ETA movements and their place in the watch industry

The overview

ETA SA Manufacture Horlogère Suisse, owned by the Swatch group, is the world’s largest watch manufacture. For decades, ETA has provided many different watch companies with completed movements and movement ébauches (sets of parts for assembly) for use in their watches. Often, in the case of luxury watch companies, these movements and ébauches are finished by the companies before being assembled and sold.

Using premade ETA movements, such as the ubiquitous 2824, 2836, 2892, and 7750 has its benefits: rather than use valuable resources such as manpower and tools on manufacturing movements for entry-level models, companies can simply finish an ETA movement and use it in their watch. This allows the company to focus their efforts on making in-house movements for their high luxury pieces. At first glance, this system seems like it should work well, allowing luxury companies to sell their entry-level pieces for reasonable prices. The keyword there, ladies and gentlemen, is seems.

The problem

In the watch industry, swiss-made has become synonymous with quality. This is not without reason; if you’re buying a Rolex, Omega, Breguet, Patek, or a piece by one of countless more Swiss brands, you can be confident you will be purchasing a quality item. Indeed, even the Swiss ETA mass-produced movements provide a high quality watch. However, despite being mass-produced and easily available by watch companies both within and outside of the Swatch group (which owns many watch companies), the prices on luxury watches which use ETA movements are - more often than not - too high.

Two brands guilty of this come to mind, though there are plenty others: Panerai, and IWC. Both companies are owned by the Richemont International SA, likely the Swatch group’s largest conglomerate competitor. Curiously, both of these companies purchase ETA movements from the Swatch group for use in many of their watches, from their entry-level models to middle-upper tier models.

One particularly embarrassing example of this is Paneria’s PAM 318 “Brooklyn Bridge” Special Edition.

In the words of one forum member, “it’s special alright.” The PAM 318, like many other Panerai pieces, uses an ETA 6497. The ETA 6497 is a notoriously simple handwind movement, which doesn’t offer any bells and whistles. The movement can be purchased by a consumer for roughly $200, and certainly less if you purchase in bulk (as a watch company might). Considering a luxurious level of finish that you might expect, along with a nice dial and case, you might expect to pay something in the low thousands for a luxury watch using a basic ETA movement (which seems like an oxymoron in and of itself). Despite this, the PAM 318 clocks in at roughly $7500. As if that weren’t bad enough, check out these photos from a PAM 318 that was opened up… The owner of this watch reportedly believed he had been sold a fake by Panerai themselves - the finish is THAT bad.

IWC’s faults are less extreme than Panerai’s, by a good amount. In their very popular Aquatimer and Portuguese lines, IWC offers models with the chronograph complication. Often, in a luxury piece, one can expect to pay several thousand more for a chronograph than a standard 3-hand watch. This is still the case for watches that use ETA movements (the 3-hand movement often being the 2824 or in nicer pieces the 2892, the chronograph movement being the 7750 or 2892 with chronograph module), though once more the ETA models are far more expensive than they ought to be.

The IWC Aquatimer Chronograph in Steel, seen below, retails for about $6000 or more depending on the specific model. The IWC Portuguese Chronograph, also in steel, retails for about $8000 (higher for the gold model, which is understandable). Both make use of the IWC calibre 79350/79320, which are both a “modified ETA 7750.” The extent to which these movements are modified, however, is simply not enough to warrant the price in the high thousands. The ETA 7750 can be had by a consumer for roughly $500, or less. Though these movements are likely finished to a higher degree than the standard ETA finishing, the price tag is difficult to excuse.

The change

ETA has begun to limit the movements it sells to companies outside of the Swatch group, in an effort to bolster the image of the ETA movement as well as make it more difficult for other groups and companies to compete. This could be a blessing-in-disguise for the watch industry, as other Swiss movement manufactures such as Soprod and Sellita sweep in to fill the vacuum left by ETA. Even Chinese and Japanese manufactures such as Seagull and Miyota, respectively, are poised to take a piece of the pie that ETA is leaving behind. The effect on the industry will likely be beneficial: more movement manufactures will force existing manufactures to increase the quality of the movements, as well as drive down the price. The end result will hopefully be an industry in which the average watch containing an ETA or comparable movement is far more reasonably priced. Until then, look towards brands like Nomos and Frédérique Constant for stunningly beautiful watches with in-house movements at stunningly affordable prices.