(2024-11-04) A mysterious but extremely cool Orient Eroz from 2007
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What I'm wearing right now is a watch that anyone should have heard about but
no one actually had. It's an automatic mechanical three-hander with date
window in a 37mm case. Made in May 2007, if I decoded the serial number
correctly. Amazingly comfortable and handsome looking. Yet it's almost
impossible to look up any information about it on the Internet. I'm talking
about Orient BER0Z002K, although this model number might say nothing to you,
and I would understand it. It really seems like a mystery, a forgotten gem
from the end of pre-Epson era of Orient. Yet here it is, and I'm going to
tell everything I know about it.
I had bought this watch in a local online shop. Clearly in a used condition
but hardly ever worn by the previous owner who even retained the original
tags on the bracelet. It's one of those tags that I knew the full model
number from. Because it was only sold as "Orient Titanium", and this
moniker, of course, stuck to another blast from the past that's too large
for me, the ER2F series, which was, as you might have guessed, on the same
48743 movement as this one. And when I read the tag and saw that the model
number starts from B, this became the first mysterious element about this
watch. I know that pre-Epson model numbering used S for Japanese factories
and F for Chinese ones. I don't remember what C stands for, but B? Da hell
is that? I still don't have any answer to this day.
Second, the online information about this model is extremely scarce. I
literally found up to 3 websites ever mentioning it. Fortunately there were
some online shops that I trust that retained the old catalog information, so
I verified with them and confirmed that was a legitimate model and there
even had been a whole lineup of similar models. Given how good this one is
while not being crazy expensive even at the time it was new, I don't get why
it got no reviews whatsoever while the ER2F lineup (which, of course, was a
bit newer) got so much praise. It's as if Orient deliberately didn't want
anyone to know about the entire ER0Z series. Or the information had been
erased by the natural course of time...
Now, how would I describe the ER0Z models? Well... Imagine a pre-Epson 37mm
Orient Tristar that suddenly got rid of the weekday (and corresponding
pusher), got a much cleaner and slicker dial and got put into a slimmer case
made of titanium with the accompanying folded-link (sic) titanium bracelet
with the same 8 microadjustments that Tristar owners got used to. That's it,
that's the description of this watch in a nutshell. In case of my particular
model (ER0Z002K), it got a "titanium sunburst" dial with gold-accented
hands, markers and crown. I wish I could find the 001K (silver instead of
gold) but this one also looks nice enough, both much more retro and much
newer than it actually is. In my case, however, the looks are not
everything. Performance is also a very important factor for a watch to stay
in my collection. And oh man, did the performance of this one not disappoint.
Get this: my initial daily accuracy measurement had shown a mere +15 s/day
deviation. For a 17 years old automatic watch (which I'm pretty sure hadn't
undergone any regulation before me), that's a miracle. And, like all other
mech Orients I encountered, this one is extremely easy to regulate to the
point of spot-on timing (seems like my guide for F49/F6 fully applies here
as well, but I also have ordered a demagnetizer because who knows where this
watch had been stored). When I opened the caseback, I could easily see why
even F4902 was superior to 48743, but I really wish Orient had brought back
such an ultraslim design in 37mm and titanium for their newer models, and a
hypothetical no-weekday version of F49 could fit perfectly into such a
design. Back in the late 2000s, I got used to quartz models in the packages
that slim and lightweight, not friggin' autos with a working rotor.
Anyway, I am extremely satisfied with this watch. I can't call it retro or
vintage yet (17-year period still isn't a lot), but a rarity for sure,
especially given its lack of online presence. Maybe my item underwent some
service in the past, who knows. But the level of satisfaction it gives me
now is only second to the Citizen PMD56. And that's something, considering
their price difference. Overall, I think this is one of the most underrated
Orients of all time. Kamasu is tough, Bambino is hip, Vega is practical, but
this one is so cool but so undeservedly forgotten that the marketologists
didn't even give it a nickname. I think I can coin one from the model number
itself: Eroz. And a corresponding slogan: "Orient Eroz: trust your
mechalust!" LOL. All jokes aside, I think that Epson really needs to bring
this model back. It needs to be seen, heard about and worn by a bigger
number of people. And I hope this post also helps with that.
