Tag Heuer Carrera Date 36mm or Grand Seiko SBGX261?

[puma1552]

Interesting comparison combo. I need a new everyday "beater" watch. The workhorse that carelessly gets thrown in the basket with my wallet and keys; the workhorse that gets worn while having my 2 year old son pull on my wrist; the workhorse that gets worn while carrying lumber through Home Depot; the workhorse that gets worn when my wife drags me to an outdoor art fair for 6 hours in 95 degree heat for hours of massive sweating. Resale means nothing, because the value is going to $0 no matter what.

I've had my eye on a Grand Seiko SBGX261, which as some of you know is a quartz watch. I actually prefer quartz for the everyday watch so I don't have to deal with setting it. But then I just realized Tag now has a proper 36mm Carerra, albeit automatic.

GS (also comes in silvery/champagne, but would go with black):



Carrera:







I haven't seen either in person yet.

For the GS, the dial is really nice (love the GS font too), the movement is one of the best quartz movements out there, I like that it's quartz so I can always just grab it and go even if I haven't left the house for a few days, it's cheaper ($2300 vs. $3200 MSRP), and arguably a better watch nerd brand. Less important, my wife and son are Japanese and I used to live in Japan so it's kinda nice to have a Japanese watch in the collection and to have a "beater" watch still be from a nice watch nerd brand. However, the bracelet seems to be lower quality than the rest of the watch (from what I've read) and you have to wonder if GS is hearing the calls for a step change in bracelet quality across the line up - would hate to miss out on that if next year GS was like "Ok, we are stepping up our bracelet quality" but there's no evidence that's happening AFAIK. I also don't find the case shape as nice, and it is a bit larger watch than my DJ, which I don't love.

For the Tag, the case shape is gorgeous and the size seems just right. The bracelet looks on par with the rest of the watch and seems nicer than the GS (neither have micro adjust but I don't care, I wear my watches slightly loose so I don't need it). It's an ETA movement, which some people will snub their nose at, but ETA movements are reliable...but it's not quartz, so I still have to wind it occasionally (newer Calibre 7 movement with 56 hour PR); not the end of the world, but not ideal. It's more expensive though at $3200, and I'm not sure any of the dials/indices color options really work for me. Green is the best to me, but green and gold for everyday? Bold move considering my DJs are silver and black. Don't really care for the tiny marks all around the rehaut, but it isn't a deal breaker. Arguably more money for a "worse" brand, but that doesn't bother me. I wanted to really limit myself to the GS price range since this is going to be used and abused, but I can go to the ~$3k range for the Tag, but no more...any more and I may as well just wear my DJs every day as we're starting to spend enough that we're defeating the purpose of buying a supposed "beater".

Thoughts on these?