In Review: The Orient Bambino 38mm Version 2 Small Seconds Automatic Dress Watch

Orient Bambino Version 2 Small Seconds 38.4mm – $280 – $295

Note: These have started to appear on Amazon when you can often save some money, but prices and sellers (3rd party or Amazon direct) can vary wildly. Be very careful when purchasing a watch via a gray market seller. If something goes wrong, you may be out of luck.

• model: Bambino Version 2 Small Seconds
• size: 38.4mm width x 12mm thickness x 44mm lug-to-lug x 20mm lug width
• movement: in-house Orient Caliber F6222 Automatic, Hand-Winding, Hacking
• water resistance: 30m
• crystal: Domed Mineral
• etc: Exhibition caseback. Small seconds sub-register.

• White dial RA-AP0104S – $280
• Champagne dial RA-AP0105Y – $280
• Gold Tone RA-AP0106S30B – $295
• Black dial RA-AP0101B – $280

Gotta hand it to Orient. Their design catalog is so vast that they can take two previous models, combine their styles, and size it down to an of-the-moment diameter, and they end up with one of the best affordable automatic/mechanical wristwatch releases in years.

Vintage looks at a reasonable price. 

The new Bambino V2 Small Seconds looks old. In a good way. In an old-money, vintage, total classic kind of way. Thankfully it’s priced more towards the Nick Carraway end of the budget spectrum, and less towards the Jay Gatsby/Tom Buchanan end. Slap one of the big luxury brand logos on this thing and it could sell for 20x–40x more (yes luxury watch snobs would say “but movement and craftsmanship and blah blah blah.“)

38.4mm in diameter. Shown on a 7.5″ wrist.
12mm tall isn’t razor thin, but its domed crystal should slide under a shirt cuff for most.

It’s a mash-up of the old Bambino Vintage-style + the original Small Seconds (both of which are 40.5mm in diameter)… and then sized down to the new, popular, 38.4mm as demonstrated on the Bambino 38.

The end result is a watch that looks, frankly, great.

Domed mineral crystal. Signed, onion-style crown.

The guts and specs are what you’d expect from an Orient dress watch. In-house automatic movement which hacks and hand winds. Exhibition case back. Domed mineral crystal (woulda loved sapphire but, costs, right?) and the signed, textured crown looks classy and feels just fine to use (no wobbly or thin stem/clean functioning of the time and date functions, etc.)

“Small seconds register” (aka the little seconds dial at 6 o’clock) really plays nicely 
with the vintage design elements like the Roman numerals.

The leather they use for the strap is… fine, but at least it’s better than some of the stuff they used to use on previous Bambinos, which could feel downright synthetic depending on the model. The lug width/width of the strap is a gloriously common 20mm. Sometimes Orient will make their watches with a 21mm lug width. 20mm is common. So is 22mm. 21mm? Not so much. So 20mm is good to see here, as if you want to swap out its stock strap for one of a different color to match that particular day’s shoes and belt, you may already have one of those straps on hand (on another watch one could assume).

Exhibition case back shows off the hacking and hand-windable movement. 

It would have been nice to have seen a quick release strap make its way into Orient’s catalog, specifically for these models. The silver dial option in this post comes on a black strap, but it would obviously also excel on brown. If you like to switch out watch straps to match your shoes and belt, then you best be good with a springbar tool if you purchase this watch. Because that strap is in there tight. And without quick release pins (or drilled lugs, which one wouldn’t expect here,) you’ll need to slide the forked end of a springbar tool in between the leather and the lug to release the thing. Or you could just say “to hell with it” and *gasps* wear a watch on a black leather strap with brown shoes and a brown belt. THE HORROR.

Blue for the main set and small seconds hand on all of the silver stainless steel case models.

The Roman numerals make it look dressy and classic. The blue hands make it quietly pop. The small-seconds dial makes it interesting. And the slightly sized down, 38.4mm diameter should make it wearable by the vast majority.

Brilliant work by Orient. The new Bambino 38mm V2 Small Seconds is well worth it at full price, and will be a total steal if they ever go on sale or drift on over to Amazon on the gray market for a lower price.