My Silix Planet Ocean - Not Swiss ETA

[Sprintz25]

Hello Everyone,

http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showto...;hl=PO+movement

http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showto...081&hl=2836

After reading these two posts and checking out the photo's of the Asian clone 2836-2 on PAM111's site, i decided to open up my PO and check whether or not the movement is swiss as advertised on Silix site.

My movement has the following flaws;

1) The ETA stamp is half covered by the Balance wheel

2) No "DM" Stamp

3) The balance wheel has spokes (the ETA doesnt)

As a disclaimer, Silix is my favorite dealer and i absolutely love my PO, it runs very well and almost dead on accurate but the movement on his site is listed as "Swiss ETA 2836-2".

Has anyone else checked the movement in their PO's? Is it just a bad batch that came through with the asian clone movement or are all Silix PO's got asian clones in them. I cant complain about the price or quality of the watch, my concern is more that the watch doesnt have the movement in it that we paid for. What do you guys think?

[klocklind1]

Hello Everyone,

http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showto...;hl=PO+movement

http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showto...081&hl=2836

After reading these two posts and checking out the photo's of the Asian clone 2836-2 on PAM111's site, i decided to open up my PO and check whether or not the movement is swiss as advertised on Silix site.

My movement has the following flaws;

1) The ETA stamp is half covered by the Balance wheel

2) No "DM" Stamp

3) The balance wheel has spokes (the ETA doesnt)

As a disclaimer, Silix is my favorite dealer and i absolutely love my PO, it runs very well and almost dead on accurate but the movement on his site is listed as "Swiss ETA 2836-2".

Has anyone else checked the movement in their PO's? Is it just a bad batch that came through with the asian clone movement or are all Silix PO's got asian clones in them. I cant complain about the price or quality of the watch, my concern is more that the watch doesnt have the movement in it that we paid for. What do you guys think?

Silix is also my favorite dealer and I am sure that he can sort the problem out !

I bought the UPO from Trusty Time and that watch had a ETA 2842 movement ( perfect for vintage rolex !!!!!!!!!!!! AND it is a movement that all swatch automatic watches have ! ) in it AND that movement has 21600 bph instead of 28800 and THAT looks ALL wrong when You look at the second hand !!!

Trusty rfused to admit that he had send me the watch with the wrong movement even after I had send VERY good pictures of the movement and the stamps 2842 ETA on it.

Good luck with Silix!

[andreww]

My Silix PO was confirmed by The Zigmeister as being an ETA clone (see the first link in original post). I am [censored] that he would misrepresent his products in this way. However, I am one that believes that ETA movements are over rated and over priced. The winding gears are very fragile, and the stem removal / keyless works are very fragile. I would much prefer to have a DG2813 or DG4813 at a significant cost savings, as I find them just as reliable and a little easier to work with. But, charging ETA prices for Asian movements just doesn't cut it in my books!

[b16a2]

I think you're last statement there sums it up Andreww. Looks like that post from months ago might be dragged up. We should benefit from cheaper prices if a cheaper movement is being put into the watches, and they certainly should described with the correct movement. I just wonder sometimes if it is easier for dealers to turn a blind eye to it than to keep checking what movements come in the watches. If this is the case, it is very disappointing!

[jeff g]

There are a number of threads posted currently concerning the crap eta movements in many of the current generation of CN reps.

Looks like we are in big trouble. But it only figures, CN watch...then CN watch movement.

Problem is... eta is supposed to mean good. Looks like CN fabricators were hoping for just...better.

Better....that has turned out to be WORSE.

[RWG Technical]

My movement has the following flaws;

1) The ETA stamp is half covered by the Balance wheel

2) No "DM" Stamp

3) The balance wheel has spokes (the ETA doesnt)

The ETA stamp is normally covered by the outer edge of the balance wheel, the DM stamp is not on all ETA's only some models, and the balance wheel has to have spokes, they all do...

Based on that alone, it's hard to say what you have, pictures would be a big help...

RG

[Fireman_Fred]

I have two POs from Silix and on inspection of the movements they are both stamped ETA 2834-2 (not 2824-2 or 2836-2 as advertised !).

[Chronus]

Drop Shipping !

[andreww]

I have two POs from Silix and on inspection of the movements they are both stamped ETA 2834-2 (not 2824-2 or 2836-2 as advertised !).

My Silix was stamped as well. When The Zigmeister worked on it he informed me that it was fake. You can't go by markings anymore.

[HauteHippie]

Hello Everyone,

http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showto...;hl=PO+movement

http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showto...081&hl=2836

After reading these two posts and checking out the photo's of the Asian clone 2836-2 on PAM111's site, i decided to open up my PO and check whether or not the movement is swiss as advertised on Silix site.

My movement has the following flaws;

1) The ETA stamp is half covered by the Balance wheel

2) No "DM" Stamp

3) The balance wheel has spokes (the ETA doesnt)

As a disclaimer, Silix is my favorite dealer and i absolutely love my PO, it runs very well and almost dead on accurate but the movement on his site is listed as "Swiss ETA 2836-2".

Has anyone else checked the movement in their PO's? Is it just a bad batch that came through with the asian clone movement or are all Silix PO's got asian clones in them. I cant complain about the price or quality of the watch, my concern is more that the watch doesnt have the movement in it that we paid for. What do you guys think?

