Japanese brands Seiko and Citizen are competing to offer affordable automatic GMT watches. The winner? Consumers.
Just a month or so after the announcement of a beautiful GMT model in the Seiko 5 Sports collection comes a rebuttal from Citizen. But wait, aren’t I looking at a Bulova watch? Don’t be confused that the watch in front of you has Bulova on its dial: the company is owned by Citizen and so is Miyota who made the movement inside — and, while the Bulova Wilton GMT is a great-looking way to introduce it, the Citizen-developed movement is the star of this story.
Let’s first recall that until these recent developments, automatic GMT watches were mostly Swiss and mostly priced starting well over a grand. It’s easily one of the most popular and useful additional functions (or complications) a modern watch can have — offering the ability to track a second time zone via an additional, 24-hour hand. But even value-focused microbrands mostly haven’t been able to offer it in the budget range. That’s all changing now.
bulovaBulova Wilton GMT
New affordable automatic GMT movements are exciting, but the Miyota 9075 movement gets us giddy for more reasons. It’s a variation of Miyota’s 9000 series, including popular examples like the 9015, and these are no cheap, low-end movements. They’re Miyota’s modern movements with solid build, decent accuracy and a premium feel more akin to the ETA 2824 movements they’re intended to compete with than Miyota’s older 8200 series of rather basic movements. You’ll find them powering respectable watches mostly ranging from the upper hundreds into the thousands.
So, we feel confident about the overall quality of this movement, but there’s more: the Miyota 9075 is what’s often called a “true GMT” by nerdy collectors. That doesn’t mean that watches like the Seiko 5 Sports aren’t “real” or legitimate GMTs — what it does mean is that Miyota’s functions a bit differently, and in a way that many collectors tend to view as more desirable, premium or at least often more expensive.
What’s the difference? Both use a fourth hand to display a second time zone in 24-hour format, and many Swiss GMT watches work just like the Seiko 5 Sports: pulling the crown out to its second position, you set the date by turning it in one direction and advance the GMT hand in the other. A “true GMT,” however, allows you to adjust the time without affecting the GMT hand, which is set separately. The use for this is that you can set the GMT hand to your home time and then conveniently update the main time as you travel. The most famous and prestigious GMT watches like the Rolex GMT Master II and Explorer II function in this way.
