"In House"

No, not the TV show.

Recent discussions have made me think about the in-house v. purchased/modified movement issue. I'm not sure there is a good definition of what in-house really means. Does this mean all the "major" items are made by the maker in question (or at least by factories owned or shared within a group) or does it mean that they make every single plate, screw, crystal, spring, etc.

The former, I think there are a few out there. The latter I can only think of one for sure, and that's Seiko.

But how important is it to have an in-house watch? That's a question only you can answer for yourself, and my view on this is changing over time. The phenomenon of in-house being the most desired is quite a new thing. It's come with the recent resurgence in mechanical watches, and I can certainly see the desire of having a watch that's in-house. But the history of Swiss watches is quite different. Most places did not make everything themselves, and quite frankly it wasn't valued as it is now.

So, what about ETA - I'll use it as an example since it's the most prolific maker of ebauches. First, ETA makes several levels of movements. The base movements have little or no finishing, but they also make higher grade movements as well. I recently restored an old ladies watch, and the grade of ETA movement was quite high:



It had more jewels than a lesser grade that I bought for spare parts - 17 in the spare compared to 21 in the movement I was restoring. The restored movement was also finished differently with a copper colour. Just one example.

I would not mind having a watch with an ETA movement in it - quite the contrary as I want a UN 1846 Marine Chronometer that has an ETA base. UN reworks it of course, and adds a power sererve function to it among other things. I think most major manufacturers do rework the base movement to some degree, but that of course varies. I guess my concern would be owning several watches that were different, but all using the same base engine as it would go against my desire to have a varied collection.

Anyway, just wanted to start a discussion on it outside of the other threads. What's your take on in-house?