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Watch Reviewed: Obris Morgan Explorer II
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Company Information:
Website: http://www.obrismorgan.com/
Contact: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Obris-Morgan-Timepieces/247738741956886
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/obris_morgan/
About from Company Website:
Obris Morgan Timepiece is a small watch-making company based in Hong Kong.
Our aims are to combine high standards of finishing, high quality and timeless design watches for collectors, as well as a range of matching-quality watch accessories. Our workshops are located in Hong Kong and in the Pan Yu Science & Technology Park in South China.
The Office in Hong Kong is mainly given over to watch design, customer support and warranty services. All of Obris Morgan Watches are assembled and tested in our workshop in China.
The logo of Obris Morgan Timepieces is an abstract symbol representing the rotor of an automatic mechanical movement. By using this symbol, our company declares its trust in the mechanical movement embodied in each and every one of the watches we produce.
We hope that every Obris Morgan watch owner will wear our watch with pride.
Thank You and Best Wishes!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Orbis Morgan Explorer II
Stock Photo:
Watch Specifications:
- Case: 316L Stainless Steel
- Crystal: Sapphire, 3.4mm thick, double domed with anti-reflective coating
- Caseback: 316L stainless steel, screwed-in
- Movement: Citizen Miyota Caliber 9015
- Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, elapsed time
- Dial: Black
- Diameter: 42.0 mm
- Length: 51.0 mm
- Thickness: 12.0 mm
- Lug Width: 20mm
- Water resistance: 20 ATM / 200 Meters
- Weight: 216g
Price: $279
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Orbis Morgan is a Hong Kong based watch company, which has been producing great quality sport watches for several years. For this watch review, the company has provided one of its Explorer II models for review. This is a black dialed watch with yellow lettering, with an automatic movement, date and sapphire crystal.
Packaging:
The packaging for the Explorer II is a custom “Pelican” style, waterproof case. The case is orange with the Orbis Morgan logo molded into the top lid of the case. The Explorer model logo is applied to the cover with an vinyl sticker and has a great overall appearance. The entire package is made of very good quality materials.
The inside of the case is lined with a rigid foam. The foam has a cutout section for the watch as well as the additional rubber strap and supplied custom screwdriver.
Below is a closer shot of the custom screwdriver that is included with the Explorer II package. It has dual heads, which can be used for the lug screws as well as the bracelet screws. This is a great addition, especially since both size screwdriver heads are included in one, compact package.
Case, Bezel and Crystal:
As you would suspect, the Orbis Morgan Explorer II is the second version of the brand’s model. The newest iteration of the Explorer line makes on its predecessor, namely increased case thickness, the addition of a thick double-domed sapphire crystal and the inclusion of a date window at the 3 o’clock position of the dial. The Explorer II is offered with either brushed or bead-blasted finish and with 5 different dial choices (based on the font color). This combines to 10 different models to choose from.
For those who aren’t familiar with the Explorer line from Orbis Morgan, it is roughly based on the early Rolex Explorer models. This is where the model’s name is derived. However, in my opinion, the line is more of a mixture of the early Explorer and Submariner models. I take this view because the dial design and case shape does take design cues from both models, but with more beefy dimensions and a modern tool diver twist.
The Explorer II's case is constructed of 316L stainless steel and has a traditionally inspired design, with no crown guards. The case has a nice, matte bead-blasted finish, which has been evenly applied across its entire surface.
The case has a nice profile, with slightly downward sloping lugs. The lug shape allows the watch to wear very close to the wrist.
The non-crown side of the watch features and automatic helium escape valve (HEV). In my view, these are often overkill on a watch. However, this is an additional feature that adds perceived value to many, so it is definitely something that may attract interest – Especially at the Explorer II’s very low price point.
The Explorer II's uni-directional bezel has a brushed finish, with nicely notched, wide grips. The aluminum bezel insert has a black finish, with silver markings. The triangle at the zero position on the diver's bezel features a silver triangle and illuminated pearl styled pip. The action of the uni-directional bezel is nice, with no play and firm clicks throughout its 120 positions.
