Orient

The Orient Watch Company is Japan's largest producer of mechanical watches. It has been a subsidiary of the Seiko Epson Corporation since 2001 and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Seiko Epson in 2009. The company produces both quartz and mechanical watches, but concentrates its marketing efforts and receives 55% of its international sales from the latter.

The company was founded in Tokyo, July 1950; though, it has roots that date back to 1901 when Shogoro Yoshida opened a wholesale watch shop in Ueno. Through its sixty-year history, the company has contributed several technological advances in watchmaking efficiency such as the development of power-reserve indicators and use of in-house movement production of watches in the hundred-dollar price range.

In-house movement production, defined as a watch manufacturer having direct intellectual property rights to the movement they produce, is not common; the list of companies that do this is very short.

Orient sets itself apart from the other major Japanese watch companies by focusing on self-winding mechanical watches; Seiko, Citizen, Ricoh Elemex and others primarily or exclusively sell quartz watches.

 An Orient mechanical watch