What matters is what YOU perceive. Nobody gives a shit about what’s on your wrist. If you perceive a 9F quartz or ETA 2824 movement as premium, that’s what matters. Both are great. Don’t see either one as “cheap” because they’re not low quality. Don’t get a watch to impress others; get a watch to impress yourself. What pleases YOU more? Even the watch nerds in this thread won’t care what you have on your wrist by tomorrow.

Both movements will have haters, so don’t listen to them. They’re both great in their own ways. “It’s quartz! Cheap mall watches are quartz!” “It’s an off the shelf ETA movement! They didn’t even make it. In-house or bust!”

Ignore the haters. Pick what matters to you.

Buy the Carrera. If you buy the SBGX261, you’ll never wear your other watches! 😜 Seriously, though. I struggle to give my other watches other wrist time because the SBGX261 is so damn awesome.

1. It’ll be your best finished/highest build quality watch. The quality is insane. The Tudor and Omega will be very close, but it won’t have those famous Grand Seiko hands and hour markers. There is something magical about putting on a Grand Seiko.
2. It’ll be the watch that goes with everything. I don’t know which colors your other watches are, but nothing beats the color scheme of the SBGX261. It’s absolutely perfect to match with any outfit, casual or formal.
3. It’ll be your most accurate watch. You’ll never set the time on this. I know, I know. I love setting the time on my watches and it hardly takes any time, but sometimes you just wanna get on with your day! Owning this watch just makes you realize why the rest of the (non-watch-nerd) watch world moved on to quartz. It’s the superior timekeeping technology. Also, I have zero alignment issues with mine. It strikes every marker every time with conviction. No jiggling or loud noises like with cheap quartz. It’s like going from a cheap NH35 to a co-axial chronometer. They’re technically the same, but exist on a different plane of quality.
4. It’ll have the longest power reserve of your watches. I love that I’m able to set this thing down for an extended period of time and it’ll still be ticking even weeks later. Plus it has an end-of-life indicator that tells you when you need to change the battery. This is great so you‘re not worrying if it’ll suddenly stop telling time one day.
5. It’ll be your most carefree watch. You’ll find yourself less worried about magnetism, G-forces, vibrations, etc. I don’t know how much you actually worry about that kind of stuff, but I do a decent amount. I don’t care at all when I wear my SBGX261 because it’s simply more resilient to that stuff compared to mechanical watches.

Have you considered the proportions? It’ll wear smaller than the Carrera, obviously. That’s not to say that’s a good or bad thing, but size is very important and you should make sure the one you choose is suited for your wrist.

Also, have you considered that you can wear the Grand Seiko on a leather strap? I like delugs.com for my straps and will be buying a 19mm black leather strap for my SBGX261 one day. It has drilled lugs to make bracelet removal even easier. Just be careful to not scratch the Zaratsu polishing. 😜

Mine is the Casio G-Shock GMAS2100-7A. “Mini Casioak” in all white. Technically a ladies watch, but I don’t care. It’s perfect for smaller wrists like mine. I wear it when I golf to pretend I’m like Bubba Watson who wears a white Richard Mille RM 055 during an entire round of golf, not just at the end for trophy pictures.

I also like to wear it at the gym, riding my bike, or just for a fun pop of white in my outfit.

I love wearing my white watch when I’ve been outdoors a lot because the contrast with a nice tan looks super cool. Just reminds me that I’ve been active and outdoors. :)

EDIT: didn’t even read the whole post until now, whoops. I’ll leave it up for others who want a white watch but don’t care if it’s quartz or not. This can also be found on Amazon for under $80. 😁

I always consider: “if I buy this watch, will it dominate wrist time over others in my collection?” Sometimes it’s a nice upgrade, sometimes it’s a nice complement, and sometimes they wouldn’t compete with each other at all.

So consider, @Justingalore , when would you wear the Hamilton over the Cartier? How about the Cartier over the Hamilton?

I called around all the Cartier ADs in Florida and only 3 took my name. 1 contacted me immediately saying they actually had one in the back that they thought was a regular quartz model and it turned out to be a SolarBeat. Another contacted me back after about 2 months (almost exactly a year ago) and shipped to my house. The third never got back to me and I suspect they didn’t really write my name down.

Worth a try and from what I’ve seen they’ve been easier to get nowadays. Hope this helps!

Great taste! You cannot go wrong with either one.  I bought the SolarBeat “large” for my fiancée (I wear it when she happens to be wearing a G-Shock that day), and she got me an SBGX261 that I wear as my daily. They’re a stunning pair of watches!

That’s an awesome watch. It is a lot of money for a standard quartz movement, but if you like the watch then you like it. I agree with you that the quartz ones look better than the automatic versions. I will say it’s pretty sweet rocking a quartz watch on the daily. Always set, always accurate, never have to worry about magnetism or impact, and service is dirt cheap. Just a battery change :)

I LOVE mechanic watches, but if this is a daily piece, you’ll love the convenience of quartz. I love my SBGX261, and if a genie offered to swap the movement for free, I would leave it as quartz. Scratch that mechanical itch with a hand-wound dress watch or something.

You’re not just paying for the movement, you’re paying for the dial and case design (I love the Aquaracer bezel and horizontal lines on the dial), dial details (those applied hour markers are nice, that lume is iconic), and build quality. The bezel should be satisfying to rotate, the bracelet should feel solid, all metal edges and corners should feel premium, the bracelet features both brushed and polished surfaces. Overall, TAG Heuer makes high quality watches. Most people buy them because they have good designs and build quality, and the movement is reliable, even if not in-house or considered high horology.

At the end of the day, we could be rocking $100 fashion watches from the mall, but we spend far more because want something premium, well built, well designed, and will last a long time. I personally think it ticks all the boxes.