Orient Ray II Dive Watch (FAA02005D9)
I’ve actually had this watch for a good 5 months now and honestly it is always a pleasure to wear, the thing that initially attracted me to the watch was the vibrant blue sunburst dial – and it is truly stunning! Now this has to be one of the best value dive watches on the market (I paid £150 for mine from Amazon – currently £136) and unlike the mark 1 version this one is fitted with the Orient calibre F6922 movement, which hand winds and hacks.
It actually looks quite diminutive on the wrist, even though it is nearly 42mm in diameter. I put this down to the short overall 47mm length & 22mm lug width, plus the bezel sits inside the main case & this leads us to one of the main negative aspects of the watch. Although the bezel has a reasonable coin edge, it isn’t easy to grip as it doesn’t overhang the watch case at any point and whilst the action feels quite nice it is difficult to turn, you seem to have to press from the top – don’t know how a diver would manage with gloves? I suppose while we’re on the negatives it should be mentioned that the crystal is mineral, but well at this price I wouldn’t expect sapphire to be honest and the bezel insert is aluminium – but again fine at this price point.
The watch case is very nicely finished and certainly punches well above its price point, with a nice mixture of a brushed upper surface merging into the polished side surfaces – it really does look quite elegant for a dive watch. The screw down crown (engraved with the Orient crest) is ensconced between a pair of full height crown guards at the three o’clock position and looks a bit hidden, but I had no trouble unscrewing it for winding or adjusting date or time. It has a polished solid screw-down case back (hurray) and is lightly engraved with a double dolphin and wave emblem – though I found this quite hard to recognise. Plus it has all the usual information you’d expect; brand name, model, Stainless steel 200mtr water resistance….
It came fitted with a reasonable stainless steel bracelet, which although nothing special was better than just OK, only being let down by the folded end links – no expectation of a mill clasp here. After going through some leather and cloth options, in the end I actually settled on a PVC dive strap in blue which not only did I find very comfortable it also looked the best on the watch, this is a Geckota Zulu Diver strap and again makes the watch look smaller as the strap is wider than the lugs themselves. This was quite a surprise to me as if asked, this type of ‘rubber’ dive strap would have been the last this I would have thought I'd have ended up wearing & it is indeed the only watch of mine that does sport this type of strap even though it did prompt me to buy a few more in various colours/sizes to try on my other dive watches!
It actually looks quite diminutive on the wrist, even though it is nearly 42mm in diameter. I put this down to the short overall 47mm length & 22mm lug width, plus the bezel sits inside the main case & this leads us to one of the main negative aspects of the watch. Although the bezel has a reasonable coin edge, it isn’t easy to grip as it doesn’t overhang the watch case at any point and whilst the action feels quite nice it is difficult to turn, you seem to have to press from the top – don’t know how a diver would manage with gloves? I suppose while we’re on the negatives it should be mentioned that the crystal is mineral, but well at this price I wouldn’t expect sapphire to be honest and the bezel insert is aluminium – but again fine at this price point.
The watch case is very nicely finished and certainly punches well above its price point, with a nice mixture of a brushed upper surface merging into the polished side surfaces – it really does look quite elegant for a dive watch. The screw down crown (engraved with the Orient crest) is ensconced between a pair of full height crown guards at the three o’clock position and looks a bit hidden, but I had no trouble unscrewing it for winding or adjusting date or time. It has a polished solid screw-down case back (hurray) and is lightly engraved with a double dolphin and wave emblem – though I found this quite hard to recognise. Plus it has all the usual information you’d expect; brand name, model, Stainless steel 200mtr water resistance….
It came fitted with a reasonable stainless steel bracelet, which although nothing special was better than just OK, only being let down by the folded end links – no expectation of a mill clasp here. After going through some leather and cloth options, in the end I actually settled on a PVC dive strap in blue which not only did I find very comfortable it also looked the best on the watch, this is a Geckota Zulu Diver strap and again makes the watch look smaller as the strap is wider than the lugs themselves. This was quite a surprise to me as if asked, this type of ‘rubber’ dive strap would have been the last this I would have thought I'd have ended up wearing & it is indeed the only watch of mine that does sport this type of strap even though it did prompt me to buy a few more in various colours/sizes to try on my other dive watches!
Now back to that dial, with its stunning sunburst. The lume is superb and certainly on a par if not a bit better than my Seiko ‘Bottle cap’ and each applied hour marker has a highly polishes outer edge, which combined with the highly polished sword shaped handset add to the luxurious overall appearance of the watch. The second hand is slender with a red edged lumed arrow tip which goes almost to the minute track, if fact the whole handset is very well designed, which is one of the reasons I bought this over its brother the Mako. This watch has both a day & date complication and whilst it isn’t something I want on a watch, if it is there then it needs to be well implemented. Here there are separate windows next to each other for the day and date, each one with a nicely bevelled silver surround, both large and legible. The other element which adds a hint of luxury to the dial is the Orient logo, under the 12 o’clock marker, in highly polished silver - the two lion’s one either side of the shield and crown. I’ve grown to really appreciate this dial over the last few months, it just looks so good and makes you feel as though you are wearing a much higher value watch.
Another positive for this watch and perhaps the brand itself is that the box it came in was small though still substantial with a nice embedded metal top plate with the Orient crest on it. This is small that the boxes you get with the average Seiko, so take up little space. On the whole this is definitely one of the favourite watches I’ve bought recently and certainly always pleasure to wear.
Another positive for this watch and perhaps the brand itself is that the box it came in was small though still substantial with a nice embedded metal top plate with the Orient crest on it. This is small that the boxes you get with the average Seiko, so take up little space. On the whole this is definitely one of the favourite watches I’ve bought recently and certainly always pleasure to wear.
