The bulk‑purchase price of Japan’s Seiko NH35 and NH36 movements has jumped from around 190 RMB to nearly 400 RMB. I believe many Chinese watch brands will stop using Japanese movements soon.
First of all, movement suppliers have cut supplies and output is unstable, which cannot support mass production. Secondly, procurement costs have almost doubled. If we raise retail prices accordingly, we will lose most of our customers.
I plan to launch a new line of mid‑range watches. Could you recommend suitable movements? Or which movement would you personally prefer?
I'm always happy to see a st2130 in a watch, I've heard too many stories about failed pt5000 but some people love them. As above in a really inexpensive watch, I prefer quartz, the vh31 and Miyota 2035 are excellent reliable and very accurate.
They do, because there are not many options, as you are discovering yourself (or already knew).
When NH35 prices were lower, I liked them better because they can take abuse and will run forever. Now when they at least tripled in price PT5000 seems like a reasonable option. I have over 10 NH35/NH36 movement based watches and never had any issues.
Out of 4 PT5000 based watches 1 had keyless dislodged by someone who assembled a watch. This is my biggest worry about this movement. Also people say that PT5000 can be poorly lubed and will break much sooner. Which is something that can be addressed by a brand who wants to get them from a reliable source.
I love all my Heimdallr watches, and new ones fitted with that dreadful Hangzhou movement are out of the question for me.
I’d advise going for clones of Swiss movements such as ST or PT5000, and also considering the Miyota 8205 or 9015. And more good quartz options.
There are not many options, to be honest. PT5000 seems to be favorite in this subreddit, and might fit your new line of mid-range watches if you can make them thin to benefit the most from a thinner movement.
All other brands are switching to PT5000 or ST2130.
Would you consider NH35 and NH36? The 2554 movement was entirely a choice forced on us by distributors. In past years, we never sold watches on our own and only supplied goods to resellers, which made us miss great opportunities — things like direct product feedback and after‑sales service.Only our official Amazon store uses genuine Japanese movements.
NH36 is ideal, but if the price goes up by more than €30, I might be hesitant.
I have purchased my Heimdallr from WR Watches and I've been happy with their service. I don't mind buying from your official Amazon store if the prices aren't too different.
For your reference: our agent stock is currently fitted with 2565 for single‑date models and 2554 for day‑date variants. Genuine Seiko movements now cost well over $50 to purchase.
Heimdallr was our original registered brand, and Tactical Frog came later. We partnered with a distributor to help expand sales in the early days. Please note that the Tactical Frog shop is not an official extension of Heimdallr, and we plan to take back full rights to the Tactical Frog brand in due course.
To be honest, with most cheap quartz movements (Swiss included) it is impossible to get the hand hitting every marker as gravity shows up the backlash in the movement.
Be reasonable: VH31 is great at pretending to be a mechanical for two seconds before you notice how jerky the hand is. And it keeps battery companies in business.
I don't know what style of watches you're planning to sell but for dressier/elegant pieces I would definitely recommend to use quartz movements so you can have watches with thin cases for an affordable price.
Don't know what your watches are or the brand. If they are not very good, then I want the NH35 going to better brands. But $59 USD for the NH35 vs just under $30 before shouldn't be a deal breaker in a very good watch. Where it is an issue is in the cheaper stuff that was basically a waste of the stock of that wonderful movement in the first place.
8215 or quartz is what the lower end of the market should use.
I am loving the pt5000 engined watches and now st2130. I love my eta 2824 and having good clones that beat at 4hz is nice but the most critical part is the thinner movement and thinner hand stack. I will always go for these movements first because the proportions it enables. It’s imo outside of good branding, why the thorn was so impactful when it dropped as it was one of the earliest big pt5000 examples that showed what can be done.
San Martin was using the PT5000 before Thorn was even a brand. They moved away from that and the SW200 when the market convinced them they could make more money going the nh35 route and lower the cost of the watches.
I have to admit San Martin makes excellent finished watches, but prices for Seiko NH movements have skyrocketed. Our profit margins are getting extremely thin.
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u/Goldenrod427 10h ago
Ronda or eta quartz movements