Best Moviments doubts?

[migueltita]

Hi guys

Here I am again trying to understand a little more of this fantastic world of watches and moviments and so on ........

When it occured to me to ask a couple questions:

-21J low beat vs high beat?

Is it true that the high beat is better almost like the Asian ETA's?

-ETA Swiss vs Asian

Is it just a case of price vs durability???

-2836 vs 2892

Again, 2892 better in both asian and swiss versions. I know there are variants, -1, -2. I hear wonders about this moviment. Maybe even the best around???

-7750/7753 vs Sea Gull ST-19/copy venus (lemania)

Again price vs the best Asian copy?, or just throw them both out and get a good japanese quartz (miyota)???

At the end, is asian just cheap and good or are the swiss better but not to justify the expense because it cant better the performance of the cheaper asian version.

Sorry about the lingo being incorrect, I am a newbie and trying to absorb as much as possible.

[FxrAndy]

I could answer your questions but they are so wide ranging that it would take me a week

It is along the lines of what is a better car Hyundai or BMW and should I go for diesel or electric or hybrid

[automatico]

Fxr Andy is right.

You might start reading and go back a few years in the posts in the rolex area (where there is a lot of debate on 21j vs 25j, swiss originals vs asian clones, Swiss 7750 vs Asian 7750 etc). It will take a while but in a few hours you should be able to get a handle on the basic differences.

One thing that will always make these choices harder is the condition of the movement because there is very little QC in replicas and many watches will have used and/or dirty movements. Something else is the low cost of Asian 21j NN, DG etc movements compared to having a swiss eta repaired because when a 21j example acts up is is usually cheaper to r/r the movement rather than have it repaired.

Quartz is quartz and my experiences with quality brands...Citizen/Miyota, Seiko/Hattori, Harley Ronda, Eta etc has all been good. If I was in the market for a replica TAG Link for example, I would go for quartz because of the hassles of owning an automatic...

Having to wear it to make it run (or buy a winder).

Runs down in a day or so if not worn.

Have to find am or pm and set the date after run down.

Wear on crown, tube, internal parts from winding/setting.

High priced repairs and parts..batteries are a lot cheaper than overhauls.

Mechanicals are not very rugged when compared to quartz, no matter what rolex owners say. Ha!

[cc33]

Asian movements for the most part are all copies of a Swiss movement. They use inferior parts, tools, labor and just about anything you can possibly think of. A Swiss movement is made in Switzerland with little white gloves, anal employees with tons of experience and centuries of passed down knowledge.. Ok maybe not the little white gloves part, lol but you get the idea I would take a dirty dry old Swiss movement any day over a brand new Chinese copy. Once properly serviced a Swiss movement is and always will be better than a Chinese movement. Getting into the individual movements vs each other is pointless because a Swiss movement will always win. A Swiss movement can be worked on by any competent watchmaker, the parts are fairly easily accessible. On the other hand a Chinese movement confuses most watchmakers because as much as they want you to believe that they are exact copies, they aren't. They are built with slightly diff specs and cheaper parts, so it becomes difficult to get your Chinese movement serviced or fixed properly without using a very specific watchmaker to do so who has experience with them. Bit of a ramble...

[FxrAndy]

Switzerland with little white gloves, anal employees with tons of experience and centuries of passed down knowledge

If you ever go to Biel you will be supprised how many migrant people there are wandering round that town. Switzerland has to import watchsmith from all over just to fill the demand admitedly only the best get to work for the big names but i do not think that the ETA factory is full of old swiss gentlmen tinkering away i belive the answer is like any large industry.

The chinese are getting close to the quality that we get from switzerland it is just the QC that we get in reps where the failing comes to play.

Buy official marketed asain 2824/ ST16/ST18 and i have been impressed with what i got, particualy when it costs 1/4 of the price

Oh and ETA used to make movements in China ect, so there are a ot of ETA trained watchsmiths over there as well.

[aeromatic]

Well said! im very happy with my asian 2836-2 it was clean and well lubricated and a 1/4 of the price ,

A21j still going strong after 7 years use for me i can not have all my watches with expensive gen movements and swiss eta so i sellect which builds i want gen or swiss or asian copy i have had problems with swiss eta but never with A21j

a service upon arrival is always a good start.

a rep is a rep and no dealer QC photo is proof of a perfectly working movement/watch i ordered two watches from a trusted dealer qc photos were sent and i ok,d them and when the watches arrived the chronograph push button fell apart on the one watch and the other had a few dents around the bezel after letting the seller know about the problem the reply from the seller was sorry replacement parts not available (this seems to be happening quite a bit resently), even when i enlarged QC photo of the watch with the bezel issues you could see the damages, i missed it because i was checking for missing parts or wrong colour dials and so on

i never bother sending a watch back so i have to live with these issues i have ordered over 100 watches from this dealer and most have been good watches some have had there issues we have to remember these are reps mass produced at a fraction of the gen(mass produced) price.

in most cases repairing the watch instead of sending it back to china is more cost effective than paying return shipping waiting and the risk of customs ceasing the returning watch i wont say who the dealer was as i have had other issue/broken parts and the dealer has sent me replacement parts and always appologises

Edited October 4, 2012 by aeromatic

[migueltita]

Thanks a million guys!!! I know my question is a bit wide, but at the beginning even the small things are complicated.