One hundred. It is, on its face, a preposterous number of jewels to put inside a wristwatch. Most mechanical movements function perfectly well with seventeen, and even the most elaborate complications rarely exceed forty. But in the mid-1960s, Orient was mostly chasing a headline since the company was small, ambitious, and had something to prove.
 
The story begins in 1964, when Orient introduced a series of commemorative watches bearing 64 jewels, and as you guessted it, to celeberate the Tokyo Summer Olympics 1964. It was a marketing masterstroke dressed as horology, riding the crest of a peculiar industry-wide arms race where jewel count had become shorthand for quality in the minds of consumers. From 64, the leap to 100 was almost inevitable.
 
To get there, Orient didn't simply pile jewels onto an existing caliber. The Caliber 660 was developed exclusively for the Grand Prix line, and it arrived properly equipped: Incabloc shock protection guarded the movement against the rigors of daily wear, while Orient's proprietary Triostat fine regulation allowed precision adjustment across three parameters.
 
What makes the Grand Prix 100 genuinely interesting is that the movement wasn't the only thing worth looking at. The multi-plane polished case catches light at competing angles, while the linen silver dial shifts tone subtly depending on where the light falls, somewhere between warm and cool, never quite settling. A day-of-week window at six o'clock displays full Japanese characters rather than English abbreviations.

This F15419 is a genuine survivor: Found as new old stock and complete with its original tags, strap, and buckle, as close as one can get to the Grand Prix 100 as Orient intended it to be experienced. The jewel race ended, as all races do. The Grand Prix 100 remained.
 
Ships from Tokyo, Japan.