Modified ETA/Sellita
Hello everyone! I hope everyone is having a better day than I am (work is absolutely awful today). Something that I’ve been thinking about lately is the term “modified” when talking about a brand using a Sellita or ETA movement. The brand that keeps popping up for me is Breitling with their B17.
I hear the term “modified” a lot when talking about the B17. I’m not an expert on Breitling, but I have been collecting watches for a good majority of my life, and have handled and owned many, many brands, and have handled and owned a very high number of ETA movements, but by no means am I a watchmaker.
So, does anyone know for a FACT what Breitling is doing to these ETA movements that makes them modified? I understand that they are all COSC, and that’s cool… but by no means a modification… they are decorated very nicely, but decoration is
Usually done by ETA/Sellita, and not the brands.
Not a modification anyway
Is Breitling changing the escapement design? Or the autowind design? Are they using any different components? Have they upped the power reserve?
I’m not trying to throw any brands under the bus here, I’m just genuinely curious as to what exactly they are modifying.
Nothing against using off the shelf movements in my book, I’m just having a hard time finding the modifications that people seem to keep talking about. I’m sure most of you know this, but ETA/Sellita will make these movements to the brands spec as far as decoration, escapement, and rotor design go. They will even add the brands logo to the rotor so all (most) of these brands have to do, is regulate them and drop them in, and some decide to have them tested by an outside source so the customer can have have a piece of paper that states the movement is accurate…
Ok so I am a little salty… lol can you sense my lack of trust in the industry? 😝
But seriously, this is just an honest question. I could just be completely ignorant.
Shane Paradis. I’m a string instrument repair technician, and cat dad 😄 I’m here for the fun and fellowship.
They can decorate them or screw a complication on top to call them inhouse. They can also use all Chinese parts with Swiss assembly and business costs to call them Swiss made
Unless they say what they’re doing, it’s fair to assume that the only ‘modifications’ are minimal - a custom rotor and maybe some decoration. If they did something substantial, they’d be bragging about it 😁 Even ‘in-house’ regulation is doubtful, since Selita can do COSC spec too.
Mühle Glashütte is one of the companies that does substantially modify their Selita movements, fitting their woodpecker neck regulator, amongst other changes, which they detail on their website.
The B17 is not an in-house movement. It is basically a COSC grade (read more about grades) ETA 2824-2 or Sellita SW200-1 with a Breitling branded rotor.
More here: https://calibercorner.com/breitling-caliber-b17/
I remember a shopping channel advertising an "ETA-inspired in-house movement". It was a Chinese clone of an ETA movement with a custom sticker on the rotor.
Does anyone know if this is true? I would think Breitling would be bragging about this