Will The NH35 Movement Last Long-Term?

The NH35 is a very popular and reliable movement that should not give you any trouble for many years. Most people find they can go about decade without any issues or showing signs of needing a service. If you maintain the watch well, it could very easily last a lifetime, but as you will find out below, it can often be a lot easier to replace the movement rather than trying to service it when it comes to the NH35.  

What Is The NH35 Watch Movment?

The NH35 is a Japanese movement and actually produced by Seiko. It was introduced in early 2011 and it is the unbranded version of their 4R36 which can be found in a lot of their models.

They remove the Seiko branding and sell it to other companies to use in their watches. It is very cheap and therefore a favourite among mircobrands who are trying to keep costs down.

It is a very reliable 24 jewelled automatic movement with a dual direction self winding rotor. Fully wound it can have a power reserve of 41 hours.  It also has hacking and hand winding and beats 6 times a second (21600 Beats an hour) meaning it can give you -20/+40 seconds a day accuracy. However, most people find they are much more accurate than this.

On the dial it displays the hour, minute and second hands and also has the date.

The Ghost Position on the NH35

For some reason, a lot of companies use the NH35 in watches without a date window on the dial. This means you will be able to pull the crown out to two positions, one to move the hands and one to move the date.

However, If you dial hasn’t got a date window, you will see nothing happen. This is referred to as a Ghost Position, but if you listen carefully, you will hear the date flick underneath the dial as it changes, even if you can’t see it.

Some collectors get annoyed by this, wishing that they used the NH38, which is the version of the movement that does not have a date.

My guess is that these companies try to cut costs somehow by just ordering one consignment of movements. They buy a lot of NH35s and use them in their watches with dates, and as we know too well, also with watches that do not have date windows.

Service Intervals Of A NH35

It is recommended that you should get the NH35 serviced about every 5 to7 years. However, they can go longer before they show any signs of needing a service and a lot of people wait around 10 years before they get a service.

Honestly the movement is pretty reliable, it could probably go untouched for 20 years, but this not really advisable. You need to remember that the oils inside will start to dry out. These are important for keeping everything running smoothly, so the longer you wait and the drier it becomes, the more likely the parts are going to start to grind together and actually break.

Replace or Service A NH35?

Although the NH35 is very reliable, it is also very cheap. This then brings up the question of should you actually bother servicing it? Services can be expensive and it may well work out a lot cheaper and easier to just buy a new movement and replace it. 

To service a watch, it needs to be taken apart and cleaned. This is a very slow and highly skilled task, which is why it its expensive. A new movement can be picked up very cheaply, and replaced in a few minutes. It could even be replaced by most amateurs if they were feeling confident. 

Some people are happy to just run the movement into the ground and replace it when it stops working. If it can keep running pretty healthily for about 10 years, it’s really not that much inconvenience to have to replace it once a decade.

If you do want to service your movement regularly, you should find it is able to last as long as any other mechanical watch and could potentially last forever. You will always be able to find parts for it if anything is worn out or damaged. 

The NH35 may be cheap, but it is very well engineered and assembled, as is always the case with anything produced by the Japanese. Their products are always excellent.

Price Increases Of The NH35

In recent years the price has started to creep up. The demand has gone up for this movement, not helped by production shortages, which is always going to raise prices. They used to be easily found for £30-40.

However they are going for around £60 at the moment. I believe that when production rates can get back to normal there should be less shortages and the prices should start to settle back down to their previous values.

Fakes

Interestingly you can still find some NH35s going for very cheap and it is believed they may be fakes from China, well I guess they are more unofficial clones.

If you look closely at these versions, they don’t have any markings on the rotor, which is unusual. Seiko will happily add “Japan” or “Malaysia” or wherever the movement has been made, so it is a little strange that this is missing.  

It is commonly believed that companies get things produced in China, and then when the production order is stopped; the factory just carries on regardless. They make tiny modifications… such as removing branding … and then carry on making the item for themselves.

While it is rumoured this happens, I of course have no evidence. The same goes for the NH35 movements that can be found in any Aliexpress watches. I’m just a dude sat on a computer many miles away from any watch factory, let alone china, so really, I have no idea what’s happening, but it’s an interesting rumour.

The main thing we want to know is does this affect quality? Personally owning some NH35 from Chinese sold watches, I’ve not seen any issues. My plan is to just run them into the ground and then replace the movements when it’s needed.

Conclusion

The NH35 is a great movement and it should last you a long time. If you want to get it serviced regularly it should last a long time, but for most people it is cheaper and easier to replace it every 10 years.

(Why not read about another watch movement – Is The PT5000 A Reliable Movement?)