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Miyota is one of the most well known watch movements in the world. Even if you have never heard of it, you will likely have come across it or could be wearing a watch with a Miyota movement inside it right now. If you weren’t already aware, Miyota movements are made and owned by the Citizen watch group.
The reputation of Miyota is very good. They are widely recognized as being some of the best value movements for money on the planet. This is the main reason why fashion brands who operate outside of the watchmaking sphere entrust Miyota to provide their movements.
In short, Miyota is mostly a budget watch movement manufacturer but does not let their cheap prices interfere with the solid quality of their products.
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Are Miyota Movements Any Good?
Miyota movements are very solid and reliable.
In terms of quartz movements, Miyota are extremely popular and supply many fashion brands, as well as their own subsidiary brands such as Bulova and MVMT. The fact that Miyota are chosen by so many other companies to produce both automatic and quartz watch movements suggests that they are one of (if not the) best value for money on the market.
Whilst Miyota are certainly nothing special in terms of their accuracy, they are a super reliable and easily serviceable movement. This puts them well ahead of sub-standard Chinese manufacturers and as their movements are assembled in Japan, they can cut below the costs of Swiss production.
Do Seiko Use Miyota Movements?
No! Seiko certainly does not use movements made by Miyota. This is because Seiko are a rival brand to Citizen which is the holding company for the Miyota brand.
In Japan, Seiko uses their own movements which are known as Epson and Citizen use their own movements which are known as Miyota. Both Seiko and Citizen will sell these movements to other brands who need them for their own quartz and mechanical watches. However, they will never buy watch movements from one another.
Is Miyota Better Than Seiko (Epson)?
This is an extremely difficult question to answer since each company makes such a variety of movements. The short answer to this question is that they are both a very similar price and quality to one another across a very broad range. The only area in which Seiko could be considered better is their luxury spring drive based movements for the Grand Seiko. These movements are exceptionally well made and far better than anything Miyota produces, although with that being said Miyota do not have any luxury level watches that sell for 5 figures.
Miyota and Seiko (Epson), both make mechanical, quartz and quartz-solar movements, so compete in 3 different areas. If you are to disregard luxury watch movements and compare all of these categories side by side, there really is not too much difference between Miyota and Epson.
This is seen by the brands which buy Citizen and Seiko movements to use for themselves. There isn’t really a dealbreaker in terms of quality, it is more of a race to the bottom to see who can supply the cheapest possible movement with reasonably high quality.
Where Are Miyota Movements Made?
All parts of Miyota movements are both made and assembled in Japan. The reason that many of the Miyota quartz movements are so cheap is that the machine making process has been refined to a degree where other companies can no longer compete effectively.
Chinese brands can create cheaper movements by themselves, but due to the poor quality of manufacturing, they cannot compete with the Japanese reliability of Miyota. This really separates the Japanese movement manufacturers from Chinese competitors.
What Brands Use Miyota Movements?
There really are too many brands to list that use Miyota movements in their watches. Below is a non-exhaustive list of every brand which uses or has used Miyota for their watches.
Miyota Quartz:
Miyota Mechanical:
- Citizen
- Bulova
- Rotary
- Emporio Armani
- Invicta
- Fossil
- Zeppelin
- Festina
The Most Well Known & Commonly Used Miyota Movements
Miyota 8215
Perhaps the most well known basic mechanical movement that also has a reputation for being the ultimate workhorse. The Miyota 8215 is preferred by almost every brand that wants to make an automatic watch with both a cheap and reliable movement.
You are able to pick up replacement 8215 movements for around $40, so the chances are, these movements are even cheaper when purchased in bulk. The downside of the Miyota 8215 is that it is nowhere near as accurate when compared to move expensive movements. It operates at 21600 beats per hour and has an accuracy range of -20/+40 seconds per day, which is not exactly brilliant.
It’s no surprise then that the 8215 is used by a huge variety of different watch brands such as Parnis, Welder, Corgeut, Junkers, Rotary, Stuhrling, Fiyta, Storm, Nixon and many, many others.
Miyota 9015
The Miyota 9015 is something of a mid-level automatic movement made by the brand. If you want to buy this movement alone, it will cost you around $100, which is considerably more than basic entry-level movements made by the brand.
It has a 42 hour power reserve and an impressive 28,800 beats per hour which is comparable to brands such as ETA and Sellita.
Due to the cost of this movement, you usually won’t find it in fashion watches as those brands would prefer to use something a little cheaper. You will however find the Miyota 9015 in respectable micro brands that want to make a higher quality watch.
Brands that have used the 9015 in the past are Lum-Tec, Boldr, TW Steel, Newmark and Tissel.
Miyota 2035 Quartz
If you think this movement is quite unremarkable, you are right, yet also very wrong. Most people never consider which movement is used in fashion watches since they don’t really care. However, this is the lowest price, super accurate and best value for money quartz movement that the Miyota brand produces.
The Miyota 2035 has a battery life of 3-4 years, as well as an accuracy to +/- 20 seconds. This far exceeds the accuracy of almost any mechanical movement ever made. Although it is quite obvious this is an unsophisticated and rather ugly 0 jewel movement. Perhaps the main selling point of the Miyota 2035 is that even if it breaks, it can be replaced for only $5.
If you were to make a list of brands that used this movement, it would be far too long. Literally every brand that is not using a Swiss movement, Seiko movement or a cheap Chinese quartz is using Miyota. Many fashion companies such as Skagen, Daniel Wellington, Hugo Boss, Emporio Armani, Coach, Diesel and others have used or currently use the 2035 in their watches.
