It's indisputably a watch. It sits on the wrist and tells the time. It's grabbed a massive slice of the value that used to be available to other watch companies. Ordinary people (i.e. not people on WatchCrunch) buy it instead of other watches. But I don't use it for the time function. Many of the alerts and info are super helpful to me--but only occasionally. Before COVID, when I was meeting people more often, I had it set up so that it would alert me to messages from a select group of important people. Better than trying to discretely check my phone during a meeting. Now I mostly use it for its time function when I'm teaching and running breakout groups. I find it a lot less useful now that I'm doing more remote meetings via video.

Mine is waiting for me for when I get home from a trip

What stops me from buying a Grand Seiko is lack of lume on any of the watches I want (no lume on any GS watches except quartz or clunky watches in their Sports line and perhaps two JDM watches in their Heritage line). I wear watches when I sleep. Lume is super helpful. 

It’s a 1970s nostalgia thing.  Back to an era when we didn’t have that much and really wore things out. 

definitely not "apples to apples"
CW is running an Sellita SW200 COSC in a good number of their watches, which goes above and beyond most every other watch brand in their price range but it's not the same as the Tudor movement for sure. 

Yes of course. But personally, I would steer away from a Tudor BECAUSE of brand cachet! I associate brand cachet with cheapness and fakery. I love the character in  William Gibson's novel Pattern Recognition who scratches off the word "Levis" embossed on the rivets of her jeans! I'd buy a Tudor FXD for its unique and pleasing aesthetics. But I don't see any similar value in the Ranger, for me.

Haven't seen Ranger in person so with that in mind ...

Value: I've made this comment before. Feels like a broken record. The CW Sandhurst is 150m water resist (vs. Ranger at 100m) and 1/3 the price for a COSC certified 38 mm with micro-adjust bracelet. It's a completely different dial of course, not in house movement etc etc...but the comparison just eats at me.

Dial: The Vertex is so much more of a gorgeous dial!

Vintage: I'm just tired of the rehashing of vintage aesthetics. Would love to see the Ranger simply with crisp white lume like the FXD!