Wonder no longer. Moser has been doing it for years. The quality is pretty obvious.

There's an element of "macho decider" in this world, and the more general "do your own research" crowd seems to know very little about what actual research entails. Still, it's pretty human to do something and immediately form a narrative "I did this because I wanted to ..." even when there's no truth to that story. It helps simplify the chaotic universe and give us a sense of enduring (and culpable) self. I'd prefer that people were more reflective about their influences and didn't blithely push the "I buy what I like" story (it's complicated, right?). It's certainly not the most important issue at the moment, but honesty about influence contains a certain amount of generosity and scales to larger societal issues. We're in this together. When you love something, there's always a strength-in-weakness component. You're vulnerable and a bit silly. These communities are tacit admissions of that silliness, and there's plenty "I love you, man [slaps back really hard to temper the vulnerable component]" structure in the way we talk about this stuff.

There's not exactly consensus on this, but I often think about the studies from this book and what they might say about how little we individually decide on anything https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262731621/the-illusion-of-conscious-will/

Same here. "Is my manual wind watch running low on power? Oh no, what do I do?!" vs. "This automatic with a screw down crown has been in a rotation with a couple other watches this week while I work all day at a computer and take naps in front of the TV. I wonder if it's running out of power."

They have recently decided to only do (significantly) upmarket pieces. https://monochrome-watches.com/recommended-reading-drastic-change-of-strategy-for-jaquet-droz-grande-seconde-discontinued-no-more-retailers/

I love their Grande Seconde line and would be happy to own one, but I'm far from their current target customer.

1. The inevitable comparison to a 50-year-old iconic design that is basically what people think of when they think AP.

2. The first models were somewhat underwhelming. Yes, they looked way, way better in person, especially the case, the intricacies of which are not revealed in your typical dial facing promo photo. But they had fairly restrained dials with questionable font choices and divisive 4:30 date windows. They read as inelegant attempts at dress watches, half-heartedly minimal. But, to their credit (which I am reluctant to give), AP stepped things up in these areas and made significant changes that I think were very effective. If I had that kind of money to throw around, I'd pick up one at a discount, enjoy the heck out of it, and conservatively bet on the value going up as the initial backlash fades away.

Yeah, an extra couple millimeters of cyclops should finally make this watch thick enough.

As far as what GS quartz I would get, well, I got this one, so I guess that's the one: https://shop.hodinkee.com/products/grand-seiko-gmt-sbgn019

I would also happily get the grey beast https://www.grand-seiko.com/us-en/collections/sbgv245j

I tend to favor GS watches with "bold" cases. The dials are amazing, etc, but some of their case designs (62gs, "lion", these "tough" cases, etc.) are the real differentiators to me.