I've never seen a balance wheel without spokes.... on any ETA.

[JuiceMaker]

ETA engravings on the main plate isn't hard to do.

if the serial numbers can be engraved on the case-backs then is shouldn't be that hard to replicate it on the movement main plate.

[yim156]

So, Which dealers we can trust?

- Silix has fake ETA

- Andrew (Trusty) has wrong # of ETA (21.6K bph)

How about others??

I am thinking of buying some watches.

Any recommendations, please pm.

Thank you.

[andreww]

Personally I'd prefer the 21k in the UPO. The gen beats at something like 25k and has a definite stutter to it. IMO the 21k is a more accurate replacement.

[Sprintz25]

Sorry for not getting back earlier guys

@ Chief and The Zigmeister

I realised after posting this thread that it would technically be impossible for the balance wheel not to have spokes (without some elaborate magnetic field type setup ) But i was merely looking at the differences in the photo's from PAM111's pic and my movement.

I'll take some photos tonight and upload asap.

The ETA stamp is about 3/4 covered by the balance wheel in my watch, not just the edge like on the swiss. If it turns out my movement is Swiss after all, i'll be over the moon, but i doubt that it is at this stage.

Thanks everyone.

[rubena8]

My watch came from Sillix to and I asked him before if the movement was a Swiss eta 2824-2 and he told me "Yes it is !!! "

Afterall it's a cheapo Eta copy movement written 2824 whith a bad Eta logo it runs .........but the stem has problems and the quality of the whole movement is [censored] ass hell.

[Sprintz25]

Sorry for taking so long to take photos and get this issue finalised after all. Attached are two pics of my movement. Let me know if you need to see something i didnt shoot and i'll take more. The compact i was using wouldnt zoom in close enough to see the markings etc properly. Its so much easier now i have an SLR to get good closeups :-)

[andreww]

I really know nothing about ETA movements, but when The Zigmeister had mine he said that he first noticed that the ETA markings were etched, not stamped as they should be. From your pics it appears that the markings are etched as well. I'm interested to hear Zig's opinion on this one.

[bt1812]

Looks genuine to me

[teddy boy]

I asked a question on the general forum regarding a friends request to help him buy a rep. My question was, what should we recommend to people in light of The Zigmeister's post regarding the end of high end reps? Somehow responses began to focus on which rolex to recommend rather than the more general question of whether we can continue to endorse reps at all. I still don't know the answer to the more general question. EuroTimez guarantees that his Swiss ETA watches really contain Swiss Eta movements and I have no reason to doubt his word. However, I would feel like a jerk if I advised my friend to pay more than $300 U.S. for a watch and he ended up with a lesser movement. Bottom line, this is becoming a problem for all of us. There is an opportunity here for a dealer who is able to somehow certify what's inside the watch.

[robj]

I have never believed this swiss thing! Why would they copy every other detail and put an original movement costing 5 times more than the Chinese equivalent? I think what they have is a better finished Chinese movement. As a matter of interest I beleive the 2813/4813 is far more accurate and reliable and of late there have been some prettied up versions of it so paying for ETA is now almost a waste of money. Logically with the stamp on it should be original but you have to remember it says Rolex/Panerai Omega on the dial do you accept that as the truth?

[teddy boy]

I have never believed this swiss thing! Why would they copy every other detail and put an original movement costing 5 times more than the Chinese equivalent? I think what they have is a better finished Chinese movement. As a matter of interest I beleive the 2813/4813 is far more accurate and reliable and of late there have been some prettied up versions of it so paying for ETA is now almost a waste of money. Logically with the stamp on it should be original but you have to remember it says Rolex/Panerai Omega on the dial do you accept that as the truth?

My watch maker who has been in the business literally for decades worked on my two year old day-date. He stated that he would stake his reputation on the authenticity of the eta 28.36 in that watch. He made the same comment regarding the movement in my Pam 029 of approximately the same vintage. Based on this, I believe that genuine swiss movements were in rep watches, at least at one time.

[andreww]

No doubt that up until recently everything has been real ETA. But with the shortage of ETA and the rising costs of these movements it is inevitable that rep makers will look for a cheaper, more available replacement. Personally, I agree with one of the previous posters in that I would prefer a DG2813 or 4813 at a reduced cost, over an expensive replica ETA.

[robj]

You say that up until recently but I saw a railmaster Omega a couple of years ago with a fake 2836-2 movement and it was selling for $100 it had 2836-2 on base plate. Rolex are the ones that really need looking at there is 2 grades available right now both are described as swiss 1 is with copy ETA and the other with what is said to be original ETA movement they look identical! I have a feeling that this is going to be like the gold rush in the late 80's where people were breaking watches for the gold content even Rolex etc a huge amount of people decided to break their heirloom pocket watches to cash in and found that they were in fact pinchbeck and not gold at all even though they had for 50 years thought they were. It is only in recent times that the origins of the ETA movement has been challenged maybe it's been going on longer than we think!

[andreww]

I say recently because The Zigmeister has been in the servicing business for quite a while, and it is only recently that he has started to notice an upturn in the number of fake or half fake ETAs. Not to say that it never happened in the past though.