The watch’s double domed sapphire crystal sits just above the surface of the watch's bezel. You can see a slight indication of the blue antireflective coating in the photos throughout this review. This coating was applied to the underside of the watch's crystal.
The watch's 316L stainless steel screw-in case back has a bead-blasted finish, which coordinates nicely with the matte case finish. The case back design is actually quite attractive and it features a deeply engraved Orbis Morgan logo at its center. The engraving on the caseback is rather deep, so you can initially feel the edges with your fingertips, when touched. However, when the watch is worn you do not notice this at all.
The caseback of the watch has Viton brand O-rings installed. These are high quality o-rings and are provent to be very reliable as well as resistant to chemical contamination.
The Explorer II has a generously sized, 8.0mm crown, with the brand’s logo engraved into its end. To help tightly seal the watch, the crown has triple seals incorporated into its design to ensure a watertight seal.
The crown features "V" shaped grips, which provide a great gripping surface and make adjusting the crown very easy, even in wet conditions. Given the case's no crown guard design and relatively large crown, access to and functioning the crown is certainly not an issue. Once unscrewed, the action of the crown is very smooth and the winding/functioning of the movement is very precise.
Dial and Hands:
As I mentioned earlier, the design of the Orbis Morgan Explorer line draws its inspiration from several vintage Rolex models. This can certainly be seen with the distinctive marker design and layout of the Explorer II’s dial.
The Explorer II's dial is black, with a horizontal bushed pattern. Depending on the available lighting, the shade of the dial's brushed black surface shifts from a slate grey to an absolute black.
The dial features painted hour markers, with C1 Superluminova paint applied. The application of the Superluminova is precise and thick, which provides a nice refined appearance to the dial. The large triangle marker at the 12 o’clock position on the dial is reminiscent of the great Rolex Explorer models of the past and has a great appearance.
The Orbis Morgan logo is painted in white at the 12 o'clock position on the dial, with "Explorer” and “Automatic” also painted in white at the 6 o'clock position. In addition, the dial features painted on hour markers and a white painted minute track along its perimeter.
The hands of the Explorer II are traditional baton style hands, with steel frames and white C1 Superluminova paint applied. The minute and hour hands polished feature a satin blasted finish and a beveled tip, which adds a bit of interest to the dial.
The white tone of C1 Superluminova used on the hands coordinates very nicely with the other white features of the dial and provides a great contrast to the black dial.
As you can see from the photos below, the satin finish of the hands really pop when light reflects off of them. This helps to make the watch a little more legible at sharp angles.
As you can see from the photo below, the depth rating is painted yellow on the dial. This is color designates the model color for the Explorer II model, which in the case of this review is…Orbis Morgan Explorer II Yellow.
The C1 Superluminova used on the dial, hands and bezel pip has a nice white tone. The lume is fairly bright when fully charged and fades slowly over time. As you can see from the photos below, when it is fully charged it glows nicely.
Strap:
The Explorer II comes with a custom “Super Engineer” style bracelet. The watch's bracelet is constructed of 316L stainless steel and has a rugged appearance. The styling on the bracelet is very similar to many other tool divers in the market, with 5-piece link construction, 20mm width, 4.6 thick links and nice heft. The bracelet itself has a bead blasted finish, with rounded links and is held together with screws.
The bracelet is held together with screws, which is certainly an upgrade to some of the pin constructed bracelets in the market. The bracket is very comfortable out of the box and conforms to your wrist very easily.
The Explorer II comes with a divers custom diver's deployant clasp with a diver’s extension and three micro-adjustments. The clasp features the Orbis Morgan logo embossed nicely into its top surface.
In addition to the bracelet, the Explorer II also comes equipped with the Orbis Morgan black “Classic Vintage Style” rubber strap. The strap is constructed of natural rubber and has a vanilla scent. For those who are a fan of the ladder-style, IsoFrane inspired, straps, this is definitely a welcome addition and certainly adds a more casual option to the look of the Explorer II.
The strap measures 20mm along its entire length and its length is 80mm/130, which is a great size for many wrist sizes.
