The Chinese produce approximately 98 percent of the world's watches and components. China makes complete watches for their domestic consumption and parts for other manufacturers. Statistic Brain Research Institute's Wrist Watch Industry Statistics established these factors as of August 1, 2016.
The Japanese watch industry has failed against global competition but continues to maintain prestige and market share. Japanese watch companies have a well-deserved reputation for innovation. They chose technical superiority to volume, and that strategy had worked well for between 1974 and into the early 21st century.
With a slow drift back to mechanical drives in the millennial age beginning in the 1980s, hand-wound wrist watches have retaken market superiority. Today the market share splits with quartz watches having only a 23% share.
The Japan Movement Question
The prestige of Japanese technology has driven a possible deception in the making of many Chinese watches. When you see "Japan Mvt" at the bottom of a watch dial, that's possibly a marketing trick.
Why? The Chinese make those movements. Did you think the Chinese imported movements from Japan? Citizen and Seiko Instruments manufacture watch components in China.
Citizen Holdings Co., Ltd. produces all of its timepiece products in China, except for the solar powered Eco-drive. The Japan Mvt belongs to Citizen, who manufactures a mechanical model, 8215, patented in 1977 and sold under the Miyota brand.
In the gallery below, you can get a glimpse of China's Japan Mvt. You can also see that Invicta used the Miyota movement with a different rotor. In an interview published in January 2002, CEO Eyal Lalo said Invicta made its watches; CEO in Japan.
As you will see below and in this article, something seems amiss.
Here's a snippet of an interview that's revealing:
Richard Paige: When you say you are quality, master watch makers, do you mean your company buys movement kits and you assemble them yourself? Or do you buy a finished products?
Eyal Lalo: Everything is made in Japan, the cases and the automatic movements.
Richard Paige: Isn’t labor in Japan very expensive? How can you put out such an inexpensive product and be paying such high labor costs?
Eyal Lalo: That’s part of the company’s success.
If Citizen Miyota and Seiko Instruments manufacturers their watches in China, I find the above responses odd.
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The Swiss watch company, Swatch Group, opened a subsidiary in China prompted by the success of Citizen Watch Co. in 1994. Citizen Watch Co. began with an initial production capacity of a million movements. From that time for during the 1990s, Citizen reduced production of complete mechanical watches and sold quartz movements under Miyota brand.
Citizen switched from an emphasis on standard mechanical calibers to quartz. As a result, Citizen's sales volume for watches and watch movements rose from 65.8 million pieces in 1985 to 146.2 million in 1990, then increased to 317.6 million in 2000.
If you see the moniker Japan Mvt, you can question the origin of the watch. Citizen makes one watch in Japan, and that's the Eco-drive.
You might find that the manufacturer chose a drop-in replacement for the Citizen, the DG2813 Guangzhou Dixmont with a hacking feature, e.g. it stops when you pull out the crown and resets the second hand to the 12:00 o'clock position.
Another factoid you may want to consider. Statistic Brain Research Institute found that Swiss watch's average cost equaled $739, while the Chinese averaged $3.
I don't know if I believe those figures since the Chinese have no equivalent models like Rolex, Omega, Panerai and so forth.
The specifications for the 1977 Miyota Japan Mvt follow:
Miyota 8215 (Citizen)
Features
automatic
sweep second
date: quickset
Data
11.5''', Dm= 25.6mm, Do= 26.0mm
H= 5.2mm
F= 1.9mm
T= 2.3mm
with rotor screw and dial spacer:
Dm= 28.55mm, Do= 29.2mm
H= 5.67mm
F= 2.1mm (rest to dial side)
T= 2.5mm
21 jewels
f = 21600 A/h
power reserve 45h
Balance staff Citizen 039-1020
balance with hairspring
Remarks
1977-
ball-bearing rotor
differences not known between 8215, 821A
family/generations:
riveted rotor weight
8200: day, date
8210: date
single-part rotor
8205: day, date
8215, 821A: date
manual wind
8260: date
8270: -
Example, year: signature; shock device
2006: Miyota Co. Japan, 21 Jewels; Parashock
Stem Citizen 065-212
Mainspring / battery
Citizen 001-8700
barrel complete
Hands
1.52 x 1.00 x 0.17mm
Good luck buying your watches.
By Rosstomson - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9653450