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Orient’s new Solar Chronograph is in a class of its own, literally.

In an attempt to widen its appeal to a younger audience, Orient recently added a Solar-Powered Chronograph to its Contemporary Collection. Available in 6 different colorways, this quartz movement with 3 sub-dials adds a welcome sporty flair to the mostly traditional 3 handed ‘Contemporary’ line-up.

Hidden beneath the dial are photovoltaic cells that convert light into electrical energy, passively charging the battery in as little as 5 hours of bright sunshine. It can power the watch for a full 6 months, running with an accuracy of less than +/- a second a day. So if I'd worn it on a sunny day in August, it would see me through the depths of the British winter and into March next year - if only I had it back then..! Fortunately, the VS752 caliber can also charge from purely artificial light sources, so regardless of where you are in the world, the reality is, that every day this watch is used, it’s soaking up photons and will power the watch indefinitely.

Orient launched the RA-TX03s and a sportier dive-focused RA-TX02xx (Mako) in August this year – both using the (Seiko) Epson VS752 Solar Chronograph movement. In doing so, Orient raised quite a few eyebrows given the superb price of these incredibly affordable ranges when compared with their cousin Seiko’s venerable Prospex Speedtimer Solar Chronograph. I'm sure there were questions over whether this Orient may cannibalize the much loved Speedtimer’s market – and I must say, the Mako models are certainly strong competition. However, in RA-TX03 guise, I think the “Stretto” as it’s being nicknamed, speaks to a different consumer and really doesn't have much competition out there.

Design

The RA-TX03 line is a more dressy watch than its dive watch brother - with multiple highly polished elements on the dial, and a polished 5 link bracelet, there's a little more form over function in this one. Whilst it does have a quoted water resistance of 50m, this type of watch prefers pool-side over water slide.

The triple sub-dials add a layer of complexity and sophistication and the glints of reflection from the hour markers are eye-catching. Without a doubt, this watch looks a lot more expensive than it actually is. The simplicity of the solar charging and the impressive accuracy of quartz means this could be a very capable daily watch for the office. The chronograph is useful for a whole heap of daily tasks; from cooking pasta, to keeping track of work tasks.

The quartz movement doesn’t need winding or re-setting, you can grab it and go each and every day without a worry. Alternatively, in some of the flashier colorways, it could easily be a watch you reserve for more special occasions. Your “grown-up” watch for date nights, family get-togethers or weddings; it may not get a whole heap of wrist time, so you might appreciate the lower cost. The good news is that it’ll be there for you, still ticking whenever you need it (as long as you feed it a little sunlight twice a year).

Dial

Dials come in dark blue, minty green, white, and champagne hues. Dial furniture such as markers, hands, and embellishments are in either polished silver or gold-colored accents. All versions have dark grey sub-dials – related to the raw photovoltaic cells rather than a deliberate choice, but luckily, it’s a really great color that compliments all 4 different dial tones.

The model reviewed (RA-TX0303L) is a very dark blue, with fine radial brushing. Often, it can appear black, but with some decent lighting, you’re treated to a gorgeous royal blue sunburst.

There are a couple of gold accented models either full gold colored case and dial furniture, or two-tone gold and stainless steel. There’s an unusual sea-foam green / minty fresh dial which works really well with the dark chronograph registers. Finally, there’s the ever-popular ‘panda’ dial configuration with a silvery white dial and dark grey sub-dials – this is a real stunner.

As well as nicely balanced dial colors, the dial designs themselves contain a lot of depth and interest. At the extremes of the dial is a printed sub-seconds track and lume pips on the hour. Hour markers are wedge-shaped with a deep central cut-out and fine longitudinal machining.

A ring of circumferential grooves tracks around the perimeter of the dial, bordered on each side by highly polished metal accents. This seems to be mostly for decoration rather than any other purpose.

The interior of the dial is dominated by the three sub-dials: A 24-hour indicator at 3 o’clock – which is linked to the main timekeeping hands of the watch. At 6 o’clock is a 60-minute chronograph display, keeping track of the elapsed minutes since starting the chrono timer. At 9 o’clock is the local seconds. Tucked away at 4:30 is a small date window. Sitting below 12 is the Orient Logo.

