I just don’t see anything on the internals that isn’t pure eta cost efficiency, but you go back to a late 60s watch and they’re basically on par with Zenith, Rolex and Omega. It’s like swatch intentionally gives them lesser fit and finish so they don’t compete with Omega and it’s artificial to me. You get better quality automatic watches for $500-600 if you go non swatch/richemont. Whereas with vintage ones sure they may all be Lemania or whatever inside but there’s no “this watch is better than that” artificial demand, they’re all just good watches. And dials and lettering on Longines always looks tacky to me. Just comparing a jlc master control to the longines master L.2.673.4.78.3 the shape of the lugs looks put of place, the dial is SO busy, the polish looks more like a plating than a nice polish, the pushers have a bezel that looks awkward on the case, lots of lettering is obscured and feels like there are letters covering letters, the dial texture makes it feel even more busy. But those choices don’t save money, they’re design choices to make the watch say “look at me I’m fancy”, it’s overstated, to get the function back you have to move up. And with the heritage watches, you’re paying more than vintage prices for an inferior mass produced movement so just no value for me.
I don’t like it. Because: a) I don’t love mecha-quartz, b) I don’t love the tinted exhibition back, c) I don’t love the execution by either of those brands. But 90% of the watches I like are homage watches. Fashion is derivative, they’re not really taking business from Breitling at that price point and it may even get some people who might otherwise buy a fake to buy the homage instead.