Asian ETA vs Swiss ETA oh me oh my my myyyyyyy

[crumpdaddy]

It's been brought to my attention that there are Asian ETA's - as well as Swiss ETA's.

That leaves me quite confused. Whenever I saw the term ETA (before today) - I took it as being a Swiss movement.

When a dealer advertises a watch as 'Asian 21J' Movement - are we to translate that as being Asian ETA movement?

Some dealers just have 'ETA 2XXX movement' on their websites (the term Swiss not utilized) as the description - which according to them is Asian ETA, and not Swiss.

Would be very helpful if someone could clear this up for me. THANKS!

 

[horologie_unitas]

unfortunately....i was reading an article in a german watchmagazine....it is not at all easy to buy any larger amounts of any ETA movements ( real swiss made) - the sales are restricted...and controlled...guess why...there are a lot of brand name manufacturers like....Panerai....Breitling....even IWC that get served first...and ETA would never sell to replica manufacturers in China. The owner of Breguet....Nicolas Hayek...has built an emporium....Hennesy - Moet - Chandon, he also owns lots of name watchbrands....swatch....ETA...
and lots of other high price names....he controls the sales of ETA movements.
one thing is for sure....real ETA movements in chinese replicas...very very rare....i knoe from Fortis...they could have sold way more watches back then when they were coming up on the market....but their contingent of 2892's.......2824's and Valljoux 7750 was very limited....in this way i dare to say....the bigger brands can control the smaller ones.....pretty interesting....lots of articles on the net....mostly in german.
god luck to all !!

 

[crumpdaddy]

So basically what you're saying is an 'ETA' (not stated Swiss ETA) movement is no better than one advertised as 'Asian 21J' here in rep land.


I wonder why the price gap....wow

 

[cybee]

Yes I was a little confused too about what a true Swiss ETA movement really is. Apparently there are Swiss guidelines that define a true ETA watch movement. I found this site to be a bit interesting.

http://www.fhs.ch/en/swissm.php

I'm still a little confused, but trying not to let it show.

 

[horologie_unitas]

swiss....versus china ETA....
i am not sure...in times of CNC manufacturing ? i read some articles of ziggy....and some 6497 he checked were pretty well made....he says mostly up to ETA standards and tolerances....but IN MY OWN opinion...i would of course prefer a real swiss made movement. I had a Omega rep for 3 years with a 28XX copy movement...that never let me down...and pretty accurate...couldnt complain about it....especially for the price
...i think i will buy a Omega PO and a bell and Ross soon....both with chinese ETA copies...and see how good they are...they look at least dead on like the real thing...but you know what...you can buy a decotrated new swiss 28xx on ebay....160 dollars...so when the chinese ones gives up....who cares ! look at the ads and what else this guy sells...so cool !!


http://cgi.ebay.com/SWISS-eta-2893-2-GM ... dZViewItem

 

[pugwash]

It's been brought to my attention that there are Asian ETA's - as well as Swiss ETA's.

Uh-oh. Don't get distracted by this.

All ETAs are what we would refer to as 'Swiss'. Some may be finished in Asia and some may be finished in Switzerland but the quality is the same. Don't get hung up on this Swiss vs Asian ETA nomenclature - it's not a grading structure ETA uses.

ETA has internally five grades of movements, the best of which is Chronomètre or COSC (never used in reps). The second-best, top, or the third best, elaboré are the ones we get, usually.

Here are the five grades of ETA: Economique, Standard, Elaboré, Top and Chronomètre. You can see on the matrix at the bottom of the PDFs below what the different models have. Top and Chronomètre are identical apart from the COSC testing.

http://www.eta.ch/d/produkte/Mecaline/p ... 2824_2.pdf
http://www.eta.ch/d/produkte/Mecaline/p ... 2836_2.pdf

ps. From what I gather, Asian ETA refers to the Brass 2836 movements and Swiss ETA refers to the Nickel 2836 movements. It's not a quality grading and has nothing to do with Asian ETA-copies.

 

[lcharly]

It's not a quality grading and has nothing to do with Asian ETA-copies.

Must we assume all ETA movements are Swiss quality though assembled in Asia?. Then the two different categories should be ETA vs non ETA and not Swiss ETA vs Asian ETA.

 

[pugwash]

the two different categories should be ETA vs non ETA and not Swiss ETA vs Asian ETA.

This is what it should be, yes.

 

[sub4me]

Theres no way to know without opening and looking.

 

[crumpdaddy]

Theres no way to know without opening and looking.

So does that mean Asian ETA does not have an ETA stamp on the movement?

 

[pugwash]

So does that mean Asian ETA does not have an ETA stamp on the movement?

I think you missed my post.

Ignore the entire Swiss ETA vs Asian ETA thing. Seriously. Anything with ETA stamped on it sold as an ETA by a trusted dealer is either an Asian or Swiss ETA. Asian and Swiss ETAs are, for all intents and purposes identical. No dealer present on these forums ever uses the term Asian ETA as pretty much every ETA in our replicas is Asian.

Can you show me what sparked off this Asian ETA vs Swiss ETS thing, as it's the kind of term used by Scammers.

 

[sub4me]

Theres no way to know without opening and looking.

So does that mean Asian ETA does not have an ETA stamp on the movement?

Whos knows for sure, but I can for sure there are ETA copies that are NOT ETA movements but are sure made to appear that way.

 

[crumpdaddy]

No Pugz, I didn't miss your post.

I spoke with one of our trusted dealers last night (who on their website identify some of their offerings as Swiss ETA, and others as just ETA) - which prompted me to pose the question to him - concerning those pieces advertised with just ETA movement.

Strange thing is, the price differential between his Swiss ETA's - and those listed as simple ETA isn't that much different.

 

[pugwash]

Strange thing is, the price differential between his Swiss ETA's - and those listed as simple ETA isn't that much different.

About $10 difference?

Yeah, he's using Swiss to mean Nickel and Asian to mean Brass.

 

[hk45ca]

Strange thing is, the price differential between his Swiss ETA's - and those listed as simple ETA isn't that much different.

About $10 difference?

Yeah, he's using Swiss to mean Nickel and Asian to mean Brass.

as long as eta parts will work in them and they are repairable i could care less. most of my 21j cn movements keep time better than my eta's and have been far more dependable and the only movements i've had fail is the eta's. look at vaccum's post on servicing eta. thats my 9 month old junk eta from el that he is fixing. it had the clutch ratchet winding mechanism stripped and was dry as the desert as he put it. i've got crappy 4 year old cn movements still keeping excellent time and working perfectly. that is just one of two that he has fixed and i have 2 more eta's that are fixing to go to him with more problems that are less than a year old also, rotor spinning when you try to wind on my ym and steam won't pop out when you unscrew the stem to wind on my tt dj. the only advantage i see to a eta is parts avalability because from where i am standing you damn sure need them.

yea, those eta's are just great!