Unfortunate start of the year

How long had it been since you acquired it or last had it serviced?

I got it in January 2022. Never had problems with it and I tried as much as possible to not drop it or bump it. Not even always winding it manually.

As you mentioned, this is common, and a downside of ETA 2824s and 2836s and its clones. What causes this is a lack of lubrication, something common with ETA and Sellita. This could be because the movement is old (idk all the info on your watch) and simply needs a service, or the movement was poorly lubricated during production.

Do not manually wind it at this point. You will break the teeth off one or more gears. And that will make the repair more expensive. Also — and I’m not saying you did this — don’t let these movements sit for more than a month. These ETA 2824s (and 2836s) need to move to prevent this sorta thing. It doesn’t always prevent it, but this is one of the reasons this occurs.

Also, don’t manually wind ETA 2824s and its clones beyond getting the movement to start up. You can also break gears doing this. These are reasons why I despise ETA 2824s and its clones. I’ve broken several due to these very issues.

I’ll take it tomorrow to a service center since it is still under warranty until the 5th of this month…

I bought it from UK, brand new and didn’t let the watch sit for more that 5-7 days.

Hoping for the best tomorrow.

Thank you for the advice! Much appreciation!🙏🏻

First, @FiatLux did a great summary of the situation.

Yes, this is fairly typical for an ETA 2824 that sat too long. Either the watch had been in stock for a while, or a the movement sat on the shelf for too long. Since it's still under warranty I'd send it in.

The specific problem is actually easy to fix, and the parts are inexpensive. The movement can stay in the watch, and you just have to remove the winding bridge.

There are also endless online discussions on how to lubricate (if at all) the reversing wheels and with what lubricant. Makes for good reading if one has trouble falling asleep.

Just in time for the warranty to nearly run out.

One of the reasons why my PRX can go for good.

Had the same problem (after it came back from the Tissot Service, no less). It’s been eight weeks since then and I haven’t heard back from Tissot since.

Now I only own Japanese watches and the Swiss can go manually wind themselves up (to avoid profanities)

The easiest and most comon way to clean and lubrificate reversing wheels in one go is Lubeta. And since it were developed by ETA, using it on their movements is the way to go for me. 👍🏻

I’ve had this happen three times on my Oris Big Crown Pointer Date in the three years I’ve owned it. The last time it came back from service it felt finally fixed for good. I think they just got wise and gave me a new movement. It’s made me reconsider buying watches with SW-200’s in them.

Good to know since I’m planning on getting a PRX this summer. The quartz one will do just fine.

Ah this is interesting to know I thought it was only the Sw200's which had this issue. Good to know the 2824's are equally as dog 💩

I've had 6 out of 10 sw-200-1 movements go wrong because of this. I steer clear of the movement and it's similar counterparts now because of this. Utter garbage movement. Japanese reliability any day.

Bummer. Hope it gets fixed. Happy New Year just the same.

I have yet to do it, but I have come across Lubeta (V105), instructions to lubricate the reversing pawls with 9010, but not lubricate the pivots, to simply buy pre-lubed reversing wheels, or to use a 9010/benzine solution. Since I haven't personally come across this failure yet, I unfortunately cannot speak from experience. But the variation of advise offered is intriguing.

Well, the biggest advantage to use Lubeta is, that you haven't to clean first and then lubricate, what in itself is a bit of a challenge to do on reversing wheels. Just dip it and you're good to go. 👍🏻 at least for me it workes fine!

Sorry to hear this but thanks for the post. I've got a Khaki Field Automatic that's just a few months old so I appreciate the info.

I've had this before and it isn't an emergency. Wind the watch by shaking it, set it and go. You can get it serviced when you get a chance, as someone mentioned in the comments don't try to manually wind at this point.

It's not on all sellita or eta movements. Just very common faults with the Sw200's and potentially 2824's. It is recommended not to "overwind" it which with the Sw200's is as little as 5-10 winds.

I had an Sw200 based movement on a winder which still developed a sticking rotor fault.

This is simply one of the most common failure modes on these movements. It is associated with inactivity or lack of service, but is truly not limited to that. I wouldn't go as far as to say that keeping a watch on a winder constantly is preferable, but wearing the watch in regular intervals is beneficial. It affects all ETA 2824 clones, so Sellita SW200-1, Soprod P024 or the ST2130 have the same potential problem.

But normally, with regular service, most owners likely never encounter this issue.

OK, thank you. I stopped using my winder this past year. Nice to know I made a right choice

Leaving the winder off and shuffling the watch is a wiser decision

Oh yeah, those are dry as shit when that happens

I was watching a video about a La Joux Perret movement and the mentioned this common with the ETA and Sellita SW200

https://youtu.be/uNjw-xhlF2s?si=_YbzfXfb923PMIV7

I think 2024 is not going to be good for you. Just move on to 2025.

Happy New Year!

It’s not the end of the world. It could have happened to anyone at any time.

Happy new year!

Wow nice

sorry to see that. indeed, the most common movement in the world has a serious design flaw 🙄

in theory it is an easy fix, in practice I would want to carefully inspect whether something broke off and made its way deeper into the movement. if yes it will inevitably cause trouble down the line if not taken care of properly. seems new enough for a warranty repair which means probably a new movement and all will be well.

Like adept watchmakers, I don’t recommend watch winders. They cause unnecessary wear and tear. Despite that reality, you should also avoid letting movements sit too long without winding them up, thereby preventing the oil from caking up and losing its viscosity. You want to give movements a break, but you also don’t want movements being idle too long. And this especially applies to the ETA movements and its clones mentioned.

It took me many years to realize this. This is the general consensus from certified watchmakers with years of experience under their belt. I do repair watches from time to time, particularly for myself, friends, family, and neighbors. But I’m no watchmaker. This is just regurgitated information I’ve soaked in from watchmakers over the years.

That is a bummer. I’ve heard of this issue and tend to shake mine awake because I’m the nervous sort. lol.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this as a solution yet, but i had this happen to my khaki field auto and what seemed to alleviate it was to let the mainspring wind all the way down to nothing and then get it going using the old Seiko shake. I’ve since not wound mine up nearly as much as I used to, and the problem hasn’t returned. Still have a year and few months left on the warranty, but should it happen again before March 2025, I’ll have it remedied by Swatch.