Review of the Orient CDD00001W0 Pocket Watch

The face is simply stunning. Orient, often quite good at well-balanced and classical designs, has outdone themselves this time. Blued Breguet hands, guilloche dial, applied hour markers, blue minute markers, upright Arabic numerals in a retro font, and the unobtrusive yet very useful power reserve subdial. Look at the hour markers in the close-up: they're pointed cones, and the minute marks are blue. Lovely! Orient has done some upgrades to the classic design that enormously help its practicality. First off, the case is stainless steel: quite durable, and actually water resistant to 30m. It's not going to go swimming (which would be odd for a pocket watch), but if you get rained on, it'll survive. Secondly, the crystal is sapphire, which means it will be unscathed if it ends up in the same pocket as your keys or cell phone. This one is a key innovation, and simply wasn't possible until recently. Thirdly, the jewels are shock protected by Parashock, *** for a vastly more durable watch in daily use. Vintage pocketwatches often have broken balance staffs from jarring or drops, and just aren't as durable as you might expect. If you add all of these up, I'd expect that with maintenance every 5-10 years, this is a watches gift you could pass on in fine condition to your grandchildren. In actual use, there are two more tangible improvements that increase its usefulness: the power reserve meter is a very useful reminder of when to wind, critical for those of us unused to hand-winding movements. The hacking seconds are also very nice for setting the correct time - just because its a pocket watch doesn't mean its inaccurate! So what's it like to actually wear a pocket my chinese gift in 2009? Without exaggeration, I can say that it changes your perception of time when you have to pull your watch out of your pocket to check it.In a first for Watch Report, today's review is of the Orient CDD00001W0 pocket watch. As in the kind that you wear in your pocket, and have to wind every day. Updated with modern materials and movement, this is a new take on an old standard. Let's see how they did. First, the specifications:In-house mechanical movement, Orient 48C40, made in Japan, 21 jewels, 21,600 vph.Hacking center seconds (very unusual in a pocket watch).40-hour power reserve with power reserve complication at 9 o'clock.Stainless steel case and sapphire crystals, front and rear.Shock-protected movement. (Balance staff and other key jewels have springs on them, unlike vintage movements.)40mm by 11.5mm case, waterproof to 30m (100ft).Stainless steel chain with belt clip included.Please read on for more.This bags gift really surprised a lot of people when it appeared, myself included. Orient does very few pocket watches, and has never shipped a handwind-only movement before (given that a pocket watch is determinedly retro, an automatic seems less appropriate). From the looks of the perlage-decorated movement, Orient took one of their better automatics and removed the rotor, reversers, and winding bridge, simplifying a bit to produce the 3/4 plate design seen here. It's a nice looking movement. When you first open the presentation case, a "wow" may well be the first reaction.