Orient Star Classic partial skeleton with black leather strap.
My first Orient and I am not disappointed as it is excellent quality for the price, style and in house movement. I prefer the look of Orient watches to those of its sister company Seiko and they are less common. The watch has a beautiful clean clear cream dial and considering the complications of power reserve, sub second and partial skeleton it is easy to read and does not look too ‘busy’. Winding the watch is satisfying and the power reserve indicator helps prevent you from over winding. The 50 hour power reserve is very good and means I can switch watches without correcting the time as I often switch watches depending on what I am doing. The black leather deployment bracelet is comfortable and took me a while to get the correct wrist adjustment. Once set this will undoubtedly reduce wear and tear on the leather strap and give you the practicalIty of a metal strap type clasp while having the classic look of a good quality leather strap.
Price from Singapore was less than anywhere else I could find, even taking into account the UK duty, which I expected. I was hoping to get lucky and UK customs would not assess this for duty, which I understand can happen sometimes. Essential the duty appears to be UK VAT on the price plus an admin charge so allow for this when buying from outside of the EU.