Orient Bambino vs Timex Expedition Field Post Solar

Sapphire and 100m on a solar watch at this price is a specification sheet that should not exist at the bottom of the market, and it is why this scores 6.6 against the Bambino's 6.3 despite being the cheaper watch. The crystal is the part of a watch you look at every day and cannot repair, and this is the one that has the unscratchable one.

It asks nothing of you. No winding, no battery change, no reset after a fortnight in a drawer, and 100m means it survives swimming and washing up without a thought. For a first watch, a gift, or a watch worn a few times a month, that combination is hard to beat.

44.5mm of published lug-to-lug on a 36mm case is the smallest case on this site with the footprint printed, so you can check it against your wrist before ordering rather than after. The 18mm lug width is standard and even.

Three honest costs. The case is steel with an IP black coating, and a coating is a wear part — it goes at the lug edges first, and the fix is a refinish rather than a polish. The movement is a module: replaced rather than rebuilt, where the Orient can be returned to spec indefinitely. And the warranty is one year that explicitly excludes the crystal, the strap, the case and the battery, which is close to everything that fails. Timex publishes no caliber and no service pricing.

The smallest genuinely good watch here. Sapphire, solar, 100m and 44.5mm across the lugs — if you have a small wrist and want to stop thinking about batteries, start here.

This is the one to buy if you want a watch rather than an appliance. The F6724 is an in-house Orient automatic that both hand-winds and hacks — you can wind it without shaking it awake and stop the seconds to set it properly — and a mechanical movement can be stripped, cleaned and returned to spec for as long as anyone makes parts. That is worth the full 2.5 of 2.5 for serviceability where the Timex's module takes 1.4.

Three years of warranty is a year more than Tissot or Hamilton give on watches costing several times as much, and three times what Timex covers here. The 20mm lug width is standard and even, so straps are permanent and cheap, and the case is bare steel with no coating to wear through.

44mm of published lug-to-lug on a 38.4mm case is genuinely small by modern standards, and this is the Bambino to buy if the 40.5mm versions never sat right. Our [Bambino line roundup](/brands/best-orient-bambino-watches) ranks all four versions on exactly that figure.

Then the two costs, and they are the reason it ranks second here. The crystal is domed mineral, which collects scratches you cannot polish out — and a domed crystal stands proud of the case, so it meets the door frame before anything else does. And the water rating is 30m, which on this site means rain and handwashing only. It scores 6.3, and both of those lines are why.

A 44mm lug-to-lug is genuinely small by modern standards, and this is the Bambino to buy if the 40.5mm versions never sat right. The domed mineral crystal is the compromise, and it is the one Orient never fixes on this line.

Worth naming because it is the answer to the question this page keeps running into: can you have sapphire, 100m and a mechanical movement in a small case? Yes, at the PRX 35, which is the only watch on this site that manages all three under 36mm — an 80-hour Powermatic 80, sapphire, 100m, and a 10.93mm case that is thinner than either watch above.

It is also the only one of the three whose running cost you can look up: Tissot publishes $210 for a complete mechanical service in the US with 24 months of warranty on the work. That transparency is worth a full point in our formula and lifts it to 8.0, nearly two points clear of both watches above.

The catch is structural and permanent. The bracelet is integrated on an 11mm fitting, which is not a strap size — you keep the bracelet the watch came with or you keep nothing. Tissot also publishes no lug-to-lug for it, so on a very small wrist you are buying the diameter and hoping, where both watches above print the figure.

An 80-hour Swiss automatic at 35mm with sapphire and 100m, backed by Tissot's published $210 service price. The integrated bracelet is the long-term trade — an 11mm fitting is not a strap size, so you keep the bracelet the watch came with or you keep nothing.