I love Orient Watches. The Orange Ray is a great and cheaper alternative to the Orange Monster, with generally better accuracy too.



But the Orange Mako is perhaps even more fun. It certainly should be on your radar for an every day automatic watch.



Some people don't like the dolphin, I do. And if you want to change the band there are lots of alternatives. I do think a rubber band has a lot of advantages. I am on my computer a LOT. And I need to push my watch back on my wrist to type. But later I want it down towards my hand to easily track the time. So, advantage rubber rather than metal band. Adjustable. Also, if you are like me, your wrist will change in size during the day, smaller if you are resting, bigger if you are working, moving around, etc. So you can adjust it easily.



Yes, the second hand can have the tip disappear against the Pumpkin (rather than the fluorescent orange of the Mako) color of the Orange Mako. Because it is red like the Blue Mako. However, the rest of the second hand is white so it stands out.



The bezel moves smoother than the Ray, it has a sharper triangle, and you have the 12, 6, and 9 arabic hour markers to give you an Omega Planet Ocean styled watch, a "sharper" look than the Rolex-type Ray. The bars are smaller but still stand out, the Mako certainly has a great style.



Because you have a Japanese Automatic, you also have the day of the week as well as the day. It is a pain that you have the day of the week pusher, one more screw in to check. But at this price point much, much cheaper than the Seiko Orange Monster and much higher quality than Invicta, you cannot complain much.



A few tips. Because this watch has a fairly unique day/date rotation, don't change the day of the week or day between 9 pm and 4 AM because you will damage the date/day rotors. If you have to, here is a work around. Rotate the minute hand until you are say, at 6 AM. You can tell because the day of the week and date will change. Then, with the watch at six AM or so, set the day of the week and the date to what you want. Then, rotate the watch minute hand to the appropriate time (say, maybe 11:35 PM) and you are done!



Unlike Seiko automatics, Saturday is not blue, just Sunday being red. The rest of the days of the week are black.



I think this shade of Orange is a happy color. It certainly brightens up my day. I find it very nice and comfortable to wear.



The lume is great, a few minutes of sun or flashlight will charge it for hours. You can see it in the dark clearly, just beware the second hand on all Makos has no lume, so if you need that go to the Ray models or get a Seiko. A caveat is that with the Orange Mako and Ray, in low light but not darkness (i.e. not enough darkness for the lume to pop out) you can have difficulty in picking out the white hour markers and minute/hour hands from the background, unlike the blue and black Makos and Rays. Examples of this would be driving at night with streetlights around, in a parking lot with lights, etc. This is the only drawback of an orange colored watch and the same is true for the Orange Monster from Seiko (I have one, I find the same issue there).



In daylight, in an office or home or store with even dim lighting, no problem. You'll find the time instantly recognizable. But if this is an issue for you, maybe you wear the watch to bed and need to tell the time in dim light (like say dawn) but not total darkness, or while driving, you are better off with a Black or Blue faced watch.



Compared to the Monster, the Mako is significantly lighter, and is also slightly "smaller" on the wrist, making it nice for say a suit or tighter long sleeve shirts, or jackets. The bezel is coin edged not scalloped like the Monster, but turns plenty easy.



I really don't think you can go wrong with this watch. Set the time every other day or so to the Naval Observatory Clock available on the Web or the shortwave radio broadcast (I do the latter) and you will be nearly as accurate as a quartz watch with the nicety of having both day and date available, with no battery changes for years.