Stellaris and Orvin were in-house watch brand for Sears, Roebuck, and Company department store for years, incorporating Seiko and Swiss automatic and manual-wind mechanical movements - and this full-serviced 1960s Orvin manual-wind mechanical dress watch here is no different.
As with most dress watches from the era, this Orvin features Arabic numeral hour indices sparingly, and only at the 3/6/9 and 12 positions. These combine to form the Orvin's single greatest aesthetic quality – symmetry. The small crown coupled with the sparse dial give it a simple, clean symmetrical style hard to find in a watch of any era or price range. Everything is in balance. And all at an entry-level vintage price point, at that.
And we aren't the only ones that love Stellaris (and Orvin) watches - Fratello's Mike Stockton noted about a similar-in-design Stellaris watch that, "It’s a watch with a likable dial, enigmatic branding...this Stellaris is my kind of watch."
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.
Although Seiko produced Stellaris for Sears, preceding this, Stellaris was a brand name registered in 1963 by Swiss brand Mondia; while not a well-known brand, it produced some intriguing watches, such as the Mondia “Big Eye” chronograph and the Top Second. It also put out a watch model called Stellaris with an unusual fluid case.
How did Mondia and Stellaris evolve to be separate watch brands? No idea – another mystery lost to the ages, akin to how both brands would become victims of the Seiko-initiated Quartz Crisis. Watch periodical Fratello speculated, “Mondia was used as support to make Stellaris trustworthy."
"Or, I suppose another possible scenario is that the Mondia Stellaris became so popular that Mondia decided to make it a separate brand featuring its own range of watches. And there were quite a few of them, mostly later Stellaris electronic models.” Regardless, the Stellaris font and symbol didn’t change after it was established as a stand-alone brand, the clearest evidence of the relationship between the two.
Aside from Swiss movements, 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.
Back again to Fratello's Stockton, "There are still little wonders waiting to be unearthed. Stellaris is one of them for sure. [] And since I landed this Stellaris, I haven’t seen another one."
This Orvin mechanical comes on a leather strap, and with a black nylon strap, rugged travel case, and springbar tool.
1960s Orvin Manual-Winding Mechanical Dress Watch
DIAL: Sharp off-white cream-colored Orvin-signed dial, with Arabic numeral hour indices and matching handset. Lume on handset shines, but not for long.
CASE: Base metal case measures 34mm (34.5mm w/crown) x 41mm.
CRYSTAL: Domed acrylic crystal, no cracks or deep scratches.
BAND: This Orvin comes on a green leather strap; it also comes with a black nylon strap.
MOVEMENT: This Stellaris watch is powered by a 17-jewel Swiss manual-winding mechanical movement. We have performed a full service on this Orvin skin diver watch.
CROWN: Unsigned base metal crown, which shows wear.

