What is a “Workhorse Movement”? Watch Movement

Miyota caliber 9015 automatic watch movement

“Workhorse movement” is a label given to certain watch movements by enthusiasts and collectors in many watch communities. The term is no officially used by movement manufactures, but has become a selling point in blog reviews and

A tried and true workhorse should be a simple/minimalist design that does the job efficiently with as few moving parts as possible, while still being effective at maintaining a track record of being reliable, acceptably accurate, not too expensive, and easy to service (or at least generally affordable to service).

A workhorse movement can be of any origin, although the most commonly known workhorse movements are Swiss made ETA/Sellita and Japan made Seiko/Miyota.

Below is an example of a solid automatic workhorse watch movement, the Seiko/TMI NH38. It features a simple, no-frills, 3-hands no-date display.

The most common examples of workhorse movements are:

You may also hear watches being referred to as workhorses, for example the Seiko Monster.

A workhorse watch is basically a tool watch powered by any of the above movements, but also with other characteristics such as a sapphire crystal and screw-down crown.