The Breitling Watch Source Forums

nice watch but i don't like bezel

I though the Swatch group will still continue to provide movements to "real" watch companies but won't allow just any one looking to start a watch company to buy what they want. I thought they said they want to be allowed to be selective to they sell watch movements to.

_________________
Regards,

Peter

BREITLING for Bentley Motors T & Mark VI, Aerospace
ROLEX Submariner Ceramic116610LN
OMEGA Plantet Ocean 8500 42mm Orange arabics
OCEAN7 LM-3

Correct - movements.

Not ebauches / chablons (movement kits). If you want to use an ETA 7750 and you are a legitimate maker (i.e. not a Chinese knock off artist advertising genuine Swiss movements) then Swatch Group will provide you with the movement, but they won't provide to the people who want to modify and enhance.

So if ETA is no longer supplying ebauches, and only a small percentage of Breitlings feature the 01/04 movement, what's Breitling putting in the rest of the watches? I'd read that Breitling is making its own parts based on the ETA designs, but I'd also read that was an unsubstantiated rumor. If it is true, though, wouldn't that technically make all Breitling movements "in house," or does that term only apply to movements both produced and designed in house?

Breitling is producing ETA calibre parts, and is buying them from suppliers - copyright protection ran out long, long ago.

And no, the ability to fabricate parts to a certain specification does not make the movement in house.

You no longer need it?






I hate the watch

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Al

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"

Have they been doing this long? Also is an ETA movement, or parts, made by the swatch group better, or considered better, than the same parts made by someone else??

_________________
Regards,

Peter

BREITLING for Bentley Motors T & Mark VI, Aerospace
ROLEX Submariner Ceramic116610LN
OMEGA Plantet Ocean 8500 42mm Orange arabics
OCEAN7 LM-3

I wrote it.

2 or 3 years. Generic movement parts are pretty much the same - they can be produced to different tolerances (as Swatch do with the different grades), but at the end of the day most of these parts are CNC machined anyway so as long as the stock is the same the quality will be comparable.

So how do we know if an ETA watch is a "real" non-generic ETA watch?

Also, why is it such a big deal that the Swatch group is stoping supplies of ebauches if anyone can make them?

_________________
Regards,

Peter

BREITLING for Bentley Motors T & Mark VI, Aerospace
ROLEX Submariner Ceramic116610LN
OMEGA Plantet Ocean 8500 42mm Orange arabics
OCEAN7 LM-3

From my understanding, just because anyone can make them doesn't mean that everyone was making them. In 2002, Swatch announced it would no longer supply ebauches as of 2006. At that time they had a 95% market share of the ebauche market in Switzerland. This threatened a lot of independent makers, who were almost totally dependent on ETA for their movements. The Swiss Competition Commission got involved, and struck a deal keeping production levels constant through 2008, after which time Swatch could taper down, and stop all supplies by the end of 2010. The theory was that in that amount of time, enough other manufacturers could get in the game to fill the gap left by Swatch/ETA.

According to that theory all that swatch did was reduce their revenue.

_________________
Regards,

Peter

BREITLING for Bentley Motors T & Mark VI, Aerospace
ROLEX Submariner Ceramic116610LN
OMEGA Plantet Ocean 8500 42mm Orange arabics
OCEAN7 LM-3

Quite possibly. It could have been a strategy that backfired on Swatch. If their intention was to shut down their competition by cutting off their movement supply, then the SCC's intervention thwarted that, at least to an extent. Whatever the reason, it went down pretty much as I described. Check the link below.

http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/apparel-accessory-stores-womens-specialty/4236335-1.html

I was just about to write: " The good news is that Breitling will continue to supply us with all our favorite watches." until I remembered that they're discontinuing all our favorite watches.

_________________
Regards,

Peter

BREITLING for Bentley Motors T & Mark VI, Aerospace
ROLEX Submariner Ceramic116610LN
OMEGA Plantet Ocean 8500 42mm Orange arabics
OCEAN7 LM-3

Those are connected questions.......

Many watch companies can't produce their own - it's an expensive undertaking which is why they buy from ETA (or another movement supplier). The next step for many is to modify those movements, which is what Breitling did for years, and that's what Swatch had issues with - they are happy to supply to the small guys who can't produce their own movements, but they don't want to give people (like Breitling) a head start on improving movements that will compete with Swatch Group pieces.

In terms of whether ETA produced the ebauche or Breitling produced the ebauche parts to ETA designs - who cares as long as they are produced to tolerances that allow for COSC? Breitling could have bought Sellita movements which are largely ETA clones but generally seen as lower quality (slightly), but they decided not too. They have used Sellita main plates, but that's it.