Stellaris was the in-house watch brand for Sears & Roebuck for years, featuring various Swiss and Seiko mechanical movements – and this sharp full-serviced 1960s Orvin Ref. 10571 manual-wind mechanical skin diver watch is no different.
A nice bonus? This watch has a great military-esque stance to it. And add to that a great uniform lume patina throughout the dial and handset, coupled with a light UV fade to the black bezel - for an ever-so-subtle "ghosting" effect - and you are left with everything a vintage skin diver should be.
And we aren't the only ones that love this Orvin/Stellaris reference (both brands used sold the same watch, branded with their respective watch companies) - Fratello's Mike Stockton noted, "This watch could easily be nicknamed 'the poor man’s Omega Seamaster CK2913.' It’s a watch with a likable dial, enigmatic branding, 'crippled' hour hand, juicy lume, and a cosmic treatment to the crown grip."
"This watch’s sharp, knife-like minute hand with an arrow tip is a confusing contrast with the hour hand. The latter almost feels like it has been crippled on purpose. It looks like someone chopped off its tip, and it’s amusingly bizarre. This...is my kind of watch." We tend to agree - we post one of these supremely comfortable to wear Ref. 10571's on our social media often!
At its 1886 inception, American company Sears - run by Richard W. Sears, a railroad agent - sold watches by mail order catalog - much akin to Amazon at its founding selling books, pocket watches were Sears' first commodity, but it would gradually add substantially to its offerings - just like Amazon.
Aside from Swiss movements, Orvin and Stellaris watches also featured Hamazawa Ltd – founded in 1954 – automatic movements, and Hamazawa had an unofficial relationship with Seiko. Further, in the 1970s, Hamazawa took out several joint patents with Epson (one of the three core companies of Seiko Group in contemporary times) on non-watch related items.
Hamazawa appeared to have sold a lot of movements to various Japanese and foreign watch companies, and in 1983, it merged with two other companies, one of which was a major watch case supplier for Seiko-Epson. Subsequently, in 1986, this company was taken over by Seiko.
This Orvin mechanical comes on a leather-backed canvas strap, and with nylon strap, rugged travel case, and springbar tool.
1960s Orvin Ref. 10571 Mechanical Skin Diver
DIAL: Matte-black Orvin-signed dial, with applied Arabic numeral hour indices at the 6, 9, and 12 o'clock positions, and matching handset. Lume has a fantastic uniform patina throughout dial and handset
CASE: Stainless-steel case case measures 36.5mm (39mm w/crown) x 41mm. Wear is present on the case underside, not visible when worn.
BEZEL: Bezel remains intact, with virtually no UV fade.
CRYSTAL: Domed acrylic crystal, no cracks or scratches.
BAND: This Stellaris comes on a leather-backed beige canvas strap; it also comes with a black nylon strap.
MOVEMENT: This Orvin watch is powered by a 17-jewel AS/ST 1950/51 movement, a reliable and easy to service manual-winding mechanical movement. We have performed a full service on this Orvin skin diver watch.
CROWN: Unsigned stainless-steel crown.
