Orient World Map Limited Edition Review: Not Your Dad's World Timer

A running theme (or trope) in my reviews is how much I simp for reissue watches, particularly those whose original models have a compelling history, or were otherwise important to the story of modern horology. Given that I'm a history minor and a sucker for social history, it's no wonder that two of the watches that I wear most, my Tissot PRX and my Seiko Arnie, are both reissues with their own interesting stories to tell, beyond them just being an Oysterquartz homage and a watch Arnold Schwarzenegger wore in some of his finest works.

While not nearly as iconic as the Arnie nor as popular as the PRX, Orient's World Map is unique amongst its reissued coevals in how polarizing it is, even though it's a recipe for greatness. On paper, a timepiece from the most popular Japanese watch brand after Seiko that also happens to be a reissue from the late 60s AND has 200m of WR seems like it would be a monster seller; you'd be getting the same quality you'd expect from a Kamasu or Bambino for an aggressively affordable price, all in a package that harkens back to when Japan was dominating the world of watchmaking. But in actuality, things are a bit more…complicated.

You see, the standard World Map starts at around $240 on the gray market, before taxes and whatever the hell else the government needs your money for. While not terribly expensive, that's $40 more than a black dial Kamasu, which, as we all know, is probably the best dive watch you can buy for under $300. This version, the Limited Edition, can only be reliably bought from Orient themselves at $535, though they have it perpetually on sale at $460 (and I got mine for about $420 after a coupon). Again, while not horribly expensive, the World Map, especially the Limited Edition variant, is a watch you'd REALLY have to want; it doesn’t quite fit into the sub-$350 range most people associate the brand with. At this stage it's going up against some mid-tier Seiko sports models and even Orient's own luxury-ish line, Orient Star.

But, as you might’ve figured out by now, the World Map IS a watch I wanted. Ever since I found out about the model last summer, I've been very interested in them; I bought a Tristar around the same time and wanted something similarly kitschy and retro that could go into a swimming pool and live to tell the tale. More specifically, I wanted the Limited Edition. Even though the non-standard editions cost significantly less, I find that they lack the charm and idiosyncratic style the LE has.

The Limited Edition World Map is a nearly 1:1 recreation of a timepiece from Orient’s archive, the World Diver. It was released in 1969, and was itself a spiritual successor to the fantastically named “Calendar Auto Orient Swimmer World Trip” that was released five years prior. Before 1964, Japan had very strict limitations on where its citizens could travel; basically, you couldn’t go anywhere outside of the island nation if you were just a regular guy. However, when those restrictions were lifted, the people of Japan were excited to go globetrotting, and since easy access to devices that could simply tell you what time it was in the Principality of Sealand or Kickassia didn’t occur for another 40 years, they needed a reliable, affordable and easily accessible watch made by their countrymen that could allow them to calculate what time it was abroad and back home. Although I'm not entirely sure if the GMT Master and other GMT/world timers were concurrently being sold in Japan, I wouldn't be surprised if the average Japanese guy would only have access to the World Diver and other world timers/GMTs from Seiko and Citizen, like the 6117-6400 and the 68-0516.

The LE is actually easier to use for its intended purpose, as each time zone on the (very crisp and well-executed) dial is divided into white, yellow and orange sections, and the major cities that most people would want to use as a reference - such as New York, Tokyo and London - are marked by easy-to-spot dots. All the standard editions also have this map, but since it’s merely an outline, it’s substantially more difficult to use it for referencing time zones.

The way you actually use the world time feature is pretty interesting. Instead of lining up your hour hand to a 24-hour chapter ring in order to calculate another timezone, you line up the inner rotating 24-hour bezel to (roughly) your current location, and from there, you can determine what time it is in whatever time zone you wish to reference. For example, if I was drunkenly trying to impress some basic white girls with my wrist candy at Fire Island at 7pm and I wanted to determine what time it was in Algiers, I’d use the 4 o’clock crown to turn the bezel to align 1900 hours with New York - which is between 5 and 6 o’clock on the dial map, along with Boston and Philadelphia - and from there I can tell it’s about 12am over in Algeria. Although it’s not nearly as functional as a traditional world timer, I still think it’s pretty useful. You could make great use of the World Map if you travel abroad a lot or if you have business calls with people overseas, which is probably what the original World Diver was really intended to do: to give ordinary people the ability to see what time it is across the globe.

Rotating the 4 o’clock crown - which operates the internal bezel - feels smooth and creamy, and has just enough resistance; it’s not so loose that half a rotation makes it spin like a Beyblade, but it’s not so tight that you’d be able to skip arm day with this thing. It’s also tight enough that just wearing it like a normal human being won’t result in the bezel being misaligned before using it. To top it off, it and the movement’s crown are both signed with a scripted “O”.

