Orient Star 1964 Diver V2 Watch Review and Giveaway

After the popularity of the previous Oracle Time subscriber competition, we’re doing another one! Congratulations to Daryl Gaddi on winning the previous William Wood and good luck to all participants this time around. All you need to do to enter the competition is be an Oracle Time Magazine subscriber before October 1st, you can subscribe here. For this giveaway the watch that’s up for grabs is the Orient Star 1964 Diver V2, so let’s meet the watch.

Starting with the basics, it’s a 41mm dive watch in steel with 200m water resistance. It’s reassuringly weighty, as a steel watch should be, and wears really nicely on wrists of all size (including my relatively thin ones). Aesthetically, it’s got a strong retro diver vibe with a round shape, facetted lugs and a broad, unidirectional rotating dive bezel. Retro is actually a pertinent adjective because this is the modern reinterpretation of the Calendar Auto Orient released in 1964.

That can be seen across the dial as well which is an absolutely classic diving display. It’s black with large hour markers in a combination of circle, rectangle and triangle shapes. The layout of the indexes is designed to make it easy to read underwater at a glance. Which is also where the lume comes in, providing luminescence in dark conditions. The handset is also very classical with a lollipop design on the seconds and hour hand (think Mercedes hand without the symbol on the disc), paired with a sword minute hand.

What makes the Orient Star 1964 Diver V2’s display stand out from many modern dive watches is the presence of a power reserve indicator at 12 o’clock below the triangular index. It consists of an understated steel hand and a linear scale from 0 to 50. Elsewhere on the dial you can also see the date aperture, which has black lettering on a white disc, contrasting to the black dial. Both functions are subtle enough that they don’t overly impact the legibility of the display.

Turning the watch over reveals a solid steel caseback with the Orient Star logo. Beneath that caseback is housed the Orient Star F6N47 automatic movement with, as the dial-side indicator shows, a 50-hour power reserve. Orient produce their own movement in-house in Japan and this one was produced specifically for the first edition of the 1964 Diver in 2021, so it’s inclusion in the V2 here makes sense. In terms of quality, I’d put it in the same bracket as the other accessible and reliable movements that come from Japan such as Seiko and Miyota.

Then we get to the strap and bracelet and the watch comes with two. There’s a 5-link steel bracelet with the centre and external links finished with brushing and the intermediary links polished. It looks great, it’s comfortable and is easy to put on thanks to its clasp with safety catch. The second option it comes with is a black silicon rubber strap in black, matching the colour of the dial. It’s super flexible and has a geometric texture to it that’s nice and tactile. I prefer the look of the bracelet but if you want to wear it during strenuous activity, not unreasonable for this watch, then the rubber is probably the better bet.

In terms of value, it’s £1,329.99, which is solid in itself but it’s worth remembering that for one Oracle Time Magazine subscriber it’ll be completely free. As a reminder, for your chance to win the Orient Star 1964 Diver V2, you just need to be subscribed to the Oracle Time print magazine before October 1st. And don’t forget that with each subscription you’ll also receive 10 issues of the gorgeous print magazine full of news, reviews and more straight to your door as well as exclusive offers.

​Oracle Time 

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