The Orient Contemporary line features many elegant watches at an affordable price.
And when it comes to the contemporary line, one of the most popular is Orient’s Bambino watches. And for today’s watch review, I will be reviewing the Orient Bambino Gen 2, Version 4.
For those not familiar with Orient, Orient is a Japanese watch company that is part of the Seiko Epson group, which is under the Seiko Group umbrella.
While under Seiko Group, Seiko watches are under Seiko Holdings, Orient watches are under Seiko Epson. Both work independently from each other, so you can think of Seiko as big brother and Orient as little brother. Similar to how there is Rolex and its little brother Tudor.
You can read more about my explanation of Orient’s history here.
The Orient Bambino line has been around since 2012 and to be truthful, I have no idea where the name “Bambino” came from, because it’s typically not a word that I see from Japan (aside from the reference to a Yoshimoto Kogyo comedy duo). But it’s been fully accepted as the name of this style of watch and since then, there have been numerous versions.
When it was first released, the Orient Bambino Generation 1 watches used an automatic caliber 48743 Japanese movement and had “water resist” on the bottom. With Generation 2, they moved to the F6724 movement which featured hand-winding and hacking seconds (the second hand stops ticking when you pull out the crown) and had “water resistant” on the bottom.
With Version 3 going with the “Bauhaus” style with the flat edge hands, more simplicity and moving away from the numbers (in this case, V2 used roman numerals) and brought thinner hour markers.
With version 4, the Orient Bambino brought back the version 1 dial design rhomboid hour markers and dauphine hands. But the biggest difference, the case jumped from a 40mm case diameter to 42mm case diameter, the seconds hand now has a red tip and now the watch was released with a sunburst dial available in emerald green and blue. But also black and gray dial.
Also, there was some interesting experimental styles with the strap. Orient released a grey dial with rose rhomboid hour markers with a stainless steel case using a leather brown strap (not smooth, but like the leather inside a strap in a camel tone), while the black dial had rose colored rhomboid hour markers and rose gold case.
While starburst green received a gold case and brown strap and the starburst blue received a stainless steel case and black strap.
As you can see, I went with the starburst green with a gold strap.
Now, what I find interesting is that while I do own gold case watches (many given to me by my father), most cases that I go for are either stainless steel or gunmetal gray and occasionally a rose gold.
But the reason why I got this is that I looked over Bambino Gen2 V4 watches and the starburst green and gold caught my attention. And it’s a color and dial color that I don’t have in my collection. I’ve had watches with green bezels but never a green dial, so I found that fascinating and it caught my attention.
I also liked the fact that V4 features a bigger case (I know, to the chagrin with those who have a smaller wrist) than previous iterations of the Orient Bambino which I like. Anything between 40-42mm case diameter is a plus for me. 38mm or under is really pushing it because of my bigger wrists.
But I loved that gradient green to dark on the edges and this is one of the few instances of watches where I’m glad that I went with a gold case and I like the gold dauphine hands and rhomboid markers and the date right at the 3 o’clock position.
The watch strap uses an alligator skin style of darker brown leather strap with a lug of 21mm.
Crown is easy to pull out, no problems changing time or date. As mentioned, the caliber mvmt. allows for hacking seconds, so you can set the time much easier as pulling out the crown stops the second hand.
Now while I loved the look of Bambino’s for the longest time, there reason why I have never bought one is because on the back case, my feeling was that if I wanted to get an automatic watch, I want the movement to be seen in the back (aka “exhibition caseback”). Orient Bambino Gen 1 and Gen 2 Versions 1-4 do not show the movement. It wasn’t until the version 5 release and the open heart and short seconds releases that the watches feature the movement displayed on the case-back (note: Open Heart Bambinos use the Caliber F6T22 movement, and Short Seconds Bambino watches use the Caliber F6222 movement).
But for this Orient Bambino Generation 2, Version 4, the case shows no movement but the Orient Automatic logo and the EPSON right below.
But these do feature the Caliber F6724 Japanese movement which is made in-house by Orient and features 22 jewels and 21,600 bph (vibrations per hour) and is hand windable, seconds hacking and utilizes a Seiko Diashock. The F6724 movement has an accuracy of -15/+25 seconds per day. I have not had any significant loss of time with my Bambino V4. (NOTE: Of all the Orient watches I own, I’ve had no major loss of time. The only movement I found somewhat sporadic was the Orient caliber 46A40 which is used by my Orient Metro.)
The watch is water resistant up to 30m (100 ft.). Granted, I don’t swim or shower with my automatic watches.
Now while the retail price is $325, Orient Bambinos typically go for under $130. I got this for around $116 (add another $8 for shipping) from a major watch seller that sells Orient watches on eBay. So, don’t spend over $150 for a Bambino watch unless it’s not sold in the US and they are shipping from another country. But due to the Bambino’s popularity, they are not difficult to find.
Overall, the Orient Bambino Generation 2, Version 4 (Starburst Green) is a wonderful watch for its style, its movement, its price. It’s an elegant watch and the fact that it can be purchased under $150 is fantastic.
I definitely recommend the Orient Bambino Generation 2, Version 4 (Starburst Green).