Movement:
The Explorer II utilizes a Citizen Miyota 9015 automatic watch movement. This is a very reliable movement and is well regarded within the watch industry. To put it another way, if you look in the WIS dictionary under "workhorse movement", you will likely see a photo of a Miyota 9015 as an example.
Citizen Miyota 9015
(Stock photo)
Technical Specifications:
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[/SIZE][/FONT]
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Wrist Shots:
For reference purposes, my wrist is 7.25 inches.
The Explorer II measures 42.0mm in diameter and 51.0mm in length. With these dimensions, the watch is the perfect size for MANY and is certainly a popular size in the WIS community. It wears very comfortably on the wrist and will fit nicely on most wrist sizes.
Overall, I have to say, this watch is outstanding on the wrist. It has great balance, fantastic proportions and its overall appearance in person is excellent.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall impression and final thoughts:
The Explorer II is a great sports watch offering from Orbis Morgan. While preparing my review and evaluating the watch, I found it difficult to find many things to find that I would change about this watch, especially at its very reasonable price point.
During my evaluation of the watch, I found that, although it was inspired by some vintage watches of the past, the Explorer II certainly held its own as a unique design. The execution and finishing of the watch is very nice as is the overall dimensions of the watch, which make it a great choice for a "daily wearer".
The only point that I will note would be that I would prefer a fully lumed bezel triangle. BUT, this is completely a personal preference and completely unnecessary...so I believe that it would be a moot point to change it.
This is where I have to give credit to Orbis Morgan. They are known for producing great quality, value priced, sports watches...they certainly did it in the case of the Explorer II. For a relatively low price, they produced a watch with a custom design and very nice finishing...and they did it with the quality components that the WIS community is consistently demanding -- Quality automatic movements (9015), sapphire crystal, bracelet...etc. With all this being said, I think that this is a great value and would suggest it for anybody looking for a nicely priced, good quality dive watch!
Well, that concludes my review …Thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments ~ Mark
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Company Information:
Website: http://www.obrismorgan.com/
Contact: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Obris-Morgan-Timepieces/247738741956886
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/obris_morgan/
About from Company Website:
Obris Morgan Timepiece is a small watch-making company based in Hong Kong.
Our aims are to combine high standards of finishing, high quality and timeless design watches for collectors, as well as a range of matching-quality watch accessories. Our workshops are located in Hong Kong and in the Pan Yu Science & Technology Park in South China.
The Office in Hong Kong is mainly given over to watch design, customer support and warranty services. All of Obris Morgan Watches are assembled and tested in our workshop in China.
The logo of Obris Morgan Timepieces is an abstract symbol representing the rotor of an automatic mechanical movement. By using this symbol, our company declares its trust in the mechanical movement embodied in each and every one of the watches we produce.
We hope that every Obris Morgan watch owner will wear our watch with pride.
Thank You and Best Wishes!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Orbis Morgan Explorer II
Stock Photo:
Watch Specifications:
- Case: 316L Stainless Steel
- Crystal: Sapphire, 3.4mm thick, double domed with anti-reflective coating
- Caseback: 316L stainless steel, screwed-in
- Movement: Citizen Miyota Caliber 9015
- Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, elapsed time
- Dial: Black
- Diameter: 42.0 mm
- Length: 51.0 mm
- Thickness: 12.0 mm
- Lug Width: 20mm
- Water resistance: 20 ATM / 200 Meters
- Weight: 216g
Price: $279
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Orbis Morgan is a Hong Kong based watch company, which has been producing great quality sport watches for several years. For this watch review, the company has provided one of its Explorer II models for review. This is a black dialed watch with yellow lettering, with an automatic movement, date and sapphire crystal.
Packaging:
The packaging for the Explorer II is a custom “Pelican” style, waterproof case. The case is orange with the Orbis Morgan logo molded into the top lid of the case. The Explorer model logo is applied to the cover with an vinyl sticker and has a great overall appearance. The entire package is made of very good quality materials.
