In Review: The Orient Bambino Small Seconds

Orient Bambino Small Seconds – $290

Give credit where credit is due. They nailed it with this one.

It’s a new favorite. As if you couldn’t tell, with it being mentioned at least 3-4 times in the last week on this site. (And no, they aren’t paying us for the exposure. No one does.) The dial is perfectly balanced. Sure, some might argue that the date window could have been left off, but knowing the date at a glance (and not glancing at your phone) is an awfully handy feature. Plus, the window’s height is proportioned just so as to balance nicely against the 3 o’clock Arabic numeral. There’s a real rule-of-thirds thing going on there.

The star of the show has to be the smaller, seconds dial at six. Just a bit of texture, and positioned just so. The Orient Logo and “Automatic” script takes residence at twelve, and the only other text to the dial is a barely noticeable “mov’t Japan” and model number at the bottom. It’s of course an in-house automatic movement, and it hacks and hand winds at the onion style crown.

Diameter is the Bambino standard 40.5 mm, so it should be wearable by most. Lug width 21mm, so replacement bands might be a bit tough to find. The croc embossed leather strap it comes with feels decently flexible and soft for what it’s worth. Crystal is still noticeably domed for that retro feel. Water resistance is just 30m, but that’s not unexpected with a dress watch like this. Especially being that they threw an exhibition caseback on this one, to show off that in-house Japanese made automatic movement. In terms of color options, you get five this time around, including a fantastic silver case with silver dial, as well as the champagne dial & silver case seen in this post.

Orient hasn’t been releasing a ton of new styles as of late. And that’s okay. As long as they keep hitting home runs like this every so often, many of us will be more than happy to wait.

Enter here to win the Champagne dial Orient Bambino small seconds watch shown in the post above. One entry per person. Deadline for entry is 11:59 pm ET 2/8/18. Many thanks to Orient for sending along their newest model for a review & giveaway!

UPDATE: Congrats to C. Lychak who won the drawing for the Bambino Small Seconds!