New Old Stock Orient Fineness Ultramatic 35j. Circa 1967
Measuring 36mm in diameter. In it's day it it boasted the thinnest self winding Japanese movement at just 3.9mm. It has a vertical arrangement of the day and date. Automatic without hand winding or hacking and has a one piece case that is opened through the front and a two piece winding stem.
Adjustment of the date is done by winding the hands in a clockwise direction until the correct date is shown and anti-clockwise for adjustment of the day.
Keeping great time as one would expect from an Orient.
And those hands are excellent. I have the boring non-Japanese version without the hands and the medallion. According to Orient, this was the thinnest automatic caliber when it was introduced.
Just a conclusion as I have seen 4 or 5 or your version in the Japanese auctions (and none of mine) and 3 of mine in sales outside of Japan (and none of yours). Perhaps not perfect evidence but at least fairly consistent. I think Orient went with a one language day wheel as a two language one would be too hard to incorporate into the double day/date window.
/ martin
kew said:
Hi Martin,
Interesting model. I haven't seen that one before. The day on mine is English only. What do you think makes your model the non-Japanese version?
Just a conclusion as I have seen 4 or 5 or your version in the Japanese auctions (and none of mine) and 3 of mine in sales outside of Japan (and none of yours). Perhaps not perfect evidence but at least fairly consistent. I think Orient went with a one language day wheel as a two language one would be too hard to incorporate into the double day/date window.
I just found the twin of your Orient Fineness Ultramatic watch at an estate sale. It is in excellent condition, but apparently has not received any attention for many years. It runs for some hours, but stops at random points. It probably needs cleaning and lubrication. Can you recommend anyone who could undertake this for an unusual watch of this vintage?
John,
Imho your best alternative is to find a nearby, honest watchmaker, who will disassemble, clean, reassemble and lubricate your vintage watches.
Cheers,
I just found the twin of your Orient Fineness Ultramatic watch at an estate sale. It is in excellent condition, but apparently has not received any attention for many years. It runs for some hours, but stops at random points. It probably needs cleaning and lubrication. Can you recommend anyone who could undertake this for an unusual watch of this vintage?
Congratulations on that "fine" find!. Although my Orient Fineness was new old stock, I understand it is important to get an "overhaul". I suppose it is just like a 50 year old car that has been sitting never used in a garage - it would be unwise just to get in it and drive it. I actually found a watch maker in Japan that speaks reasonable English. I recently sent him the Fineness for an overhaul along with another Orient favourite of mine. If you would like his details, just PM me. He only repairs Japanese branded watches.
I picked up this watch recently. It's a 8306-9030 from 1966. I found it interesting where the patina settled in.... it kinda highlights just the "Seikomatic-R Diashock 30 jewels" script just below the hands. The case has some significant pitting from corrosion where the case back screws down...
Questions concerning how early February through (edit: May 1969 with thanks to rfortson for the May 1969 photo update) 6139-6000 (“Pouge”) SpeedTimer dials look compared to the later dials motivated me to re-post a small research project I did a while back on another forum. This relates only to...
Limited to 250 of each circa 2010. Carbon fibre case, sapphire,
perpetual calendar chronograph.
Now if I could find the one with the white pearl case, life would be perfect.
Kurt
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