Swiss ETA and Sellita movement info

[dutchie 0]

Hi all,

 

I just checked the movement in my watch, because I wanted to see if I got what I payed for...here is some more info I found for the people that want to know more about Swiss and Sellita.

 

Sellita is a Swiss company that formerly assembled ETA movements. When ETA, owned now by Swatch, announced a few years ago that it would be limiting the amount of movements supplied to the Swiss Watch Industry, Sellita went into full-scale production of ETA clones, the 2824, 2892, and 2836–which they could legally do since the original designs were in the public domain. To answer most questions, these Sellita movements have the same timekeeping efficiency, have the same quality control, and are as “Good” as the originals.

 

Lots of people are starting to notice that watch makers are starting to indicate the movement of a watch as “Swiss Movement.” For most of us, such an ambiguous designation is unacceptable, as this can mean just about anything. Strictly speaking, for a watch or movement to legally have the “Swiss Made” designation upon it, the watch or movement does not have to be made or assembled completely in Switzerland. In fact, only a certain percentage of the components must be made in Switzerland, and the watch does not need to be put together in Switzerland.

Regardless, of the circumstances where you see “Swiss Movement,” this means essentially one thing, the movement in the watch is going to be either an ETA or Sellita movement.

 

So you ask yourself, “I don’t know what movement I am getting? What am I even paying for?” This is a perfectly reasonable question to ask, but consider this. Lets say ETA are the “name brand” movements, and the Sellita movements are the “generic brand.” Each is identical in construction and function. Small differences might lay in the quality of manufacture, and special modifications for the manufacturers, but for the most part, the movements function the same, and have similar accuracy and reliability. Sellita is a Swiss movement manufacturer and for the most part copies ETA movements. It does this because it has the machinery capable of such work, along with the fact that the ETA designs are old enough to likely no longer be protected under any Patent rights.

 

Having said that, when you see the Sellita SW200 movement in a watch, it is the same movement as an ETA 2824-2. The reason watch makers are using Sellita movements, is not so much about cost, but more having to do with the fact that ETA is slowing down production and will cease to provide movements to watch makers outside the Swatch Group in 2010. So because ETA movements are harder to get, watch makers will use an ETA or Sellita movement depending on what they are able to acquire in time to put the watches together.

Fear not the Sellita movements as they appear to be just as good as ETA movement, you can rest assured that most watch makers are complete sticklers for quality, and would not use any movement that would do their name injustice.

 

The ETA ‘clones’ With the patents of several of the ETA ‘tractors’ having fallen into the public domain, the companies, which formerly worked in assembling the ébauches supplied by ETA, were now making what are called ETA ‘gauged’ movements.

Totally compatible, these ETA ‘clones’ could fit in the same manner into the same cases, and receive the same dials and accept the same additional modules.

 

In this respect, Sellita, which announced that it can produce a total of one million movements per year (of which, up to that fateful day, were included a very large proportion of ETA ébauches), now manufactures its SW 200 movement (clone of the famous ETA 2824) and its SW 300 (clone of the celebrated ETA ‘tractor’ 2892). SW 220 (clone of the ETA 2836) and the SW 240 (clone of the ETA 2834).

Sellita says that it sells movements to a total of 350 different clients, and that its products equip about 30 percent of ‘Swiss Made’ mechanical watches.

Edited December 15, 2012 by dutchie

[baselogo 1]

Very informative. Good to know.