In order to allow the solar cells to charge, the sub-dials have a fully transparent layer which the gradations are printed on and are bordered with well-executed polished metal surrounds. The quality is reasonable for the money, but under the macro-lens, you are reminded that these are sub-$300 watches – machined edges are left a little rough, particularly in the central grooves of the hour markers and the edges of the handset.

The central seconds hand is activated by pushing the start button on the chronograph. The hour and minute hands are well proportioned and lume is ok for a dressier watch.

Dimensions

The 40mm diameter case has a mixture of brushing on the tops of the lugs and polished bevel and case sides. The chronograph pushers are mushroom-shaped and the signed crown is a simple pull-out type.

The case is a little over 11mm thick and the lug-to-lug distance is 48.2mm. This is not a small watch but it’s neat and well proportioned. It was a little large for my taste on my 6.5” wrist. But I would not say it was too large. As a package, the dial and case are well designed and nicely finished and certainly do bring a youthful sportiness to Orient’s slightly more stuffy contemporary range.

Bracelet

The bracelet is a 5-link design with 2 polished and 3 brushed links, the end links are hollow. Links are held together with ridged split/cotter pins rather than screws – not a great solution as they purely rely on friction to hold them in place and are fiddly to add or remove links.

Following in the slightly disappointing quality theme of the bracelet, the push-button deployant clasp is made of pressed metal parts and has just two micro-adjustment points. Combined with the awkward bracelet links, the lack of fine adjustment makes it very difficult to find a good fit. The result is an almost guaranteed loose fit which unfortunately means you hear quite a lot of jangle from this distinctly budget bracelet.

One positive note I can give on the bracelet is that the end links are relatively short, allowing the bracelet to articulate immediately at the lugs – a plus for those with smaller wrists who need the bracelet to drop perpendicularly down from the lugs. It’s clear though, the bracelet is an area where Orient has cut costs to keep the price down. If you can’t live with the bracelet, the lug width is 20mm opening up lots of options for aftermarket straps - a nice padded faux alligator would look good here.

Solar Feature

Solar charging quartz dials perform a tricky task, they need to appear attractive to the observer, whilst allowing sufficient light onto the solar cells beneath in order to charge the battery.

Manufacturers approach this challenge in a few different ways; the first is through sectioning off parts of the dial reserved for the solar cells – G-shock often does this around the edges of their dials. You can see an obvious almost ultra-violet reflection off these portions of the watch face.

A second approach is to create a translucent dial that appears to an observer to be solid, but allows important wavelengths to pass through the dial material to charge the cells – Citizen’s eco-drive models commonly use this tactic.

A third option uses cut-outs in the solid dial material to allow light to pass through onto the cells. These can be very subtle, like the Cartier Tank Solarbeat - where the small Roman numerals around the edge of the dial are not painted but are actually cut out of the dial to act as windows through to the solar cells behind. With enough cut-outs, there’s sufficient penetration to charge the battery.

In Orient’s case, the three solar cells of the VS752 require at least 20% of their surface to be exposed. Which is why the three sub-dials are sized and colored the way they are. Under the macro lens, you can see that there’s a layer of glass covering the circular sub-dials, the printed numerals and indices are printed onto the glass and you can see their faint shadow below the glass surface. Sitting underneath these apertures are the solar cells which are the dark, uniform grey color described earlier.

The solar cells of the VS752 actually extend well beyond the circular sub-dials, stretching away underneath the solid sections of the main dial, but the sub-dials are large enough to give the cells the necessary exposure. It’s an elegant solution. To the casual observer, they just appear to be unusually colored sunken subdials, but beneath the surface, there’s a whole heap of technical shenanigans at play.

Chronograph

I have owned a few chronographs in my time, from Moon Watches to Moonswatches. It’s arguably a right of passage for a watch enthusiast to have at least one in the collection and as my one-year-old son can attest, we all love to press buttons!

But it’s surprising how many different situations the humble chronograph can be used in. From time and motion studies in my day job, to flipping rib-eyes on the BBQ at the weekend, there’s a satisfaction in using the stop-clock on my wrist to help me with my day.

It’s also a little bit more subtle, and slightly less nerdy than using a dive bezel to time stuff (emphasis on slightly!). This particular offering from Orient isn’t going to help you calculate average speed around your local race track or heartbeats per minute due to the lack of tachymeter/pulsations scale on the bezel. But it will measure up to 60 minutes of elapsed time, accurate to 1/5th of a second, through the large main dial seconds hand, and the chrono sub-dial at 6 o’clock.

