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Further Sellita Research: SW300 and More!

Last Update: March 2, 2020

Continuing my research into the Sellita movements, I looked into the background of the SW300 and SW400 movements, as well as the compact SW100 and SW1000. Leveraging the Sellita documentation and website, I was able to uncover the launch chronology of these movements as well as lots of technical details. I was surprised to learn how similar most of the company’s movements are to each other.

See also my previous post on Sellita research!

Looking Into the SW300 Family

Sellita’s most important product is undoubtedly the Cal. SW200 family, a clone of the popular ETA 2824 family and one of the most popular Swiss movements on the market today. But Cal. SW300-1 is also a critical component for higher-end watchmakers, being a clone of the slim and robust ETA 2892A2. It’s used as a base for complications and as a starting point for many advanced movements.

This promotional image was widely seen when Sellita introduced the SW300 family in 2008

As noted previously, Cal. SW300 is first mentioned in 2008 and was added to the Sellita website by December of that year. But Archive.org didn’t index the SW300 page, so we don’t have any insight into the specific models available. This is less of a problem that one would think, however, because even today, after the explosion of SW200 models, Sellita still only offers three members of the SW300 family.

The second member of the SW300 family to date is an unusual small seconds movement. Cal. SW360-1 is a clone of ETA’s Cal. 2895-2, a rarely-seen automatic movement with date and small seconds. Why Sellita wanted to produce this movement is unclear, but TAG Heuer switched to it (as their Cal. 6) so maybe they asked for an alternate supplier. The data sheet is dated November 13, 2014, so that must be the date of introduction. It is first mentioned in the press in 2016, and appears in the Labanda catalog later that year, so it must have had a slow and quiet start.

Sellita’s final member of the SW300 family is a clone of ETA’s GMT movement, Cal. 2893-2. The first press mention of Cal. SW330-1 is 2015, and this is the same year Sellita released the data sheet for this movement. That technical brochure is dated February 3, 2015, suggesting that this was the date of introduction for this movement. Note that the mini Cal. 2893 family includes three different movements:

  • ETA 2893-1: 24 hour central disc, date
  • ETA 2893-2: 24 hour central hand, date (this is what Cal. SW330-1 is a clone of)
  • ETA 2893-3: 24 hour central disc
Cal. SW300 is a clone of the thin ETA 2892A2
ETA’s 2892A2 is a extremely popular thin automatic movement

More Sellita Movements! SW100, SW400, and SW1000

In 2014, Sellita announced their first “in-house” movement design. Cal. SW1000-1 is a 9 ligne (20 mm diameter) movement for ladies watches. Although the wheel train and come components appear similar to Cal. SW300, CEO Miguel Garcia affirmed at the time that Cal. SW1000 is “a manufacture movement that is not based on an ETA calibre.” It would be logical that Sellita would start with their best movement when designing their own. Although the gear train and location of components is similar, the components are entirely different.

TAG Heuer uses the Sellita Cal. SW1000-1 as the basis for their Calibre 9

Another new Sellita movement appeared in 2014 as well. Cal. SW400-1 is an enlarged version of the existing Cal. SW200-1 (ETA 2824-2) for the oversized watches that were becoming popular at that time. Measuring 13.75 or 14 ligne (31 mm) in diameter, it pushes the date wheel out to the edge of the dial on watches over 40 mm. It even uses the same main plate as its little brother, with a large “spacer” added to enlarge the movement. A small seconds version, Cal. SW461-1, was added in 2019.

Cal. SW400 has a spacer around the SW200 main plate, allowing a wider and larger date for watches over 40 mm

Although Cal. SW1000 is not at all similar to ETA’s Cal. 2600 family, which Sellita had a long history of manufacturing, it was not long before Sellita cloned this popular ladies movement as well. Introduced in 2018, Cal. SW100 measures just 7.75 ligne (17.20 mm) in diameter. It is virtually identical to ETA’s Cal. 2671. The first appearance of the SW100 line is the 2018 catalog, where it is marked “NEW”.

