The Miyota 9075 Gave Every Microbrand a GMT. The Chronograph Equivalent Doesn't Exist Yet.

Before the Miyota 9075, if a microbrand wanted to offer a true GMT — one with an independently adjustable hour hand — the only option was a Swiss movement. That meant either absorbing the cost or passing it on to the customer, and either way the watch ended up priced out of the range where most microbrands operate.

The 9075 changed that. Released in 2021, it gave every independent brand on the planet access to a true traveller's GMT movement at a price that made sub-$700 GMT watches possible. The effect was immediate: within a couple of years, GMT watches went from being a premium complication to a standard offering across the microbrand market.

The same thing needs to happen for chronographs. It hasn't. And until it does, the automatic chronograph remains the most inaccessible complication for the brands making the most interesting watches right now.

What the 9075 Actually Did

The Miyota 9075 is a 24-jewel automatic movement running at 28,800 vph with a 42-hour power reserve. It hacks, it hand-winds, and critically, it offers a true GMT function where the local hour hand jumps independently in one-hour steps. Before the 9075, affordable GMT movements like the ETA 2893-2 and Seiko NH34 only offered caller GMT functionality — where the GMT hand adjusts independently, not the hour hand. A true traveller's GMT, where the local hour hand jumps in one-hour steps, was reserved for movements like the Rolex calibre 3285 and other high-end in-house calibres.

At 4.92mm thick — only 1mm more than the time-and-date 9015 — it allowed brands to add GMT functionality without redesigning their cases. That's the detail that made it transformative. A brand with an existing 40mm diver could release a GMT version using the same case, the same tooling, and the same production line. The barrier to entry dropped from "we need to develop a new product" to "we need to source a different movement."

The result is visible across the entire market. Brands like Traska, RZE, Zelos, Nodus, Boldr, and dozens of others now offer true GMT watches in the $500 to $900 range. Before the 9075, that category barely existed. It's worth noting that Seiko's NH34 also contributed to this shift, offering a caller GMT at an even lower price point, but the 9075's true GMT function is what unlocked the higher end of the microbrand market.

The Chronograph Problem

Now look at what happens when a microbrand wants to make an automatic chronograph.

The Swiss options are the ETA Valjoux 7750 and its Sellita equivalent, the SW500. Both are excellent movements. Both are thick — around 7.9mm for the movement alone, which typically results in a watch case north of 14mm. Both are expensive enough that any watch built around them starts at roughly $1,000 to $1,500, and more commonly sits at $1,500 to $2,500.

The Seiko NE88 is a column-wheel, vertical-clutch automatic chronograph — technically superior to the 7750 in several ways. It's also priced and supplied in a way that doesn't make sub-$1,000 chronographs realistic. The Lorier Olympia uses the NE88 and is priced at $899, which is arguably the floor for a quality automatic chronograph from a microbrand. That's nearly double what a comparable three-hand or GMT watch costs from the same tier of brand.

Then there's the Seagull ST19. It's cheap, it's a column-wheel chronograph, and it's the reason watches like the Studio Underd0g Desert and the Seagull 1963 exist at accessible prices. But it's hand-wound, not automatic. It has a historically inconsistent quality record, though this has improved in recent years. And it limits design options — no automatic winding means no rotor, which is fine for some watches but eliminates others. It's a workaround, not a solution.

Chinese automatic chronograph movements exist but haven't achieved the consistency, supply reliability, or reputation needed for brands building serious products.

What doesn't exist is the chronograph equivalent of the 9075: a reliable, thin, affordable automatic chronograph movement from a trusted manufacturer that microbrands can drop into existing case designs and sell for $600 to $900.

Why This Gap Matters

The chronograph is the most popular complication in watchmaking. It's the one complication that has genuine, everyday utility beyond telling the time. It's the basis for some of the most iconic watch designs ever made — the Speedmaster, the Daytona, the El Primero, the Carrera. It has massive cultural cachet.

And yet, in the microbrand space, it's one of the hardest watches to make well at an accessible price.

The result is a visible hole in the market. Microbrands that want to offer chronographs have three options, none of them ideal. Use a Swiss movement and price the watch at $1,500 or more, which pushes it above where most of their customers shop. Use a meca-quartz movement like the Seiko VK63/VK64, which offers a mechanical chronograph feel at a quartz price but isn't a true mechanical watch. Or use a Seagull ST19 and accept the limitations that come with it.

