Orient Mako II FAA02001B9 Review & Complete Guide
The Mako II is one of Orient’s most popular watches, and for good reasons. It has a classic dive watch design and a sporty construction, features a great in-house automatic movement, and is affordably priced. All of this makes the watch exceptional value for money.
The Orient Mako II is available in a number of iterations to suit everyone’s tastes and preferences, but in this article, we are reviewing and looking closer at the most popular of them all. The classic black Orient Mako II FAA02001B9. This watch is version 2, and replaces the predecessor Orient Mako first generation. It has upgrades and improvements which have been applied to several aspects of the watch.
Orient Mako II FAA02001B9 review
The Orient FAA02001B9 is a sporty dive watch offered at an affordable price, yet is built to last. This watch is tough, durable, and offers a water-resistance that makes it suitable for diving.
Dive watches have only grown in popularity due to their iconic and timeless design, yet have a versatility that makes them perfect for everyday wear. It’s easy to see why this model is so immensely popular and let’s dive in to see exactly why.
Case
Starting off with the case, the Orient Mako II is a traditional diver and therefore has a traditional and classic stainless steel case. The case measures 41.5mm in diameter and has a thickness of 13mm. With that said, it is a reasonably sized watch that will be appreciated by a lot of people with different wrist sizes. Naturally, being a dive watch,
Orient has also done a good job with the finishing of this watch, and this is particularly nice considering that it is an affordable watch. But despite this, Orient has not compromised with the finishing. The satin-brushed finish has a circular finish.
The sides of the case are polished, and the combination of polished meets brushed looks really elegant. At 3 o’clock, it has a screw-down crown which sits protected between crown guards.
As a dive watch should, it has a unidirectional rotating bezel with a 60-minute graduation marker. To make it easy to operate, it has teeth around it. The bezel rotates with 120 clicks. The bezel uses a black aluminum insert and has a luminous pip at 12 o’clock which helps read the bezel even in low-lit conditions.
On top of the case, it has a mineral glass. Whilst it would be nice to have a sapphire crystal which is more scratch-resistant, it’s important to keep in mind that this is an affordable watch, so sapphire is not something we can take for granted.
A dive watch needs good water resistance, and the Orient Orient Mako II FAA02001B9 is water-resistant to 200m/660 feet. In practice, this means you can go swimming and diving with it without any issues.
This is a sporty dive watch made to last and with a durable and robust design. This makes it suitable for everyday wear, including harsh conditions.
The watch is presented on a satin-finished stainless steel bracelet. This bracelet feels solid and robust, but as is the case with most affordable watches, the bracelet is also the part that is compromised with the most. There is certainly some room for improvement when it comes to its rigidity, but considering its price, it’s something we can overlook.
Dial
The dial is classic and simple and exactly what you expect a dive watch to be. Around the outer edge of the dial, it has a black outer ring on which the seconds markers are printed.
The dial is black and has applied hour markers. A nice touch is that the 12, 6, and 9 o’clock markers are Arabic, whilst the rest of the markers are rectangular. The markers have metal frames and applied luminous material to them which helps improve legibility. To go with the sporty theme, the hands are large and sword-shaped and also have luminescence on them. Both the hands and markers create a great contrast against the black background and make it easy to read the time.
To add some color to this monochrome watch, the seconds markers have a red arrow tip.
Positioned at 3 o’clock, it has a day and a date window. These have a metal frame around them and a white background.
Overall, the dial is really nicely executed and shows that Orient has paid attention to the details.
Movement
One of the highlights of this watch, apart from its simple, classic, and sporty design, is its movement.
This watch is powered by the in-house Orient caliber. Since this is the second version, the Mako II, it is an upgraded version of the predecessor, and one of the main upgrades of this watch is indeed the movement.
Whilst the predecessor had an automatic movement, it did not have a hacking function nor a manual-winding function. However, the Orient Mako II FAA02001B9 does. This watch is powered by the Orient in-house automatic caliber F6922 which has both a hacking and manual-winding function. The accuracy of this movement has been improved, the durability revised, and functions optimized.
Specifications
- Case: stainless steel
- Bracelet: Stainless steel
- Movement: Orient in-house automatic caliber F6922 with hacking and manual-winding functions
- Water-resistance: 200m/660 feet
- Crown: screw-down
- Diameter: 41.5mm
- Thickness: 13mm
- Bezel: Uni-Directional rotating bezel
- Crystal: mineral
Conclusion
All in all, it’s easy to see why the Orient Mako II FAA02001B9 is such a popular watch. It has an affordable price, but despite this, it is well-built, offers great quality, has nice finishing and attention to detail, and last but not least a robust and durable automatic movement.
In fact, there are few automatic dive watches with in-house movements, and this is a huge value proposition for this watch.
With its classic dive-watch-inspired design and robust construction, you really cannot go wrong with this stylish timepiece. Whether you need a solid diver or just a nice everyday watch.
The Orient Mako II FAA02001B9 is available to order on Amazon.
