I know before all the craziness started Swatch was putting the brakes on the supply of its ETA movements as we all read I'm sure. Eddie had even put a survey about what people would prefer when it was time to order new PRS-29's because ETA movements were almost non existent so he asked about going the Miyota 9039 route or just wait to see if he could find more ETA's. The ETA segment won out but not by a long shot.
Then we are here, and the watch industry has been hit hard as has other industries but this made me stop and think about how this might loosen up the Swatch group and open up the spicket on the availability of movements as this I believe is a way for them to generate income up and above watch sales and I can almost see huge losses in the latter part of the 1st quarter and who knows about 2nd going forward losses.
Just wanted to throw this out there and see what insight others have on this.
We’re talking about the Swiss, they seem to have their own logic which is usually hard to predict. Swatch are losing all the income from selling watch parts but that doesn’t seem to matter to them, only today I saw ratty second- hand parts being hawked on eBay because new parts can’t be sourced easily.
Good point but I guess we will see going forward once the supply chains start running more regular.Originally Posted by walkerwek1958
ETA voluntarily walked away from a profitable business providing movements to third party companies, because they wanted to realise greater profits from less effort by using their movements in finished watches, with greater profit margins, as their only customers would be retail, not within the trade.
Them walking away has provided a massive impetus to Sellita, Miyota, Seiko and a myriad of other companies willing to sell movements to willing customers (and with the likes of kickstarter etc the number of boutique brands has mushroomed). All sorts of people have stepped in to provide and improve the 2824 movement family (amongst others that were out of copyright protection), secure in the knowledge that the market was open.
What is more, because the biggest player left the room, the smaller players could put all their prices up, so the movement supply business is now probably more profitable for ETA's competition than it was for them. Doh!
The genie is out of the lamp now, ETA couldn't re-capture the customers they had.
I was reading on the recent Hamtun KS campaign how they are offering a new 2824-clone movement, cheaper than Sellita, as they have successfully improved the movement to better performance than the Swiss version.
This is happening all over, lots of people are producing better and better alternatives to the previous ETA fayre.
ETA will not change their mind, and they wouldn't get much back if they did.
Dave
Very interesting to read that and it does make you wonder at ETA's business model and decision making processes.
On the other side of the world (Asia), ETA is almost non-existent. Miyotas, NH's (non-branded Seikos), Sea-Gull's and other chinese movements dominate the 3rd-party watch-making and modding scene. I do hope the prices of these movements don't get too high due to higher demand (i.e. lack of ETA supply)
So the movement in the Hamtun is an HK Precision Technology PT5000 movement, effectively a 2824 clone at a fraction of the price (the equivalent Hamtun model price with Sellita movement is £80 more on a £269 base price for the PT5000).
Hamtun claim to have tested many PT5000 movements and found them very reliable.
Geckota do one dive watch with a choice of ETA and PT5000, the prices are £449 and £299 respectively, giving you even more idea how economic the alternatives now are.
Dave
Great input Dave. Eddie posted the other day that Ronda is selling their ETA 2824 clone movement and some microbrands are already using them. It is getting harder to source movements because the demand has been so high that wait times has set back production on models because you can't ship out with no movement. This bump in the road should prove interesting. Eddie said his order Sellita for the Navigator is due in July, but he said that is loosely the date.
Didn't know Ronda were producing 2824 clones. I`m interested to know whether all the parts are interchangeable for obvious reasons.
Every day's a schoolday......
Edit: Just had a look on the Ronda website, can`t see a 2824 clone but their Mecano R150 looks like it might be an exact fit into a case that's designed for a 2824. Unless I`m missing a trick it's not an ETA 2824 clone.
Last edited by walkerwek1958; 29th May 2020 at 18:44.
[QUOTE=walkerwek1958;5431309]Didn't know Ronda were producing 2824 clones. I`m interested to know whether all the parts are interchangeable for obvious reasons.
Every day's a schoolday......
Edit: Just had a look on the Ronda website, can`t see a 2824 clone but their Mecano R150 looks like it might be an exact fit into a case that's designed for a 2824. Unless I`m missing a trick it's not an ETA 2824 clone.[/QUOTE
I was quoting Eddie from a post he made I believe it was yesterday over on the Navigator prototype thread. Guess I should have checked over at Ronda. Thanks for the info Dave.
From what I could see at a quick glance the movement looks similar to the 2824 but the date side looks different. I’m sure I read somewhere that the Ronda movement is designed to be interchangeable with the 2824, that makes sense.
I bought a new ETA 2824 a while back to use for parts and save time ordering replacements. I’m tempted to buy one of the chinese 2824 clones from Cousins and check compatibility of parts (and quality). Genuine ETA parts will dry up eventually unless Swatch Group do a U turn on supplying wholesalers, so the alternatives have to be considered.
No, it's not a clone with interchangeable parts but it is intended to be a replacementfor the 2824.
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
These new movements are good news of course, but I wonder what the availability of parts will be like in the future come service/repair time. Also reliability and longevity are factors to be considered at length.
F.T.F.A.
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