Compare this to the three-hand space, where brands can choose between the Miyota 9039, Sellita SW200, Seiko NH35, or several others at various price points and quality tiers. Or the GMT space, where the 9075 and NH34 now give brands real options. The chronograph has no equivalent affordable backbone.

This is why so many microbrands — brands that are perfectly capable of designing compelling chronographs — don't make them, or only make them with meca-quartz movements. It's not a lack of design ambition. It's a lack of accessible movement supply.

What Would Need to Happen

The movement that fills this gap would need to meet specific criteria. It would need to be automatic, because that's what the microbrand market expects at this price tier. It would need to be thin enough — ideally under 7mm — to produce chronographs that don't wear like hockey pucks. It would need to be priced to allow finished watches in the $600 to $1,000 range. And it would need to come from a manufacturer with the production capacity and quality consistency to supply dozens of brands simultaneously.

Miyota is the obvious candidate. Their 9-series architecture has proven it can support complications — the 9075 added a true GMT to the same base platform. They have the manufacturing scale, producing three movements per second at their Saku factory. And their existing client base is essentially a pre-built distribution network of brands waiting for exactly this product. Fratello noted back in 2023 that Miyota's catalogue covers everything microbrands need except mechanical chronographs, and that their clients would welcome one.

The engineering challenge is real. A chronograph is mechanically more complex than a GMT. It requires a clutch mechanism, a column wheel or cam lever, and additional wheels and levers for the chronograph functions. Making all of that thin, reliable, and cheap enough for volume production is not trivial. But Miyota has done harder things — building an affordable true GMT movement that's only 1mm thicker than a basic time-and-date calibre was itself considered a significant achievement.

Seiko's TMI division could also fill this gap, building on the NE88's architecture at a lower price point and with broader third-party availability. But historically, Seiko has been less aggressive than Miyota in opening its movement supply to independent brands.

What Happens When It Arrives

When an affordable, thin automatic chronograph movement becomes available at scale, the microbrand landscape will shift in the same way it shifted after the 9075. Brands that currently only offer three-hand watches and GMTs will add chronographs to their lineups. Brands that currently use meca-quartz chronographs will have the option to step up to full mechanical movements without doubling their retail prices.

The chronograph category, which currently belongs almost exclusively to established Swiss brands at the $2,000 and up level, will open to the same competition and creativity that has already transformed the three-hand and GMT segments. That means better designs, more accessible prices, and more interesting watches for people who want a proper automatic chronograph but don't want to spend Speedmaster money to get one.

That movement doesn't exist yet. But the demand for it does, the engineering capability to produce it exists, and the market it would unlock is enormous. Whoever builds it first will do for the chronograph what Miyota did for the GMT — and every microbrand with a chronograph sketch in a drawer is waiting for exactly that moment.

Common Mistakes

Treating meca-quartz as a substitute. Meca-quartz chronographs are great watches, but they don't satisfy the buyer who specifically wants an automatic mechanical chronograph. These are different markets with different expectations.

Dismissing the Seagull ST19. It has its place and it's enabled some genuinely excellent watches. But a hand-wound movement with historical quality inconsistency isn't the foundation for a market-wide shift. It's a niche solution, not a standard.

Assuming Swiss movements will come down in price. ETA and Sellita have shown no indication of pursuing the microbrand market aggressively on pricing. Their business model targets a different tier, and there's no reason to expect that to change.

Underestimating the thickness problem. The 7750 family is an excellent chronograph movement. It's also roughly 8mm thick. For a generation of watch buyers who increasingly prefer watches under 13mm total thickness, that's a design constraint that matters.

The Takeaway

• The Miyota 9075 proved that a single affordable movement can transform an entire complication category for microbrands. GMTs went from premium to standard in under three years.
• No equivalent movement exists for automatic chronographs. The cheapest reliable option is still the Seiko NE88, which keeps finished watches at $900 or above.
• The gap in the market is clear: there is no automatic chronograph movement that's thin, affordable, and available at scale for independent brands.
• Miyota is best positioned to fill it, given their existing architecture, manufacturing capacity, and microbrand client base.
• When this movement arrives, expect the same rapid expansion in affordable automatic chronographs that the 9075 triggered for GMTs. The designs are ready. The demand is there. The movement is the bottleneck.