ETA movements are anywhere...

here´s a good overview from bill who posted this already 2011:

Your text to link here...

Analysing the answers and opinions in this thread, I can see 2 basic issues.

1.The buyers of a high-end Swiss watch such as IWC might expect that every IWC has been made completely in the IWC factory. I guess, there is no AD telling his customer that the watch, liked by the customer, has an ETA movement, yes or no altered or adapted, unless the customer asks specifically. We collectors do know that not only the movement is delivered by ETA but that also the case, crown, dial, hands etc. come from other manufacturers, although IWC has designed, developed and tested the watch.

2.I can understand the initiator of this thread : Matteo, because between the lines one can read that the ETA movements can be found as well abundantly, in Swiss watches which cost a fraction (20 %) of the price for an IWC. Why there are so many differences between this category of watches and IWC time pieces, has been highlighted extensively in this thread.
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

ETA has been established since 1793 and was crucial for the development and survival of the Swiss watch industry.

I presume that my favorite vintage calibre 8541 was also built with ETA support. Is this correct ?

hmmmm....it's a bit ironic that side by side with this thread...another thread entitled as 'Original and Authentic, an attempt at defining a standard'....is running already for some time....
in light of the information provided by Adrian (and as you say, nothing new...that's actually quite known..)...'Original and Authentic' becomes even more difficult to define..
what do the others think???

A few thoughts.

To me there are three criteria when evaluating a watch, and then deciding whether I should buy it or not. It must be technically top quality, preferably in-house but that is not a show stopper, as my Worldtimer shows: in fact, it is my most accurate watch. It must look great, to me that means classy with a bite, some clean presence and character: here IWC scores very high on my list, but there are some other brands too that deliver. I must feel a great desire to have it, preferably it must last some time, making sure it is not a temporary fling.

I buy the watches for myself, and don't care too much what other people think about them. If they need a repair, so be it, as I want to wear most of them. If such a repair would deminish them being "original and authentic", so be it, that argument actually never crossed my mind. Most of my watches will end up somewhere after I die (a long time from now, I hope and expect), them then fitting all kinds of difficult criteria is the least of my worries. The important issue is that I like them, that I want to wear them.

The effort to define criteria for "original and authentic" is both amusing and interesting, maybe something useful may come out of this, but I don't expect so. But never shooting is always a miss, as we say here, and a leasure time activity really doesn't need to be useful.

Kind regards,
Paul

Hi Thomas,
As far as I know cal. 8541 was the end product of IWC in-house calibers, starting with cal 85 and cal. 852.
They became the famous Pellaton bi-directional winding system, exclusively developed by Albert Pellaton, when being the technical director of IWC.
That said, I can not state that all the parts : balance spring, balance, ancre,wheels and adjusting unit were not delivered by ETA.
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

I agree with you entirely. If the in-house movement isn't anything special, then I don't see the allure. I regret letting my Vintage Collection AT go for many reasons, but its in-house caliber isn't one of them. It doesn't keep time any better than a top-grade ETA, isn't more reliable, is less convenient to service, and to my taste, doesn't look terribly pretty either.

I'm willing to pay more for an in-house movement if it's a unique complication, or is especially pretty, or has impressive history.

Why re-invent the wheel when its near perfect, take the best bits, improve it where you can, add new bits for functionality, regulate and finish it all to the highest standards, fit the whole to a beautifully designed case, test it to destruction to ensure reliability and what do you get - a great IWC watch at a reasonable price. At the end of the day its all about looks and what appeals if it keeps good time as well that's a bonus and IWC's do! - end of story.

Okay folks the way I see it is that wherever IWC or any other high end watch company sources parts from, and they all do it, as I'm sure no company makes every part of a watch; is quality control, modification if required, attention to detail on assembly, testing and regulation. A high end company has its reputation to consider and is not going to jeopardise it with shoddy components or cheap manufacture. Choice of a watch is a very personal thing IWC being mine, but rest assured any of half a dozen top Swiss watch manufacturers will deliver the same quality. At the end of the day your choice will be down to looks and price so lets leave the choice of components to the company, they know what their doing and forget about this ETA versus whoever thing and just enjoy our purchase.