The inside of the case is lined with a rigid foam. The foam has a cutout section for the watch as well as the additional rubber strap and supplied custom screwdriver.
Below is a closer shot of the custom screwdriver that is included with the Explorer II package. It has dual heads, which can be used for the lug screws as well as the bracelet screws. This is a great addition, especially since both size screwdriver heads are included in one, compact package.
Case, Bezel and Crystal:
As you would suspect, the Orbis Morgan Explorer II is the second version of the brand’s model. The newest iteration of the Explorer line makes on its predecessor, namely increased case thickness, the addition of a thick double-domed sapphire crystal and the inclusion of a date window at the 3 o’clock position of the dial. The Explorer II is offered with either brushed or bead-blasted finish and with 5 different dial choices (based on the font color). This combines to 10 different models to choose from.
For those who aren’t familiar with the Explorer line from Orbis Morgan, it is roughly based on the early Rolex Explorer models. This is where the model’s name is derived. However, in my opinion, the line is more of a mixture of the early Explorer and Submariner models. I take this view because the dial design and case shape does take design cues from both models, but with more beefy dimensions and a modern tool diver twist.
The Explorer II's case is constructed of 316L stainless steel and has a traditionally inspired design, with no crown guards. The case has a nice, matte bead-blasted finish, which has been evenly applied across its entire surface.
The case has a nice profile, with slightly downward sloping lugs. The lug shape allows the watch to wear very close to the wrist.
The non-crown side of the watch features and automatic helium escape valve (HEV). In my view, these are often overkill on a watch. However, this is an additional feature that adds perceived value to many, so it is definitely something that may attract interest – Especially at the Explorer II’s very low price point.
The Explorer II's uni-directional bezel has a brushed finish, with nicely notched, wide grips. The aluminum bezel insert has a black finish, with silver markings. The triangle at the zero position on the diver's bezel features a silver triangle and illuminated pearl styled pip. The action of the uni-directional bezel is nice, with no play and firm clicks throughout its 120 positions.
The watch’s double domed sapphire crystal sits just above the surface of the watch's bezel. You can see a slight indication of the blue antireflective coating in the photos throughout this review. This coating was applied to the underside of the watch's crystal.
The watch's 316L stainless steel screw-in case back has a bead-blasted finish, which coordinates nicely with the matte case finish. The case back design is actually quite attractive and it features a deeply engraved Orbis Morgan logo at its center. The engraving on the caseback is rather deep, so you can initially feel the edges with your fingertips, when touched. However, when the watch is worn you do not notice this at all.
The caseback of the watch has Viton brand O-rings installed. These are high quality o-rings and are provent to be very reliable as well as resistant to chemical contamination.
The Explorer II has a generously sized, 8.0mm crown, with the brand’s logo engraved into its end. To help tightly seal the watch, the crown has triple seals incorporated into its design to ensure a watertight seal.
The crown features "V" shaped grips, which provide a great gripping surface and make adjusting the crown very easy, even in wet conditions. Given the case's no crown guard design and relatively large crown, access to and functioning the crown is certainly not an issue. Once unscrewed, the action of the crown is very smooth and the winding/functioning of the movement is very precise.
Dial and Hands:
As I mentioned earlier, the design of the Orbis Morgan Explorer line draws its inspiration from several vintage Rolex models. This can certainly be seen with the distinctive marker design and layout of the Explorer II’s dial.
The Explorer II's dial is black, with a horizontal bushed pattern. Depending on the available lighting, the shade of the dial's brushed black surface shifts from a slate grey to an absolute black.
The dial features painted hour markers, with C1 Superluminova paint applied. The application of the Superluminova is precise and thick, which provides a nice refined appearance to the dial. The large triangle marker at the 12 o’clock position on the dial is reminiscent of the great Rolex Explorer models of the past and has a great appearance.
The Orbis Morgan logo is painted in white at the 12 o'clock position on the dial, with "Explorer” and “Automatic” also painted in white at the 6 o'clock position. In addition, the dial features painted on hour markers and a white painted minute track along its perimeter.