The crown at 3 is a different story. Winding the F6922 that lives inside the World Map feels a little gritty, and setting the time feels a bit loose. Being a budget movement, the F6922 doesn’t feel as refined as something like an ETA 2824-2. Strangely, the World Map manages to have 200m of water resistance despite it lacking a screw-down crown. While it’s far from impossible to do this, it’s a little unusual in a world where most 200m timepieces come with one. Resultantly, if you plan on swimming with your World Map, just make sure the crown doesn’t come undone underwater.

The F6922 is an otherwise solid, capable movement, appearing in Orient’s trademark sports watches, like the Kamasu, Ray II and Mako II. It’s basically Orient’s equivalent to Seiko’s NH36, since they both come with day-date movements and beat at 21,600bph. Out of the box the one in my World Map runs at about +10spd with a beat error of about 0.7, which is fine by me.

As any good tool watch should be, the World Map feels weighty and reassuring. While the dial of the LE is certainly loud, the case wears pretty smaller than you’d expect thanks to its practically nonexistent lugs. Since I’m sick and tired of following the norm of “I oNlY wEaR 38/39mM wAtChEs, EvErYtHiNg ElSe DoEsN’t ExIsT tO mE”, the World Map is a refreshing but not overwhelming change of pace; it’s big enough to make it legible, but not big enough to make it look garish or to bust your shirt cuffs.

The World Map comes in at 43.5mm wide, 46mm long, and 13.9mm thick with a lug width of 20mm. The reissue is only 1.5mm bigger than the original, and the lug width has been upsized by 1mm (thank God). While the World Map is admittedly an acquired taste, I think you could pretty easily dress it up with a leather strap or put it on a vintage style tropic/ISOfrane for a more sporty feel. Due to the hooded lugs, though, some thicker straps might have an awkward fit to them. For instance, I own a tropic strap from Uncle Seiko that have squared-off ends by the springbar hole, and while it does fit on the World Map, the strap is either stiff and upright or loose and flaccid, since the strap's ends get squished within the lugs.

The lume is actually surprisingly good. Since this is technically a diver, Orient elected to have the hands and every second marker on the bezel to be lumed. It manages to glow pretty impressively, even in ambient lighting.

The bracelet that you get with the World Map is serviceable, though a bit disappointing. It's actually a solid link version of the classic Tristar bracelet, so it feels waaaaaay better than the original. But the logo on the clasp (at least with my example) is slightly off kilter to the right. This is especially disappointing when you consider that Orient’s known for its great QC, in spite of its budget pricing. The World Map also only comes with a domed mineral crystal. Although it does look very nice, I don’t understand why it had to come with one; the Kamasu is half its price and it comes with sapphire.

But the biggest issue I had scared the crap out of me when I initially noticed it. When I was driving to work on the first full day that I owned my World Map, I noticed that there was this weird haze under the crystal. Although I feared the worst - water getting into the case - I eventually determined that it probably wasn’t condensation because it 1. Had a bluish tinge to it and 2. Was only visible under very certain lighting conditions, such as pointing a flashlight towards 3 o’clock. Usually, when water does get into your watch, you can view the condensation (which is almost always light gray) at all angles, and is pretty easy to notice, even with lighter colored dials. After some deep lurking on Watchuseek, I figured out that it was some film that formed due to some excess lubrication evaporating, which is a relatively common issue with Orients and other budget mechanical watches. Even though I most likely voided my warranty, I opened up the watch, put some silicone grease on the caseback and crown gaskets, took out the movement, and cleaned the crystal with a microfiber. Ever since then I haven’t had any issues, though I was pretty annoyed and disappointed that I had to perform that task within a day of my World Map showing up at my doorstep. And to rub salt in the wound, this watch cost me $420.

Although the World Map isn’t meticulously crafted like a Grand Seiko - or Orient Star/Royal Orient, for that matter - it’s an interesting take on a watch style that’s universally loved. Sure, many might say that the World Map isn’t a “true” world timer, and that you should disregard it and buy something “prestigious” that requires a waiting list to even look at, but those guys always forget that watches are supposed to be fun; it’s about indulging in what you enjoy and making memories with your favorite timepieces, not keeping them in safes, licking the boots of your AD, talking down to “the common man” and obsessively monitoring resell values. We’re all in this hobby because it brings us great joy. And the Orient World Map, in spite of its flaws, gives me lots of it.