What I liked

Thanks to the compact quartz movement the case is relatively slim at 11.1mm tall. In addition, the small conical bezel and generous polished chamfers along the edges of the lugs reduce the risk of snags and contribute to a case profile that wears very well under a cuff or long sleeve.
These models carry a nice balance between practicality and dressiness. The dial design is quite unique, but there is perhaps a hint of vintage Heuer Carrera in the polished hour markers and two-tone dials. There’s a lot to enjoy – especially the deep blue model in this review.
The mushroom pushers are a small but welcome detail, these weren’t necessary, but they bring a little vintage luxury to the user experience.

This might be obvious, but thanks to Solar Technology, this thing isn’t going to run out of battery and end up kicking around in the depths of your sock drawer. If it does approach a state of low charge, the seconds hand will start ticking in 2-second intervals as a warning. You have about a week to find a light source before it eventually dies and needs charging again.

What I didn’t like

The bracelet. Forgetting the aesthetics for a moment; having just 2 micro adjustment points is extremely disappointing. It appears to be restricted by the clasp size – there’s not a lot of space for any more micro-adjustment holes. The clasp is admittedly nice and small - but it should not be so small that it prevents the wearer from ever finding a good fit. For those who like a looser fit, this may not bother you. But for those who prefer their watches to stay in place, it can be a deal breaker if you can’t get the watch to fit properly. There are endless options to remove links but the links are relatively long, with no half-links, so if you’re unlucky, you can be quite far out from finding the optimum length for your wrist.
The tolerances between the bracelet and lugs/case are pretty poor and the folded metal end links and clasp might be ‘charming’ on an 80s Submariner, but they immediately cheapen a modern watch.
The bevels on the lugs aren’t as crisp as one might like – you can see in some of the macro shots that some brushing bleeds onto the polished surfaces. It’s a very minor complaint – especially considering the price of these things. But still a little sloppy.

For a moment, I thought that the 24-hour sub-dial might have been a second time-zone display, but I was disappointed to learn that it’s really just an AM/PM indicator - directly linked to the main time-keeping hands. You can’t adjust it separately to the local time. It can be useful on the very rare occasion that you need to set this watch and know if the hour hand is in the morning or afternoon cycle prior to a date change, but honestly, it’s a bit of a redundant gimmick and a waste of a sub-dial.

Alternatives

As mentioned earlier, Orient released the RA-TX03s and a much more dive-focussed Mako Chronograph Solar RA-TX02XX for a similar price to the Orient Stretto. Certainly not as pretty as the Stretto, the Mako already has a great reputation as a solid stainless steel sports watch, and adding the Solar Chronograph movement whilst still retaining a 200m depth water resistance is formidable value for money. If you like the Solar Chrono movement but are looking for a slightly more informal watch and/or a much better clasp, the Mako Solar Chronograph should be high on your list.

As I searched around the usual suspects for a dressy alternative; Citizen, Seiko, Tissot, Timex it became clear just how good a package Orient has pulled together here. There are very few affordable solar-powered Chronographs below $500. Of those I could find, the majority had very large 44mm case diameters, for example, Casio’s EQS-950D-1AV. I did find a Citizen Eco-Drive Chronograph CA7040-85L at 41mm, but it’s a far less dressy, more sports/tool-oriented model. Truly, the Stretto's layers of functionality and form are unique at this price point.

Conclusion

Orient’s new “Stretto” RA-TX03 series is not only punching well above its weight - with a feature-packed movement and some beautiful dials, there's hardly any competition in this field. The well-designed case houses a set-and-forget movement hidden behind some very handsome dials. As mentioned, the bracelet is disappointing to wear, and looks better in the photos than in reality - which is a shame as the watch looks great on the steel strap. The chronograph function suits the watch style well, the pushers look cool and the sub-dials are well executed.

This could be your daily work watch, or a piece for special occasions, your Chrono in the collection, or at such a good price, just a fun, good-looking watch for a bit of a change in the rotation. There aren't a lot of watches like it out there, and understandably it’s selling out fast. Check out Ben's "In the Loupe" unboxing vid for more details on where you can find this piece and others.