The ultimate guide to Miyota’s history and most common movements
Buffy AcaciaIf you’ve ever owned a watch with a Japanese movement, there’s more than a decent chance it was powered by a Miyota. It’s somewhat of an underestimated name when most minds turn to Seiko as the Japanese manufacturing giant, but Miyota still produces a mind-boggling average of 100 million movements annually. That’s three movements per second. There are now 17 Miyota factories. It’s largest, covering 83,000 square metres in Saku, Nagano province, only requires a little over 200 employees to manage the highly autonomous assembly lines. This is clearly a global superpower in the watch industry, but many enthusiasts think it nothing more than Citizen’s movement department. Let’s fix that.
The history
Miyota is a subsidiary of Citizen, the Japanese watchmaker whose origins stretch back to 1918. Citizen began by importing Swiss movements, but that couldn’t last forever. Miyota is actually the name of the town in the Nagano prefecture where Citizen built its first dedicated movement factory in 1959. This was to accelerate a plan for overseas expansion, which may have worked better than anyone could have expected. In that year, 5.45 million Citizen watches were made, breaking the five million mark for the first time since pre-war 1939. The company had already started exports to China in 1958, but the deals in 1960 were far more significant. Citizen was to supply movements and technical assistance to Indian watch manufacturers, as well as to Bulova in the United States.
The next couple of decades saw Citizen become a global phenomenon. Even in the mid ‘60s, it had found fantastic success with the X-8 electric watch movement which could run on battery power for a year. While Swiss companies dropped like flies during the 1970s Quartz Crisis, Citizen broke new records every year. The Citizen Crystron Mega Quartz of 1975 is a notable example as the world’s most accurate watch at the time, accurate within three seconds per year. It also had the first LCD watch with an alarm function in ’76, the first LCD watch with a stopwatch and calculator in ’77, and in ’78 the calibre 7900 was the first quartz movement to be under 1mm thick.
1981 is when things got truly crazy, and the groundwork for Miyota’s reputation as a movement manufacturer was laid. Citizen started selling Miyota movements off-the-shelf to anyone who needed them, even including potential competitors. Then, Japan officially surpassed Switzerland as the country with the most watches produced, which is almost ridiculous when you consider how late in the game Japan started making watches. One of the biggest players was introduced that year, and it’s still made to this day – the calibre 2035. A compact, time-only, no-jewel movement, the calibre 2035 was versatile, reliable, and affordable in a completely new way. It quickly became the world’s most-produced movement, and as of 2024, it’s estimated that over five billion of them have been made.
1995 was the next big milestone with the development of Eco-Drive movements. In theory they’re quite simple, placing solar cells under translucent parts of watch dials to keep the battery charged. In practice, it was revolutionary. In 1997 alone, Citizen sold over 300 million watches. Eco-Drive movements aren’t sold to third parties, but Miyota did recently make some basic solar quartz calibres available based on the calibre 2035 architecture. The company has diversified a lot since 1960 too, to the point where only 45% of the core business is related to watchmaking. It has also branched out to Swiss manufacturing, having purchased the manufacturer La Joux-Perret in 2012, who supplies movements to a mix of microbrand stars such as Zelos as well as big-name Swiss independents like Armin Strom. In 2020, Citizen released the most accurate light-powered watch in the world with the calibre 0100, accurate within one second per day.
The movements
2035
As previously mentioned, the calibre 2035 is the most-produced movement of all time. It’s almost laughably small at 15.3mm x 18.5mm, and it usually requires a large plastic ring to keep it in place in a decently sized watch. Despite its stature, it does its job perfectly well. No bells, no whistles, just three hands and a three-year battery life. If you don’t want a seconds hand, the calibre 2025 is the two-handed version. People love to throw the term “workhorse” around for mechanical movements like the ETA 2824-2, but in comparison to the quartz-powered 2035, the ETA is a delicate flower. This is purely a movement designed to work for as long as possible, for as little money as possible.
