u/ecoutasche

Until you get to chronometer certs and associated prices, quartz is king and where Japan has focused all the effort for...50 years now. Look at the flagships across the big 3. HAQ quartz, solar quartz, satellite GPS solar quartz, spring driven quartz. Not even a whiff of hi-beat until you get to Tudor prices and anything that has a quartz version is better.

I get the auto appeal and can't deny that it doesn't matter all that much for a truly cheap watch (love me some Vostoks), but since we're talking value, quartz has more to give and Japan doesn't do busted versions with a quartz movement to make a powermatic or ETA look like a better deal.

Where do I start here? They own the low end of the market now that the Swiss have almost entirely moved out. That's not up for debate. But at what cost?

Citizen has some bangers with the tsuyosa and zenshin, eco drive, and a general ethos that hasn't changed from what it was founded to be. Which means a lot of cheap, ugly mall watches, very little company design language that isn't ripped from 60s Seiko or their Y2K era, and some very lacking flagships. Series 8 is weird, the fujistubo with the 9051 movement is an eternal series of limited releases with aluminum bezels on a titanium watch, the citizen THE CITIZEN...has a paper dial and a perpetual calendar? Is it grand seiko nice? No. Is it $3000 nice? Kinda? Hoarding all the exclusive high end miyota movements and never using them is certainly...a choice. Gib more titanium, it's all about all they do well.

Kuoe, et alia. Who? Sad panda watches.

Orient. Goofy looking cheap watches. Maybe not as cool since they outsourced, that's where the appeal was.

Seiko. "Let's discontinue all the iconic watches so we can release them as a Prospex with a worse movement for 3x the price". I don't know where to start here. Make the low end worse so all the $500-3500 watches seem like an improvement? 5 and Presage are alright, king seiko is the worst of japanese design language and has me looking at vintage on ebay, 6R movement is a dog that shits the bed and you can watch it happen through the exhibition caseback.

Geneva starts calling when you hit $2k and you're not being offered COSC equivalent or an adjustable bracelet, your choice. It's a mess all the way through.

Grand Seiko. Restrained to the point of being boring, weird dimensions, cases are too thick, spring drive indicator is ugly. There are standouts but I want to see what's coming. Muh zaratsu is nice given how rounded everything else can be. I don't think the luxury side is really the problem anyways, it's the trash fire right under it.

Casio. Swatch, Japan. Good for them, it's their market.

So, yeah. I find the mid market to be a dumpster fire right now, mostly Seiko, who is pricing most of their line there.