It’s been one year since Orient Star launched M Collections, a design collection seeking to reconfigure the brand’s high-end line. Over the past year, models sequentially released under this concept have reiterated the brand’s excellent watchmaking technologies and design sensibilities. This season’s new releases are no different: all models are creations worthy of the origin of Orient Star’s name – the desire to create “shining star” watches.

Photographs by Masahiro Okamura (CROSSOVER)
Edited & Text by Yuzo Takeishi
［Article published in the November 2024 issue of Chronos Japan］

　M Collections was launched one year ago to serve as guidepost indicating the direction of the Orient Star brand, and consists of models starting from 100,000 yen categorized into different design themes. The three design collections comprising M Collections are named M45, M34 and M42 after the Messier Catalog, a catalog of nebulae, clusters and galaxies created by French astronomer Charles Messier. The concept, befitting of Orient Star, draws on myths associated with each catalog number to inspire the corresponding collection’s designs.

　The first and second installments of the collection, released last fall and this spring respectively, not only feature such fully-developed conceptual designs but also showcase the technological prowess required to translate such designs into reality. Elegant dials combining mother-of-pearl with a gradation effect to depict a mystical landscape, or those using optical multilayer technology to create a sense of depth, could only be achieved using the superior dial manufacturing technology of Orient Star’s parent company Epson.

　The new models being released this fall follow in the footsteps of these creations, combining Epson’s technologies with conceptual designs to create models that are uniquely Orient Star. A total of four new models have been announced: three models from two lines in the M34 Collection, and one model from the M42 Collection – all updated versions of previous designs that will be released on a limited edition basis. By giving further nuance to the base designs, the new models serve to clarify the concept of each collection.

The M34 F8 Skeleton Hand Winding will serve as the flagship of the new releases. By adding a blue gradation outer ring on the dial and a grey ion-plated bezel to the sharp skeleton model that was released in 2022, the new release further emphasizes the image of the deep cosmos and M34, the Messier number representing the Perseus constellation.

　Both the M34 F7 Mechanical Moon Phase and M34 F7 Semi Skeleton adopt the familiar technique of adorning mother-of-pearl dials with a gradation effect.

　　The new model incorporates a vertical light grey gradation to depict a mystical scene of both the hero Perseus and the aurora at dawn.

　Meanwhile, the release of a special version of the M42 Diver 1964 2nd Edition F6 Date has been announced for the M42 Collection. This new model from M42, named after Orion, the son of Poseidon, god of the sea, continues on with the divers’ watch theme while introducing gold-colored accents to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Orient’s divers’ watches and add a vintage feel.

The four new models not only offer the excellent practicality that Orient Star is known for but also sophisticated dial designs that cannot be dismissed as mere variations of previous models. As a brand established with the aim of creating “shining star” watches, Orient Star pays tribute to its proud history with these new creations.