Orient Bambino – $182.00 with code fall2012 ($270)
The code also gets you the Orient “freebie” package, which includes a quartz watch of Orient’s choosing, a 2012 desktop calendar, a lanyard, and their catalog. Instructions on how to win the Bambino are at the bottom of this post.
All class. The Bambino is one of Orient’s best-selling watches and it’s no secret why. A clean, simple, well proportioned (read: not enormous) dress watch is a foundational piece to any guy’s wardrobe. Just look at the J. Crew Timex 1600. They’re slinging that blanketed-in-fluffy-language sterile quartz for almost $200. The Bambino not only costs less as an automatic (with the code), it also comes out of the box looking like an heirloom.
Instead of an ice-rink flat piece of glass, the crystal on the Bambino is domed. It slants up from the stainless case for a few millimeters before rounding off at an edge and flattening out. That makes for a timepiece with some visual depth. It’s unusual and it’s the kind of detail that makes those of us who usually gravitate towards more complicated dials pay more attention to this simple one. All it says about the makeup of the crystal is “domed crystal glass”… so be wary of scratching this thing.
The case diameter is 40.5mm without the crown and wears a little smaller than that. Also available in a black dial version, as well as two rose-gold plated options that run $20 more at retail. Water resistant to just 30m, but this is the kind of watch you wear dressed up. So take it off before you wash the dog. The leather band is a deep brown with some reddish hues, very similar to the band that comes with the Orient Explorer. Come to think of it, if you had an Orient Explorer in your collection for those times you wanted something with a busier dial, and this for the times when you wanted to keep it simple… then you’d be set.
Awfully lucky and set.
UPDATE: Congrats to Dustin B. who won the random drawing for the Orient Bambino. Thanks to Orient once again!
Here’s how to win the Bambino seen here: Send your first and last name in an email to contests@dappered.com with the subject: Orient Bambino. One entry per person. Deadline for entry is 11:59 pm ET on 11/7/12.