Orient Mako CEM65001B automatic watch review – a sleek, great value timepiece

The Orient Mako has  become something of an iconic diver’s watch, offering classical good looks – a little reminiscent of the far more expensive Omega Seamaster – in an attractively priced sub-£100 package.

A classic men’s dive watch with a 21 jewel Japanese automatic (self-winding) movement, the Mako comes with a near-black face and luminous hands and indices, surrounded by a uni-directional rotating bezel.

There’s a screw down crown and day change button, backed by a mineral crystal front, screw down back and decent stainless steel bracelet.

For extra security, the bracelet also comes with a dual push-button deployment clasp, so it’s unlikely to work loose. 

First impressions of the watch are very positive indeed. The face is easy to read, and crisply finished, and although the rotating bezel takes  a fair bit of effort to move around, it has a satisfying click.

Build quality seems very impressive for the price, although the strap clasp sometimes needs a little persuading to close. 

The day is adjusted by the secondary screw down crown, although this has a propensity to sometimes work loose, with the day subsequently being unintentionally altered.

Another minor annoyance is the fact that sometimes the day doesn’t line up in the window very well (see above) although this problem seems to appear only erratically.

Lume (luminous phosphorescent ) is pretty good overall with the face and hands easy to read at night, but (not unreasonably) it fades quicker than many more expensive timepieces.

The watch has a claimed water resistance 0f 200m and a power reserve of 40 hours.

Timekeeping was pretty much excellent, and overall this is a watch that packs a lot of bang for the buck, serving up quality looks at a knock down price.

We bagged the Mako off eBay for around £96 on eBay. The exact model we reviewed is no longer available on Amazon.co.uk but the £99 Orient CEM65004 Diver Watch is the same model but with a different strap.

It’s a watch we can recommend.