In today’s comparison, we will be looking at the differences between the Movado Vs Seiko brands of watches. Now, you are probably already familiar with Seiko, as it is a widely popular name in the industry. Movado is also a popular brand, though may not as widely known to the more casual consumers.
The goal here, then, is to find out which of these two brands makes the better watches. Sometimes this can be hard to discern. However, there are at least 3 objective factors that we can compare between the two brands.
These are: the build quality, the design, and the pricing. By comparing these 3 factors between Movado, and Seiko, we should be able to come to a definitive conclusion. Before we begin, though, let’s learn a little bit more about these two brands.
About Movado and Seiko
Movado
Although it was originally founded in Switzerland in 1881, Movado is now considered an American watch brand. It was bought out by North American Watch Corp in 1963.
The Movado brand name comes from the type of movement that was used in the watches. The original founder of Movado, a Swiss watchmaker named Achille Ditesheim had created a new type of movement for his watches.
This movement was called the “Movado System”. It differed from other movements seen at the time because it employed the use of a rotating disk for keeping time, rather than a balance wheel, which had been the industry standard.
This resulted in more accurate watches. Add to that, the fact that quality materials were used to manufacture these watches, and it’s easy to see how they were able to quickly gain a reputation for producing high end luxury watches.
Seiko
Seiko is the widely recognized Japanese watch brand. Also founded in 1881, Seiko has had an unprecedented impact on the industry as a whole.
It was Seiko that released the first quartz watch into the market. This singular act changed the landscape of the entire watch industry. Today Japanese quartz is the most popular watch movement as it is cheap and effective.
The innovation doesn’t stop there, as they also introduced technologies such as spring drive as well as kinetic watches.
Today, as a company, Seiko continues to hold to their standards of quality and innovation. This is why they have remained such a large ad prosperous company for so long.
Now that we know more about these brands, let’s get into the direct comparisons between their watches. We will begin by looking at the differences in build quality.
Movado Vs Seiko: Build Quality
Movado
The Movado group produces analog mechanical and quartz watches, as well as digital watches. Their mechanical watches are powered by ETA based movement, Sellita, and also Ronda movements.
The cases can be stainless steel, titanium, or gold plated. Dial windows will be either mineral or sapphire crystal, depending on the model.
And lastly, water resistance among the various Movado watches tends to be no greater than about 30 meters.
Seiko
Seiko manufactures quartz digital and analog watches, as well as automatic mechanical watches. The watch cases tend to be made out of stainless steel. As for dial windows, Seiko has their own proprietary material called hardlex.
Hardlex is more scratch resistant than your typical mineral crystal dial windows. It doesn’t quite match the toughness of sapphire crystal though.
Finally, the water resistance in Seiko watches will vary based on the type and style. Most of their more standard models will have a water resistance of around 30 meters. Their dive watches, on the other hand, can be water resistant up to 200 meters.
Verdict on Build Quality
Both brands are good in their own way. It is quite apparent that Movado, however, has the more premium build quality closer to that of a luxury watch. Next, we’ll take a look at the designs and styles.
Movado Vs Seiko: Design & Style
Movado
The designs here stick with more of a minimalist style. While they do offer other style types, the majority of them take the minimalist approach.
These styles still have variety to them, as each watch design is unique. And they do have a sophisticated, elegant look.
Seiko
When it comes to design and style, Seiko has an incredibly large variety of different types of watches. You will find casual, business, sport, chronograph, luxury, and dive watches. Just about every style you can imagine is here.
The only thing about it is, there are no real standouts in terms of style. These are going to be the typical styles you see in many other brands. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just that the styles are all pretty generic.
Verdict on Design & Style
Movado pulls of the premium look, but they lack the kind of variety seen in Seiko’s various offerings.
Movado Vs Seiko: Pricing
This one is going to be fairly obvious when browsing through the collections of either brand. Prices are going to vary from model to model between the watches from either brand. However, Movado watches are going to be more expensive than Seiko watches by far.
This is due to the fact that Movado could be considered a luxury brand. And while Seiko does have some luxury styled models, for the most part, Seiko is not a luxury brand. If you are looking for the lower priced watches, then stick with Seiko.
Check Movado Watch Prices on Amazon
Check Seiko Watch Prices on Amazon
Now, which brand can we honestly is “better”?
Final Conclusion
After looking at all of the factors, we can see that Seiko has much more varied styles, and more affordable watches. Movado, on the other hand, has the higher quality timepieces.
What this is going to come down to is your reason for buying a watch. These brands serve 2 different roles. Seiko is a more everyday brand, while Movado is a luxury brand. You would go with Seiko for more of a casual use, while Movado would be best suited for special events.
And that concludes our comparison between Movado and Seiko. If you enjoyed this article, we have plenty of more comparison articles you can check out here
