ETA Calibre

[S2000 Driver]

I've notices that many of the Swiss watch manufacturers who do not have an in-house calibre suitable for a particular watch model use an ETA calibre.

Can anyone here share the background of this calibre manufacturer and explain why their movements are so popular?

Thanks in advance for sharing!

[idoitsavant]

http://www.eta.ch/

Now, they are part of the Swatch Group.

My take is that their movements are popular because the prices are lower and they are capable of chronometer accuracy.

[padi56]

Originally Posted by S2000 Driver

I've notices that many of the Swiss watch manufacturers who do not have an in-house calibre suitable for a particular watch model use an ETA calibre.

Can anyone here share the background of this calibre manufacturer and explain why their movements are so popular?

Thanks in advance for sharing!

Well the main factor is cost now to design a new movement and then to tool up to produce that movement cost millions its that simple.

Now there is nothing wrong with ETA movements and don't forget many a high end brand is powered by a ETA ebauche.Many brands like Omega,IWC Panerai and even Rolex who used a ETA Valjoux 72 movement in the pre 1989 Daytona.Sometime I hear comments like "such an expensive watch and only an ETA movement inside ". Words like these give the impression that an ETA movement is of lower quality.It should be the other way around, people should say "Well, it has a excellent ETA movement inside this watch, but the price of this watch is astonishingly high".And lets not forget they still make and sell around five million plus movements a year.And don't forget that ETA is the largest manufacture in Switzerland, because they make everything, in-house only too.I have a special regard for the Unitas 6497/8 this movement has not basically changed now for over 50 years,and is capable of COSC standards,and very forgiving in its service or lack of.A truly great workhouse movement that has powered many high end watches.Now Rolex used hair-spings escapement parts made by the ETA Swatch group for years and the same for all the swiss watch making industry



This is short list of outstanding movements that should all easily achieve a daily consistency of five seconds or better on the wrist.ETA 2892-A2, ETA 2824/2, ETA 7750,Unitas6497/8 plus there are many more.And one of the most consistent movements that pass the COSC test first time is the ETA 2892-A2 and the ETA Valjoux 7750/51.

[haakon59]

ETA were movements developed by the Eterna watch company, which spun off this division in the late 60's, I think it was. Eterna was known as perhaps the most innovative movement/watch manufacturer during the 1920's-1950's, and they claim they were first to develop the automatic winding system. During this period companies like Longines and Hamilton also made their own movements, as did lower end popular manufacturers like Enicar and Titoni. Most watch companies at the time used their own proprietary movements. Eterna's were considered amongst the best of this era for mass production.

But times changed and Eterna and other companies were being crushed by the sales of Japanese quartz wristwatches, which seemed to be the wave of the future because customers appreciated their greater accuracy. Eterna at this point created ETA as a separate company as a movement manufacturer and ETA survived as a movement supplier to a great many firms in the industry when it became uneconomical for companies to continue to manufacture and design their own movements. ETA had a reputation for being inexpensive, durable, reliable, and well designed. So most companies which wanted to continue to produce mechanical watches during the quartz wave naturally started to purchase their movements from ETA. Later, Swatch Group bought ETA, brought them in-house, and have now decided that they will no longer sell these movements outside their group, after a time. Right now the end dates are being litigated in Switzerland. With the revival of the swiss mechanical watch industry, most manufacturers have again decided to produce their own movements in light of this development. It takes roughly $1,000,000.00 to design and patent a new movement in Switzerland. So today, because high end mechanical wristwatches are selling again, it is the high end manufacturers who have taken the initiative first to again create their own movements.

[leopardprey]

Here is a copy and paste from a Thread I started here back in May:

Seems on a lot of the watch forums, any watch that has a ETA movement instead of a 100% in house movement is critized. Well here are my thoughts. ETA makes some good reliable proven movements, and they make different grades of movement. Now, of course I like the highly decorated unique movements that some manufactures make themselves. But, there are some really nice watches with ETA movements. A lot depends on the company. Does the company just take a produced completed ETA movement and throw it in a case, seal it up and sell it? Or do they get parts kits of a movement from ETA and then inspect each part, polish, decorate, fine tune and file any rough spot, and maybe add a few extra parts of thier own.

THere are some god companies like Omega, Breitling, IWC, UN, and Panerai that really fine tune the ETA parts and have great quality. I read though that ETA in the near future will stop sending out parts kits and only produce completed movement.

To me it is not much different than in the custom gun world. Many fine makers of 1911 pistols, but most do not make all their parts. They start out with a stock Springfield or Colt. Then buy parts from Ed Brown, Wilson, etc.. THen they fine tune, file, maybe produce and few parts themselves, and then complete..

Same way with Custom Motorcycles. No one would argue that OCC makes some of the finest custom choppers out there. But they get their parts from other manufactures.

Also, as one member told me, one thing nice about a simple ETA movement is that you can have just about any competent watchmaker around the world work on them.

[roadcarver]

Nothing wrong with ETA movements in my book. My 2531.80 and the CA are both powered by ETA. Even Tudor Chrono are powered by the ETA's 7750.

[padi56]

Sorry but ETA has nothing to do with Eterna,it was first founded in 1793, ETA SA Manufacture Horlogère Suisse is now one of the world's largest manufacturers of watches and movements.ETA has owned several important Swiss watch movement companies including Valjoux,AS, Peseux and Lemania, for a number of years. In fact the company is the result of successive consolidation of the Swiss watch industry.

[haakon59]

ETA was part of Eterna, but I was wrong about them selling the division off in the 1960's, it was earlier, 1932. This is a bit off from the time line as I previously understood it. I will have to find my original source and reread it. Still, to support my point that ETA was at one time part of Eterna, I quote below:


From an article by Walt Odets Fri, 12 Dec 1997

"An historical note: ETA was the movement manufacturing division of Eterna until 1932 when it split off and joined Ebauches S.A. (which included other big manufacturers like A. Schild). Eterna continued independent development of movements (which is how it came up with the 1466U/2892), although Eterna and ETA also worked jointly on some designs. Almost all (all?) ETA and Eterna automatics share the Eterna-designed automatic winding system: a ball bearing mounted rotor winding in two directions via springless twin click wheels and two reduction wheels on the locking wheel"

I don't know how "authoritative" a source Mr. Odetts is, as I don't think he is a professional historian in this field. Another complication is that in horology, as in many other fields as well, different manufacturers will claim various inventions and developments for themselves of course, but they also work together much more than the public might realize and sometimes they will form temporary or longer lasting partnerships and each put in capital towards working towards their goals, so I have no doubt that ETA might have had more than one partnership, but this is the one I have known about. There are also some other histories which I have read on this issue which differ a bit in the details.