These new watches from Orient are stylish, colourful and affordable

If you’re looking for an affordable new watch that falls well below the £500 mark, then Orient might have you covered with its latest novelties.

The Japanese watchmaker is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, and the latest landmark releases come from the Mako and Mako 40 series of dive-style watches.

There are five new models in total, with three colour ways for the Mako 40 and two for the slightly larger Mako – of which one has already gone out of stock on Orient’s own website.

The pair of new Mako 40 watches celebrate 75 years of Orient. They both feature a pale blue sunburst-pattern dial and a 41.8 mm stainless steel case with matching bracelet. The model that’s currently unavailable, priced at £359.99, has a steel that matches its case, while the variation that’s still in stock has a blue bezel, plus a day and date window that sets it apart from its date-only sibling. This model costs what I think is a perfectly reasonable £399.99.

Orient says how the dial “elicits the feeling of sunny days with endless blue skies and a gentle sea breeze.” Both feature Orient’s vintage cursive logo from the 1950s, plus screw-down case back and crown giving 200 metres of water resistance. The watch is driven by an in-house automatic movement that can also be manually wound by hand, and which has a power reserve of 40 hours.

The fractionally smaller Mako 40, with its 39.9 mm stainless steel case, also features a set of new colours. These include green, red and dark grey, all with a yellow tip to their second hand, a date window at the three o’clock position and 200 metres of water resistance.

The grey and green models, both £329.99, feature a newly designed silicone strap with embossed striping along its centre. The red dial variant comes with a stainless steel bracelet that matches both its case and bezel, and costs slightly more at £349.99.

All three Orient Mako 40 models have a sapphire crystal and are driven by the in-house F6722 automatic movement with hand winding function and 40 hours of power reserve. All five of the watches revealed this week come in Orient’s special 75th anniversary box, and are limited to 6,000 examples each.