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Miyota automatic movement

Canuck
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I recently ran into a watch that caused some confusion. The movement was in an “Armani” gents automatic wind watch. The movement had all the visual cues I have come to expect from a Chinese movement, but it was marked “Miyota”! Is Miyota now making watches in China, or are they marketing Chinese movements? Anyone have an idea? It was carp, in any event, so I didn’t do anything to it.

Edited the change title from “Minotaur” to Miyota! Bloody spell correct!
Edited:
 
JimInOz
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Canuck Canuck
I recently ran into a watch that caused some confusion. The movement was in an “Armani” gents automatic wind watch. The movement had all the visual cues I have come to expect from a Chinese movement, but it was marked “Miyota”! Is Miyota now making watches in China, or are they marketing Chinese movements? Anyone have an idea? It was carp, in any event, so I didn’t do anything to it.

Edited the change title from “Minotaur” to Miyota! Bloody spell correct!

Hard to say without pictures.

Miyota (Citizen) movements are used in many "fashion" watch brands and are economical and reliable.
They may not be the prettiest movement or have the finest finish but they are made to a price.
 
Canuck
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JimInOz JimInOz
Hard to say without pictures.

Miyota (Citizen) movements are used in many "fashion" watch brands and are economical and reliable.
They may not be the prettiest movement or have the finest finish but they are made to a price.

Thanks for your reply, @JimInOz . I didn’t take a picture of this junker because my camera might have been insulted? 😀 But the movement looked nothing like any Miyota movement I have ever seen, yet it was stamped Miyota. I can’t distinguish between a Japanese person and a Chinese person, but I sure can see the difference between a Chinese and Japanese watch movement. At least I thought I was able to! And this one sure looked Chinese, yet it was marked Miyota.

While on the topic, Bulova is now owned by Citizen, (Miyota), In many mechanical Bulova men’s watch styles nowadays, I have noticed the movements look Chinese, and not your typical Miyota movements. This leads me to wonder if there is now a cross-pollination back and forth between Chinese and Japanese movements? At least in this quality of Watch.
 
ghce
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When you look at the shenanigans that go on in the Chinese watch industry with no name companies copying the movements of better companies ie Seagull or other respectable Chinese manufacturers and putting fake names on them it's hardly surprising that the same movement fakers would copy respectable Japanese companies like miyota though to be honest miyota is a brand of choice for many up and coming Chinese watch brands which does tend to make them an attractive target for the fakers.
 
Canuck
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ghce ghce
When you look at the shenanigans that go on in the Chinese watch industry with no name companies copying the movements of better companies ie Seagull or other respectable Chinese manufacturers and putting fake names on them it's hardly surprising that the same movement fakers would copy respectable Japanese companies like miyota though to be honest miyota is a brand of choice for many up and coming Chinese watch brands which does tend to make them an attractive target for the fakers.

Now that makes perfect sense! Quite a concept! A Chinese producer of carp movements marking them with the
name of a respected Japanese company! We see that sort of jiggery pokery going on with Chinese copies of respected watch company products to the point the name is on the DIAL! Why not just “borrow” the name of another company and engrave it on the movement? I never thought of it that way. Good thought,
 
A
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Canuck Canuck
I recently ran into a watch that caused some confusion. The movement was in an “Armani” gents automatic wind watch. The movement had all the visual cues I have come to expect from a Chinese movement, but it was marked “Miyota”! Is Miyota now making watches in China, or are they marketing Chinese movements? Anyone have an idea? It was carp, in any event, so I didn’t do anything to it.

Edited the change title from “Minotaur” to Miyota! Bloody spell correct!


Emporio Armani watches are part of the Fossil watch family. Some expensive models have Swiss STP movements. STP is owned by Fossil and makes clones of old (out of patent) ETA movements.

Other Armani watches have basic Miyota movements. If a watch has a glass back, the rotor might have a brushed finish but the movements are plain and industrial looking.

When a basic Miyota movement is in a non-Citizen watch such as Armani, it is usually unregulated and it might gain ten or fifteen seconds per 24 hours. But, my two Citizen "Divers 200" watches run at -2/+2 seconds.

The ISO standard for using the "Divers 200" label includes a requirement for accuracy that is VERY vague. Citizen might be regulating its divers watches to exceed that standard. Still, it seems counter-intuitive that a movement can be cheap, very crude looking and yet have great accuracy.
 
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