spanish or English. The lume is quite nice and bright, but it doesn't last terribly long (in my experience, it begins to fade after 30-45 minutes). The dial notes the 200m water resistance of the watch, which I cannot verify as I've never taken it diving. I've read several accounts of people diving with Makos, and I myself swim with it with no problem. Like most cheaper watches, the crystal is mineral crystal and not sapphire. Mineral crystals are more shatter-resistant than sapphire but scratch more easily. The crystal also smudges often in my experience. The crown is at 3 o'clock and the button at 2 o'clock quick-changes the day.BEZEL60 click unidirectional bezel. It has a good grip to it and turns well enough, but one little detail drives me crazy: the arrow does not line up perfectly with 12 O'clock on the watch. Many dive watches are like this, so it isn't a knock specifically against the Mako. It's mostly a function of having a 60 click instead of a 120 click bezel.BRACELETVery nice brushed stainless steel. It has a good weight to it and is very attractive. However, the end-links are hollow. This won't bother you at first, but with experience you'll appreciate solid end-links as they are more sturdy. On the Mako, the end-links and springbar tend to get bent so the end-links may actually "lift up" as you wear the watch. I suspect this is an easy fix that involves bending the bottoms of the end links and replacing the spring bars, but I haven't done it yet. A decent third-party stainless steel bracelet will end up running you over half as much as you paid for the watch itself. As such I can't say it's worth it financially to replace the bracelet on this watch with another stainless steel one, but NATOs and leather straps are also options and are substantially cheaper.Overall, the Orient Mako is beautiful, a great value and I don't think there's a better option at this price-point. The downsides of this watch that I pointed out (mineral crystal, short lume, the bracelet) are downsides in almost every single affordable diver out there. Still, I wanted to note them so that no one buys this watch thinking its quality will match that of a much more expensive one.

Estoy mas que contento con la compra de este reloj que tiene una exelente estetica la cual compite con relojes de precios muchisimo mas caros, ademas la presicion inclusive a nivel de segundos muy buena... recomiendo bastante este reloj, sin duda lo volveria a comprar si perdiera el actual... lo enviaron un viernes y para el martes lo tuve en casa, en su estuche original, documentos, etc.. nuevecito..

Recibido de manera muy rápida, reloj de altísima calidad por el precio que tiene.Automático (funciona con tu movimiento) muy preciso; después de ponerlo a prueba veo que se desfasa sólo un minuto al mes (aprox.) y que tiene una reserva de marcha real de 42 horas (tambien aprox.); mucho más que suficiente para un reloj de estas características.De tamaño 41mm, queda muy bien en muñeca y la calidad de los aceros y del brazalete y su cierre se ve bien.Tiene corona de rosca en cambio horario y en cambio de calendario (pulsador a las dos).Tengo que decir que la correa de caucho original de este modelo no me gusta, pero supongo que eso ya es más relativo..Realmente, si se busca un reloj automático, de características diver (submarinismo o alta resistencia al agua), con un precio razonable y para uso diario, esta es tu mejor opción.

Great watch....great value. The band and clasp are as good as my Rolex Datejust. The button for the Day gets changed by accident too easily and changes day. No big deal, but a useless feature for me

Come trovato scritto, prima dell'acquisto, su tutti i forum di appassionati, è assolutamente uno dei migliori orologi diver automatici entry leve! Consigliatissimo a tutti coloro che pur volendo un buon orologio, ben rifinito e con una buona meccanica non possono permettersi di spendere molto!

Nachdem ich bereits mehrere andere Uhren gekauft habe, die aber zum Großteil zu Schick für den täglichen Alltagsgebrauch waren habe ich mir hiermit eine günstige Alltagsuhr geleistet.Für den Preis habe ich erst einmal nichts großes erwartet, jedoch bin ich vollends zufrieden mit der neuen Uhr. Die Uhr liegt relativ schwer in der Hand und macht einen sehr stabilen Eindruck. Selbst als ich beim Juwelier mir Kettenglieder entfernen hab lassen, hat der mich darauf angesprochen wo ich die Uhr her habe weil sie so einen wertigen Eindruck macht. Wenn der gewusst hätte dass die Uhr nicht einmal ein Zehntel der Uhren seiner Auslage gekostet hat...Bis jetzt fällt mir kaum Abweichung bei der Zeitanzeige auf. Besonders auffallen kann die Uhr jedoch bei Sonneneinstrahlung, dann fängt das Display an schön blau zu glänzen. Die Nachtbeleuchtung der Zeiger funktioniert wunderbar und deutlich besser als bei meiner 1500€ Junghans.