Orient is a brand now under the ownership of the Seiko group, but continues to produce watches under its own label and with their own design language. Generally speaking, Orient occupies the budget-friendly tier of the Seiko family. The Kanno (formerly spelled with just one “n” in the name) line of dive watches is most directly compared to what I would argue is the more popular line of Kamasu watches. Both exist around the same price, with a few design differences but with the Kanno line being notably larger than the Kamasu.

Diameter: 44mm

Lug-to-lug: 50mm

Thickness: 13mm

Lug width is: 22mm

The watch has 200 meters of water resistance.

This reference features a sunburst red dial with white day and date windows at the 3 o’clock position. The hour and minute hands are sword style and well lumed, and the second hand features an arrow portion that also contains lume. There is a lumed, applied hour marker at all 12 positions of the watch, with the 3 o’clock marker being notably shorter than the rest to accommodate the date windows. The 12 o’clock position is actually two markers. There is also a minute marker printed for each minute between the hour markers. Beneath the 12 o’clock marker is the Orient logo, followed by the name Orient, followed by the notation the watch is an Automatic. Above the 6 o’clock position is a scripted Water Resist statement followed by 20 bar. The day and date windows are not framed aside from a printed horizontal line both above and below. Under a loupe I can see some debris or contamination on the dial, which is something I’ve come to expect at this price point, but to the naked eye it is difficult to detect, perhaps in part because of the red dial’s sunburst (so your mileage may vary on other references).

The dial is protected by a mineral glass crystal. There bezel insert is aluminum and features the familiar dive timing bezel format with a printed triangle, Arabic numerials at the 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50, and a mark at the 5-minute intervals as well. There is no lume at all on the bezel, not even a lume pip in the triangle. The bezel is unidirectional and offers 120 clicks. The action on this is different than the other 120-click bezels I have handled. It seems more like a ratchet and just has a different sound and feel than the other brands I’m familiar with. There is some back play at spots on the bezel and it seems necessary to push back on it to ensure it is aligned properly. 

The watch is stainless steel as is the bracelet. Most of the surfaces are brushed though the sides of the case are polished as are the sides of the clasp. The clasp does feature the name Orient and the logo. The bracelet’s removable links are secured via cotter pins which were the easiest I’ve ever worked with to remove and reinsert. That said the bracelet is not particularly impressive, unsurprising at this price point. I tend to use third-party straps for it now.

The watch does have a screw-down crown at the 3 o’clock position flanked by crown guards; the crown does feature the Orient logo. The crown offers four positions. In position zero the crown is screwed in and the watch offers its maximum 200 meters of water resistance. Unscrew the crown and you are in position one, where the watch can be hand-wound. In position two the watch allows the day and date to be set; turn the crown clockwise to change the day (the day wheel features both English and Spanish options) and counter-clockwise to change the date. Pulling the crown out all the way puts it into position four where the time can be set. The watch does feature hacking.

Flipping the watch over you can see another the watch has a closed caseback. The watch is powered by the F6922 caliber automatic, an in-house movement by Orient. It is an automatic movement that beats at 3 Hz, has 22 jewels, and offers approximately 40 hours of power reserve.

Putting this watch on my timegrapher, I get an average across all six positions of a +13 seconds per day. The range of readings was +3 seconds per day to +22 seconds per day.

My overall thoughts:

The positives:

• Nice red dial

• Great specs for the price

• Easy to use bezel

The negatives:

• Mineral glass crystal

• No lume on the bezel

• Not great accuracy

• Contamination on the dial (but really only noticeable under a loupe)

These Kanno watches can be found under $200 new. As I noted at the start of my review, I view these and the Kamasu as reasonable watches to compare given the similar pricing, design (as dive watches), and both being by Orient.

The Kanno suffers for a few reasons. As a larger watch I assume to keep the price down they gave up on the sapphire crystal for mineral glass, whereas the Kamasu uses sapphire. This I feel is the biggest overall negative. However, the lack of any lume, even a pip in the triangle, makes the practical value of this watch for diving a question to me. I’m not a diver but this is the first time I’ve seen a watch set for diving without any lume anywhere on the bezel.

Those are the main things. I am dinging the watch for being over ten seconds per day off on average, but that is well within the specifications of this budget movement (I did ultimately end up regulating it myself to a better standard). Likewise, dial contamination. To me this is not a big deal if it isn’t naked eye visible and I only detected it while under a loupe, and I’ve had other more expensive divers (I’m looking at you Zodiac) with a similar issue.

But, a watch that for under $200 gives you 200 meters of water resistance, an automatic movement, day and date features, and a functional diving bezel is nothing to sneeze at. There is a lot of watch for the price here. The red dial and its sunburst effect is incredible. I have not seen a red dial like this until you get up into Oris (which requires you to add roughly $1,000 to your budget for consideration). Orient does offer other references with other colors as well for those looking for something more subdued.