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Is this a real Swiss ETA in my Ultimate PO?


finisterre

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Swiss Made is a label used to indicate that a product was made in Switzerland. The wording is unique in that most other countries use the phrase "Made in (Country Name)". It was chosen perhaps due to space considerations as "Made in Switzerland" would take up a lot of real estate. Older watches sometimes said only "Swiss" on the dial at the six o'clock position.

Swiss law

Currently there are strict standards applied by the Swiss government and watchmakers as to which watches can be labeled Swiss Made under what circumstances. These standards have changed over time and were not always codified in the national law, so older watches which bear the mark Swiss Made may not meet them.

Swiss Made

For a watch to be called Swiss Made or a Swiss Watch, according to Swiss law:

* its movement is Swiss

* its movement is cased up in Switzerland

* and the manufacturer carries out the final inspection in Switzerland

Swiss Movement

For a watch or its movement to be legally labeled Swiss Movement (it must say "Swiss Movement" not "Swiss Made" on the watch case):

* the movement has been assembled in Switzerland

* the movement has been inspected by the manufacturer in Switzerland

* the components of Swiss manufacture account for at least 50 percent of the total value, without taking into account the cost of assembly

The most popular items by far to have the "Swiss Made" labels are Swiss watches. Without fail, all Swiss watchmakers label their watches prominently on the faceplate. By convention, the words are fully capitalized, positioned on the bottom of the face, split by the half-hour indicator if available, curved along the button edge as necessary. Watches made in other countries typically indicate their country of origin on the back of the watch, except for very few well-known high-end manufacturers.

End of wiki and now my 2ct

So if a movement cost $5 to make in china, it is shipped to Switzerland and has a rotor fitted with a value of over $5 (50% its value now) in Switzerland and is finished and cased there then it is swiss made, AKA breitling ect with ETA works with a good finish.

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All I can offer is the information I have been told by supplier.

The short answer was this, they sell two types of ETA movements, normal ones, and "Swiss" ones...when I asked what the difference was between the two types, the answer was this:

"We have brand new blister pack sealed factory ETA XXXX movements, the factory ones are "Gold" coloured, and the "normal" (surplus) ones are all silver nickel plated ones"

When I asked where the nickel plated ones were from, this was the answer:

"All nickel plated ETA's are from the Hong Kong distributor of ETA movemnets..."

So that leads me to believe that ETA still produces the 2836-2 and 2824-2 movements, if you buy the factory ones direct from ETA in Switzerland, you will get a gold plated movement, if you want the cheaper surplus ones, you get nickel plated ones from the HK distributor.

If someone wants to pay for me to buy a ETA sealed one so we can find out for sure, it's not a problem, I'll buy it and show you what I get.

I think ETA is a screwed up company anyway, I have spoken to the Candian distributor and they haven't a clue about anything...

RG

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All I can offer is the information I have been told by supplier.

The short answer was this, they sell two types of ETA movements, normal ones, and "Swiss" ones...when I asked what the difference was between the two types, the answer was this:

"We have brand new blister pack sealed factory ETA XXXX movements, the factory ones are "Gold" coloured, and the "normal" (surplus) ones are all silver nickel plated ones"

When I asked where the nickel plated ones were from, this was the answer:

"All nickel plated ETA's are from the Hong Kong distributor of ETA movemnets..."

So that leads me to believe that ETA still produces the 2836-2 and 2824-2 movements, if you buy the factory ones direct from ETA in Switzerland, you will get a gold plated movement, if you want the cheaper surplus ones, you get nickel plated ones from the HK distributor.

Actually, another way of interpreting this is that the finish doesn't actually determine the origin - simply that your supplier receives gold finish movements that are allegedly from Swiss factories and nickel finish movements from the Hong Kong distributor. This doesn't preclude that each factory may produce movements in more than one finish.

It is a bit like saying my local cash-n-carry sells Diet Coke in cans that say 'Made in England' on them and all their normal Coke says 'Made in USA' on it, so all Diet Coke must be from England then.....

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