The hands of the Explorer II are traditional baton style hands, with steel frames and white C1 Superluminova paint applied. The minute and hour hands polished feature a satin blasted finish and a beveled tip, which adds a bit of interest to the dial.
The white tone of C1 Superluminova used on the hands coordinates very nicely with the other white features of the dial and provides a great contrast to the black dial.
As you can see from the photos below, the satin finish of the hands really pop when light reflects off of them. This helps to make the watch a little more legible at sharp angles.
As you can see from the photo below, the depth rating is painted yellow on the dial. This is color designates the model color for the Explorer II model, which in the case of this review is…Orbis Morgan Explorer II Yellow.
The C1 Superluminova used on the dial, hands and bezel pip has a nice white tone. The lume is fairly bright when fully charged and fades slowly over time. As you can see from the photos below, when it is fully charged it glows nicely.
Strap:
The Explorer II comes with a custom “Super Engineer” style bracelet. The watch's bracelet is constructed of 316L stainless steel and has a rugged appearance. The styling on the bracelet is very similar to many other tool divers in the market, with 5-piece link construction, 20mm width, 4.6 thick links and nice heft. The bracelet itself has a bead blasted finish, with rounded links and is held together with screws.
The bracelet is held together with screws, which is certainly an upgrade to some of the pin constructed bracelets in the market. The bracket is very comfortable out of the box and conforms to your wrist very easily.
The Explorer II comes with a divers custom diver's deployant clasp with a diver’s extension and three micro-adjustments. The clasp features the Orbis Morgan logo embossed nicely into its top surface.
In addition to the bracelet, the Explorer II also comes equipped with the Orbis Morgan black “Classic Vintage Style” rubber strap. The strap is constructed of natural rubber and has a vanilla scent. For those who are a fan of the ladder-style, IsoFrane inspired, straps, this is definitely a welcome addition and certainly adds a more casual option to the look of the Explorer II.
The strap measures 20mm along its entire length and its length is 80mm/130, which is a great size for many wrist sizes.
Movement:
The Explorer II utilizes a Citizen Miyota 9015 automatic watch movement. This is a very reliable movement and is well regarded within the watch industry. To put it another way, if you look in the WIS dictionary under "workhorse movement", you will likely see a photo of a Miyota 9015 as an example.
Citizen Miyota 9015
(Stock photo)
Technical Specifications:
[/B][/SIZE][/FONT]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wrist Shots:
For reference purposes, my wrist is 7.25 inches.
The Explorer II measures 42.0mm in diameter and 51.0mm in length. With these dimensions, the watch is the perfect size for MANY and is certainly a popular size in the WIS community. It wears very comfortably on the wrist and will fit nicely on most wrist sizes.
Overall, I have to say, this watch is outstanding on the wrist. It has great balance, fantastic proportions and its overall appearance in person is excellent.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall impression and final thoughts:
The Explorer II is a great sports watch offering from Orbis Morgan. While preparing my review and evaluating the watch, I found it difficult to find many things to find that I would change about this watch, especially at its very reasonable price point.
During my evaluation of the watch, I found that, although it was inspired by some vintage watches of the past, the Explorer II certainly held its own as a unique design. The execution and finishing of the watch is very nice as is the overall dimensions of the watch, which make it a great choice for a "daily wearer".
The only point that I will note would be that I would prefer a fully lumed bezel triangle. BUT, this is completely a personal preference and completely unnecessary...so I believe that it would be a moot point to change it.
This is where I have to give credit to Orbis Morgan. They are known for producing great quality, value priced, sports watches...they certainly did it in the case of the Explorer II. For a relatively low price, they produced a watch with a custom design and very nice finishing...and they did it with the quality components that the WIS community is consistently demanding -- Quality automatic movements (9015), sapphire crystal, bracelet...etc. With all this being said, I think that this is a great value and would suggest it for anybody looking for a nicely priced, good quality dive watch!
Well, that concludes my review …Thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments ~ Mark
As always Mark, a very well executed and unbiased review. I'm on their 'alert list', as the current production run is sold out (again!) but I do want this watch in my collection.
