Roffensian wrote:
boogiebot wrote:
ok this might be a stupid question.....
does swatch group own Omega? and if so doesnt that make the ETA movement in the Omega inhouse?
does swatch group own Omega? and if so doesnt that make the ETA movement in the Omega inhouse?
Swatch does own Omega, but that doesn't make ETA movements in house. Swatch also owns Breguet, but would you call that in house with a 7750 in it?
ETA movements are generic designs that have been produced by ETA under various corporate owners for 40+ years. Just because the parent company also bought other brands doesn't mean that they can provide movements to those companies and suddenly make them manufactures.
A true in-house/manufacture movement is entirely conceived, designed and built by the watch manufacturer. Of course the creation of some parts may be outsourced (hairsprings for example), but the design and construction is made by the watch manufacturer itself. Contrast that to ETA movements which are, as Roff said, generic movements that have been built by ETA/Valjoux for decades, and it's worth remembering that ETA don't make watches - they just make movements for others. Current ownership may be Swatch, but just because Omega and ETA have the same parent company it that doesn't mean that Omega can claim ETA's to be in-house.The whole in-house thing can be as complicated as you want to make it - I wrote a pretty long post on it a while ago - as there are some who would say that a true in-house has everything (i.e. all movement parts) made by the watch manufacturer themselves. In practise, very few do that : Roger Dubuis make everything themselves, and I believe Rolex do too, but those are the only ones I can think of.
Then you get "brand exclusive" movements, such as Omega's 3300 series. There are made for Omega (and crucially only for Omega) by Frederic Piguet...... which incidentally is also owned by the Swatch Group. As Omega don't make it themselves (and as far as I'm aware, didn't design it either), then it's not an in-house Omega movement, but as you will only find that movement in Omega watches it becomes a "brand exclusive".
I would probably define things as follows, although there are no doubt additional shades of grey between the layers -
"True" Manufacture Movement - Movement conceived, designed and constructed by a single watch manufacturer using parts that are entirely made by the manufacturer in their own premises. (This one is just a minor subtlety of the "Manufacture Movement" below in my opinion, but this one is undoubtedly the most "pure", for want of a better word).
Manufacture Movement - Movement conceived, designed and constructed by a single watch manufacturer in their own premises. Construction of some individual parts may be outsourced, but design and build is still the manufacturers own.
Brand Exclusive Movement - Movement designed (either in part of fully) and constructed by a third party on behalf of a watch manufacturer. The movement is only used in the manufacturer's watches.
Modified Movement - ETA (or other manufacturer) made base movement that has been modified by the watch manufacturer in some way. For example, by the addition of a module on top of the base, or by replacement of certain key parts - e.g. balance spring, escapement, etc.
Unmodified/Standard Movement - ETA (or other manufacturer) made base movement that has not been modified in any way by the watch manufacturer.
As I say, there are no doubt many shades of grey in between these fairly broad buckets, but they give an idea.
Things were a lot easier back in the 60's and 70's when things were a little more clear cut!
Apart from the things you've listed there isn't much else on a purely