Interesting Q&A with the Head of Innovation of Sellita
Today I came across a Q&A session with the Head of Innovation of Sellita Dr. Sébastien Chaulmontet. The interview is from 1 year ago, but given how slowly things move in the industry I find it just as relevant today. Here are few of the highlights of the Q&A for me in case you don't want to invest 30 minutes into watching it:
He mentioned that until 20 years ago ETA wasn't really a movement manufacturer and only produced movement kits (I knew Sellita had been making ETA movements for ages, but I didn't know ETA wasn't making movements themselves)
He said he believes that the ratchet wheel issues of SW-200 have been addressed a while ago (I'm not sure everyone would agree). He also mentioned the power reserve of the SW-200 has been upped to 42 hours from 38 hours, but I haven't seen many watches advertising a 42 hours power reserve. Perhaps that's something very recent.
He said Sellita are working on a replacement of SW-200 with higher power reserve and that this was coming soon (whatever this means in the world of watches). That was the most important point for me and I'm quite excited about this movement.
He's not a big fan of "traveler style" GMTs, because he prefers to have a quick date
All new Sellita movements will have 60+ hours of power reserve
He's not fond of sillicon balance springs, as they are hard to service
Sellita's all about empowering watchmakers and wants their movements to be easily serviceable
Sebastien seemed like a really down-to-earth person and answered all questions pretty directly (IMO at least), which made a good impression on me. I hope you'll find the conversation useful as well.
What do you think about Sellita and their role in the world of watchmaking?
Newly minted watch enthusiast (I got seriously interested in watches in late 2022). I aim to build a small collection (5-6) pieces over the course of the years. I'm mostly into Tudor & Seiko these day...
I sent mine back. It had a problem with the reversing wheel. I have had others who have had the same problem in other brands. My Sellita SW200 is in my 2018 Zelos Mako 500. Cost 40.00 for the repair and 80.00 round trip from Singapore. Still cheaper and quicker than my watch repair guy lol.
Love your article!
Enjoy your watches!
thanks!
He was very careful in how he answered the question about the ratchet wheel. He's probably not lying when he says they solved the issue [regarding the quality difference between then and ETA] years ago with a reprofiling of the teeth. However, what is conveniently ignored is that both of these movements have pretty much the same problem. It's a mind blowing design flaw, one look at those two wheels and common sense will tell you that this arrangement can't be a very good idea. You'd think with all the Swiss quality talk they'd have some good mechanical engineers there who can develop a decent t auto module for it because the manually wound versions are just fine.