(2024-11-04) A mysterious but extremely cool Orient Eroz from 2007 ------------------------------------------------------------------ What I'm wearing right now is a watch that anyone should have heard about but no one actually had. It's an automatic mechanical three-hander with date window in a 37mm case. Made in May 2007, if I decoded the serial number correctly. Amazingly comfortable and handsome looking. Yet it's almost impossible to look up any information about it on the Internet. I'm talking about Orient BER0Z002K, although this model number might say nothing to you, and I would understand it. It really seems like a mystery, a forgotten gem from the end of pre-Epson era of Orient. Yet here it is, and I'm going to tell everything I know about it. I had bought this watch in a local online shop. Clearly in a used condition but hardly ever worn by the previous owner who even retained the original tags on the bracelet. It's one of those tags that I knew the full model number from. Because it was only sold as "Orient Titanium", and this moniker, of course, stuck to another blast from the past that's too large for me, the ER2F series, which was, as you might have guessed, on the same 48743 movement as this one. And when I read the tag and saw that the model number starts from B, this became the first mysterious element about this watch. I know that pre-Epson model numbering used S for Japanese factories and F for Chinese ones. I don't remember what C stands for, but B? Da hell is that? I still don't have any answer to this day. Second, the online information about this model is extremely scarce. I literally found up to 3 websites ever mentioning it. Fortunately there were some online shops that I trust that retained the old catalog information, so I verified with them and confirmed that was a legitimate model and there even had been a whole lineup of similar models. Given how good this one is while not being crazy expensive even at the time it was new, I don't get why it got no reviews whatsoever while the ER2F lineup (which, of course, was a bit newer) got so much praise. It's as if Orient deliberately didn't want anyone to know about the entire ER0Z series. Or the information had been erased by the natural course of time... Now, how would I describe the ER0Z models? Well... Imagine a pre-Epson 37mm Orient Tristar that suddenly got rid of the weekday (and corresponding pusher), got a much cleaner and slicker dial and got put into a slimmer case made of titanium with the accompanying folded-link (sic) titanium bracelet with the same 8 microadjustments that Tristar owners got used to. That's it, that's the description of this watch in a nutshell. In case of my particular model (ER0Z002K), it got a "titanium sunburst" dial with gold-accented hands, markers and crown. I wish I could find the 001K (silver instead of gold) but this one also looks nice enough, both much more retro and much newer than it actually is. In my case, however, the looks are not everything. Performance is also a very important factor for a watch to stay in my collection. And oh man, did the performance of this one not disappoint. Get this: my initial daily accuracy measurement had shown a mere +15 s/day deviation. For a 17 years old automatic watch (which I'm pretty sure hadn't undergone any regulation before me), that's a miracle. And, like all other mech Orients I encountered, this one is extremely easy to regulate to the point of spot-on timing (seems like my guide for F49/F6 fully applies here as well, but I also have ordered a demagnetizer because who knows where this watch had been stored). When I opened the caseback, I could easily see why even F4902 was superior to 48743, but I really wish Orient had brought back such an ultraslim design in 37mm and titanium for their newer models, and a hypothetical no-weekday version of F49 could fit perfectly into such a design. Back in the late 2000s, I got used to quartz models in the packages that slim and lightweight, not friggin' autos with a working rotor. Anyway, I am extremely satisfied with this watch. I can't call it retro or vintage yet (17-year period still isn't a lot), but a rarity for sure, especially given its lack of online presence. Maybe my item underwent some service in the past, who knows. But the level of satisfaction it gives me now is only second to the Citizen PMD56. And that's something, considering their price difference. Overall, I think this is one of the most underrated Orients of all time. Kamasu is tough, Bambino is hip, Vega is practical, but this one is so cool but so undeservedly forgotten that the marketologists didn't even give it a nickname. I think I can coin one from the model number itself: Eroz. And a corresponding slogan: "Orient Eroz: trust your mechalust!" LOL. All jokes aside, I think that Epson really needs to bring this model back. It needs to be seen, heard about and worn by a bigger number of people. And I hope this post also helps with that. --- Luxferre ---