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<\/a><\/div>\nAbout six years ago, I did a blog post on Orient’s Tenbeat<\/a>, And then, a few weeks ago, I was delighted to receive an email from a Anyway, the owner, Andreas was kind enough to share his review of the watch My name is Andreas, and Mr. Orient invited me to share my first-hand So, how does it feel to wear such a rare watch? Great, I have to say! I The high beat movement 9980 is equipped with 28 jewels, and they are not Let\u2019s have a look at the stainless steel case. Its brushed surface with I love the sunburst silver dial and the rehaut. “ROMANES EVNT
\nthe brand’s rare and elusive high-beat model from 1970. In the years that
\npassed since then, I know of three occasions when one such Tenbeat actually got
\nauctioned for sale. One was ridiculously over-priced, another seemed not to be
\nin working order, and the last one I only heard of after it was already closed.<\/p>\n
\nblog follower who had just acquired one of these rare beasts. Or rather, a part
\nof it\u2026 it will all become clear shortly.<\/p>\n
\nand some photos \u2013 revealing a case type that’s different from the two shown in
\nmy original story. I am sure you will find his account of owning and wearing
\nthe Tenbeat as interesting and entertaining as I did, so I bring it to you in
\nhis own words.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nexperience of wearing an <\/span>Orient Tenbeat,
\nwhich I will gladly do. First of all, I must clarify that I only own 10,000 of
\nthe 36,000 beats per hour through timesharing. I think Pierre and I will rather
\nsettle on 100 and 360 days per <\/span>year instead of
\n1\/10s of a second. Pierre is the guy who spotted this beautiful timepiece we
\nshare. He searched much more
\nthoroughly than I and found it listed as “10BEAT” instead of
\n“TENBEAT” at JDirectItems Auctions in November 2025. That description
\nwas why no one else was even <\/span>watching. Yet
\neven with a \u00a530,000 discount the minimum bid was \u00a5520,000 plus Japanese sales
\n<\/span>tax plus import sales tax \u2013 far more than my personal limit. I suggested
\ntime-sharing as a joke, but <\/span>Pierre asked if
\nI really would, and after some consideration I agreed.<\/p>\n
\nlike the idea that most likely I am the only person in the universe wearing a
\nTenbeat when it is night in Japan, where probably all <\/span>the
\nother owners of such a watch live. The case measures 36 millimeters in diameter
\nand only 36 <\/span>millimeters lug to lug. It\u2019s about
\nthe size of the Orient Fineness from 1968, just one millimeter <\/span>thicker. Thus it
\nfits really comfortably. The band width is 19 millimeters with curved spring
\nbars. This is due to the fact
\nthat the movement has diameter of 27.6 millimeters compared to the 25.6
\n<\/span>millimeters of the Fineness\u2019 Ultramatic caliber.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nfor decoration. There <\/span>are combined settings for the
\nescapement and the escapement wheel, for instance. The balance has
\n<\/span>an Incabloc shock protection system and a fine adjustment mechanism. The
\nmovement is not very <\/span>decorative, but neither were
\nSeiko’s 6146 or Citizen’s 7230 of that time. Speaking of those <\/span>competitors
\n\u2013 in 1970, Seiko had a share of 60% of Japanese watch manufacturing, Citizen
\nstill had <\/span>28%. Orient\u2019s share was 9% \u2013 roughly a
\nthird of Citizen\u2019s and not even a sixth of Seiko\u2019s. I assume <\/span>that also
\nreflects the budgets of the respective development departments. At least I know
\nSeiko had <\/span>two \u2013 one at Daini Seikosha in
\nTokyo, and one at Suwa Seikosha in the Nagano prefecture. One <\/span>should
\nalso consider that the high beat movements of many renowned Swiss manufacturers
\nwere <\/span>based on rough movements manufactured by Adolph Schild
\nSA. Orient developed and <\/span>manufactured the
\ncaliber 9980 entirely in-house. It has this nice little pusher for setting the
\ndate at 2 o’clock to distinguish it from others.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nits sunburst effect is a pure joy to me as a photographer. No strange
\nreflections \u2013 I hate seeing my face distorted and half-covered by my camera
\nreflected in the watch in my pictures. I like the curved outlines, not only at
\nthe sides but <\/span>also at the cutouts for the
\nbracelet. There are small cutouts for the crown and the pusher on the right side.
\nTogether with the acrylic crystal, the case is only 9 millimeters thick and has
\na screw-down <\/span>back.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nDOMVS!” (sic) \u2013 I usually don\u2019t <\/span>like Roman
\nnumerals on my watch faces. Among the baton indices there are fortunately only
\n3 of <\/span>them at 6, 9, and 12. But I have to admit that in this
\ncase the Roman markers counterweight the <\/span>large day and
\ndate window in a nice way. Ow, that large window- people who prefer no date
\n<\/span>watches will certainly hate this! But it is the most outstanding design
\nfeature of the watch. The day <\/span>wheel is atop of
\nthe date wheel and has windows which allow the date to be displayed. It is
\nreally <\/span>fascinating when the day and date change! The large
\nwindow shuts and the date changes invisibly. The day of the week is displayed in abbreviated form in
\nJapanese left of the date, and in full English below. The print is inverted for
\nthe Japanese and matches the black date wheel. The numbers on the <\/span>latter
\nare printed in silver, which makes them quite easy to read.<\/span><\/p>\n