ORIENT MAKO Solar Panda: The Chronograph That Just Wrecked Watches 3× Its Price!

This is Manly Watches and I'm Captain Nick. Thanks for joining me today. I've got another Orient on the channel. We looked at the Orient Kano last week, which was a 200 meter diver, which I said really reminded me of my old Seiko SKX. Orient has always been a value proposition brand. They offer a lot of watch for the money. It's a Japanese brand. They're owned by Epson Seiko or Seiko Epson. A lot of watch and we're going to be looking at this one here today. This is their Panda. It's the Mako Solar Chronograph and it's a RATX023S10B, but it just goes by the Orient Panda. Panda Chronograph. Handsome watch. This is a solar chronograph and yeah, I think it's really neat. So I'm excited to show you guys this. I haven't had this watch very long and in fact, it's pretty well brand new. I've only worn it a couple times just trying to get used to it, but it's a pretty cool watch. So let's flip the camera and take a closer look. All right guys, this is the Orient Mako Solar Chronograph and I think this is a fabulous grab-and-go chronograph that Orient has been making. Retail price on these is kind of all over the place. MSRP, according to the Orient website, is $465. Now you've got to take that with a grain of salt because on Orient's own website, they're selling it for $350. And quickly looking around on the internet, I see Jomashop's got them for around $219. Similar prices on Amazon in the low $200 to $250. So I think if you're getting this for anywhere under $250, you're getting a really good deal on a watch. This is a solar powered quartz chronograph. So you do have solar cells hidden away in the black, in the three black dials here. So it is solar powered and it has a six-month power reserve once it is fully charged up from sunlight. So that really does make it a very versatile grab-and-go watch. And this really does have some nice wrist presence on it. We'll get into the specifications here really quickly. The dimensions, I get about 43 millimeter case diameter. Lug-to-lug is coming in at 48.1 and the thickness on this is 13.2. So it's a chunky monkey. You've got a 22 millimeter lug width, so very good proportions here. As far as the weights go, when I measure the weight here, just the case, it's coming in at 80 grams. On this Artem loopless strap that I've got it on, it's coming in at 100 grams. And on the bracelet that Orient sells the watch with, it's coming in at 170 grams. The bracelet alone weighs in at 90 grams. So that adds quite a bit of weight to it. You're getting a 316 stainless case. Very nice finishing on here. No sharp edges. Nice brushing and polishing. So very nicely done on the case. Sapphire crystal, which is a real nice benefit. A lot of the more inexpensive Orients are using mineral glass, but here you've got a sapphire. Very nice bezel with an aluminum insert. I believe it's 120 click bezel. This one is a little stiff. It's unidirectional. It's a new watch, so now it's loosening up a bit. No issues with the bezel alignment. Everything lines up. It looks like they've got an aluminum bezel insert here, but very nicely finished. Can't complain. 120 clicks. You have a screw-down crown, which is signed with the Orient logo. Screw-down case back with a nice engraving on here. It's a very thin sort of laser etching, so it's nothing that'll dig into your skin. Everything is just soft and nicely polished. The pushers on this watch do not have lock-in guards on them. The top pusher here starts the chronograph, so you can see the second hand started up here, and that's your timing hand. And then you have the bottom dial is showing the elapsed minutes. So the second hand and the bottom dial here are your chronograph function. Interestingly, at the three o'clock, the sub-dial, it's only showing you the 24-hour time. So here you can see the the main hands are showing it's 10 o'clock, and then this bottom dial is also showing 10 o'clock. So it's a 24-hour clock here. Has nothing to do with the chronograph function. On the nine o'clock sub-dial, you've got your running seconds. So again, that's your second hand for your time. So the chronograph is just the lower sub-dial and the second hand running here. So very simple. To stop the chronograph, you just push this button here again. It stopped it, and then the bottom pusher resets it. Boom. So easy peasy. You do have a date window down here. Now it's a very small date, but it is legible, surprisingly. Applied indices, nice little loom blocks on here, and you've got loomed hour and minute hands. Now the loom on this is a little off, and it's not one of Orion's best attempts at the loom. I can give you guys a quick loom shot here. I'll put it in a dark room, charge it up. I will not do a time lapse on it, but you can see a very nice dial design. Very clean. It's almost a silvery, creamy white. It's not quite stark white. And then you can see the sub-dials here. They have done a very nice sort of polished stainless ring on the insides, which is really nice. And the whole execution of this watch, I have to say, really has a premium feel to it. It does not feel like a $250 watch. It's a very solid feeling watch. It's not, it doesn't feel lightweight and cheap. So it has a nice solid feel to it. The one downside here is the bracelet. And I'll show you, you know, these are your end links that you get from Orion. So you can see they're just stamped end links. They're not solid end links. And of course you got two of these. And then there is the bracelet. Now, I have not put this watch on the bracelet yet. You can still see it's wrapped up. The bracelet is nice. It's solid. These links are all solid. They are fitted with push pins, so it's not going to be difficult to adjust. And you've got four micro-adjusts, some pushers here to release the safety clasp. And then you have here just a stamped extension. So nothing fancy, pretty basic stuff, but it's a solid bracelet nonetheless. And I think it's probably going to be very durable. It does have a nice brushing and finish to it. I don't see any sharp edges. So yeah, I think the bracelet's fine. At this price point, it's okay. It would have been nice had they put solid end links in though. This is really my big gripe. I hate these end links. I suspect most people who have this watch are probably going to throw it on a rubber strap or something, since it's a bit of an outdoor activity sport watch. So let me throw it on the wrist, show you how this thing wears. And well, I guess I should do a quick wrist check here first. I've got my Laco Versberg. This is a hand wind with a Unitas, I think it's a 6498 movement in there, but just a lovely Flieger type B dial and a handsome watch. I've got this on a Hirsch Merino leather strap, buttery soft, very nice. But let's get this guy on the wrist and I'll show you how it wears. So here we are. I've got the Orient Mako Solar Panda on my seven and a half inch wrist. As I mentioned, this is on a aftermarket Artem strap. The strap is probably worth about the same amount of money as the watch, but man, this thing is comfy. I could definitely wear this all day. No doubt the strap contributes a lot to that, but you can see this 40, 43 millimeter case just fits my seven and a half inch wrist here perfectly. And yeah, it's a, it's a sharper, it's a, it's a good looking watch. It's a looker. I can't, can't say anything bad about it. I think this would look great with a leather strap too, if you want to throw it on a black or a dark brown leather, even a NATO. I mean, I can see this working with a whole bunch of straps. Probably rubber would be the way to go. A nice thick rubber strap, probably an Isofrane or something like that, or even one of the, the Divecore FKM rubber straps. They're a little beefier, I think would look really good on it. So yeah, nice looking watch. Getting into the movement here really quick. You're getting a solar caliber. It's what Orion calls the VS752 caliber. I believe that is made by Epson. They claim a six month power reserve once it's fully charged. So that's pretty impressive. As far as complaints and issues with the watch, you know, I, apart from the bracelet and the end links, I, I think it offers a lot of value for the money. And I'm really impressed with this. So yeah, it's a nice watch, very comfortable on the wrist. And I think for just over $200, it's a great deal. So that's it for today guys. I hope you enjoyed this review of the Orient Mako solar chronograph or the Orient Panda chronograph. I try to get new content out every Friday. I hope you will join me next week. I'll have another video out. This is not sponsored. This is my own watch, my own strap, paid for it with my own money. I don't have any commercial affiliation with Orion. It's a brand I like. I think they offer a lot of value for the money. On that note, I will bid you all a farewell, and thank you for watching and stay safe out there. We'll see you next week.