Per month, you can expect the accuracy to gain or lose 20 seconds. That’s not going to be winning any chronometer trials, but it’s still heaps better than most mechanical movements. It does have hacking seconds which can be a power saving feature, as long as you have a safe and dry environment to store your watch with the crown pulled out. Even though you can buy genuine Miyota 2035 movements for around US$5, there are even fake versions out there, proving just how important it’s become to the watch world. You can find them in countless watches around the world, especially if they’re mass-produced and functionally simple.
| Beat rate | 32,768Hz (1Hz tick) |
| Power reserve | Three-year battery life |
| Battery | SR626SW (S626 button-cell) |
| Functions | Hours, minutes, seconds |
| Dimensions | 15.3mm (W) x 18.5mm (L) x 3mm (T) 6 ¾ x 8 lignes |
| Jewel count | 0 |
8215
Released in 1977, the Miyota 8215 could be considered the baseline for its mechanical output. Mechanical movements may only make up around 1% of Miyota’s annual production, but that’s still more than a million per year. Part of the Standard Automatic range, the 8215 is pretty much the definition of cheap and cheerful. You can find them for as low as $20 if you ever need to get one fixed, and that’s always going to be cheaper than a full service. That said, their reputation for durability and reliable accuracy is fantastic all considered.
Stated accuracy is between -20/+40 seconds per day, with a power reserve of 42 hours running at a 3Hz beat rate. It’s got a date display with quick-set date via the crown, and although it has been a non-hacking movement for most of its existence, hacking was added as a feature from around 2019 onwards. The main complaint for the 8215 is its uni-directional automatic winding, which can allow the winding rotor to spin freely for some time. This creates a whizzing noise and occasionally a strange sensation on the wrist, and that can be a deal-breaker for certain watch fans. The 8215 sees plenty of use in microbrands, but it also powers familiar names like the Timex Marlin Automatic, and plenty of Bulova watches.
| Beat rate | 21,600vph / 3Hz |
| Power reserve | 42 hours |
| Winding style | Automatic, uni-directional |
| Functions | Hours, minutes, seconds (hacking from 2019-onwards), date (quick-set) |
| Dimensions | 26mm (D) x 5.67mm (T) 11.5 lignes |
| Jewel count | 21 |
9015
While the 8215 is the hero of Miyota’s Standard Automatic catalogue, the 9015 is its Premium Automatic equivalent. Released in 2009, it was intended as a higher-end version of the 8215 with upgrades in performance, quality, and features. It had hacking seconds and hand-winding capability a decade before hacking was added to the 8215, but the most notable improvement is the beat rate increase from 3Hz to 4Hz. This gives the seconds hand a much smoother sweep, and imparts a sense of luxury which is usually attributed to mechanical Swiss movements. Other upgrades include a different ball-bearing winding rotor, which helps to reduce the noise and wobble of the 8215, even though it’s still uni-directional.
Its accuracy window is smaller at -10/+30 seconds per day, and the whole movement is 1.77mm thinner for use in slimmer, more elegant watches. You certainly get what you pay for though, and that means the prices jump up to just below US$100 for a brand-new 9015. Despite being much more expensive than the standard 8215, the 9015 has become increasingly popular among microbrands because it’s much more affordable than comparable references from Swiss companies like ETA or Sellita. Thanks to its dimensions, it served as a base for La Joux-Perret’s development of its latest, entry-level calibre, the G100. Considering the specifications, there’s still a lot of bang for buck. Baltic is an example of a microbrand that frequently turns to the 9039 (the no-date and lower hand stack version of the 9015), as well as RZE and the fan-favourite Dan Henry.
| Beat rate | 28,800vph / 4Hz |
| Power reserve | 42 hours |
| Winding style | Automatic |
| Functions | Hours, minutes, seconds (hacking), date (quick-set) |
| Dimensions | 26mm (D) x 3.9mm (T) 11.5 lignes |
| Jewel count | 24 |
9075
After Seiko’s lauded launch of an affordable GMT movement, Miyota couldn’t just sit back and be outdone. The 9075 is one of Miyota’s Premium Automatics which came out in 2022, complete with a “true” or “traveller’s” GMT complication. This means that the local time hour hand can be adjusted individually, quickly jumping between hours if you’re travelling between time zones. It differs from the Seiko 4R34 in that respect, as the Seiko adjusts its GMT hand instead.
Underneath the GMT complication, it has the same specs as the calibre 9015. A -10/+30 seconds per day accuracy range, a 42-hour power reserve, a 4Hz smooth beat rate, hacking seconds and handwinding. This particular movement hasn’t reached the public just yet, so the pricing isn’t clear, but it’s already been used in a bunch of affordable watches like the Boldr Odyssey, and the Bulova Classic Wilton GMT.
| Beat rate | 28,800vph / 4Hz |
| Power reserve | 42 hours |
| Winding style | Automatic |
| Functions | Hours, minutes, seconds (hacking), date (quick-set), GMT with local-time adjustment |
| Dimensions | 26mm (D) x 4.92mm (T) 11.5 lignes |
| Jewel count | 24 |