Sellita’s Cal. SW100 is a clone of ETA’s Cal. 2671
Cal. 2671 is a popular movement in ladies automatic watches

Research Note: Sellita Brochure Technique

Sellita issues detailed technical documents (“Brochure Technique” in French) for most of its common movements. These documents have a wealth of information on the movements, of course, but also help date them. Sellita dates the documents themselves as well as the technical drawings inside and this sets a “no later than” date for most movements covered. For example, the SW216-1 document is dated 20.09.2018 but includes technical drawings labeled S216-1 dated to 24.06.17. So this movement is pushed back to 2017. This must be used cautiously, however, since some drawings are based on earlier ones. Cal. SW280 was introduced in 2018 but drawings of certain components date to 2016, for example.

Sellita has also issued a numbered series of “Information Specifique” documents, starting with the evolution of Cal. SW300 to SW300-1 in “IS 01.” Note that these documents are updated periodically so the dates might not be definitive. I have indicated the earliest revisions I could find in the table below, but many are likely dated earlier. IS 01 through 04, for example, probably date before 19.08.08, when IS 05 is dated.

DocumentDateTitleApplicable Calibres
IS 0105.07.12Evolution SW300 >> SW300-1SW300
IS 0207.02.13Pallet Bridge, SW300-1SW300
IS 0307.02.13Pallet Bridge, SW200-1SW200
IS 0405.04.13Manual winding test of automatic mechanismSW200, SW300, SW500
IS 0519.08.08Evolution SW200 >> SW200-1SW200
IS 06Date coding of the movements (replaced by IS 14)All movements
IS 07Unknown
IS 08Unknown
IS 0909.01.19Calibre SW1000-1 without dateSW1000
IS 1009.01.19Storage conditionsAll movements
IS 1115.09.17Evolution SW500SW500
IS 12Unknown
IS 1304.07.17Extraction of the winding stemSW100, SW200, SW300, SW500, SW1000
IS 1427.10.17Date coding of the movements (replaces IS 06)All movements
IS 15Unknown
IS 1615.08.18Use of the SW500 calotte for SW5XX MPC calibersSW500
IS 1725.09.2018Metal foil SW280-1SW280-1

Filed Under: Content Tagged With: Sellita, SW300

New Research: Sellita History

Last Update: February 29, 2020

I did a little research over the weekend into one of the top movement producers in Switzerland, Sellita. It can be difficult to find details on under-the-radar companies like Sellita – they didn’t exhibit at industry fairs and “have no particular need to advertise,” according to a 2014 Europa Star article. They just quietly built over a million watch movements per year, leveraging a network of subsidiaries and suppliers in Switzerland, Germany, and elsewhere.

Visit the following pages to explore this new information:

* Sellita SW200 Family

* Sellita SW300 Family

Update: I did a little more research over the weekend and uncovered a few more interesting facts: Sellita’s ETA 2893-2 clone, Cal. SW330-1, first appears in March, 2015, a full 7 years after their 2892A2 clone, Cal. SW300-1, appeared. Read more about my Sellita SW300 research!

Here’s a shot of the Sellita website from 2004! Gotta love that style, and also the decorated 2892 movement

A History of Sellita

Sellita was founded in 1950 as an etablisseur (assembler) of watch movements and components. In the 1980s, they found a niche assisting companies like ETA in watch movement assembly. It is said that they were producing more ETA movements than the parent company!

This image shows a Sellita-produced 2824-2 from 2004. Note the ETA logo stamped into the main plate, and the fact that it still has 25 jewels, rather than the 26 in Sellita’s SW200 clone.

In 1990, ETA announced that they would stop using third-party manufacturers like Sellita, so the company began simply assembling and finishing movement kits for other brands. In 2002, ETA warned that they would begin restricting availability of components, a move that would be catastrophic for Sellita. Founder Pierre Grandjean decided to sell the business.

New owner Miguel Garcia had a different plan, one that would re-establish Sellita as one of the top movement manufacturers in Switzerland. Nicolas Hayek, CEO of Swatch Group, suggested that third parties like Sellita could produce their own clones of the ETA 2824 and other movements, since the patents had just run out. Because they already had decades of experience manufacturing these movements, Sellita was uniquely positioned to take up the challenge. They were able to produce nearly every part, though the assortment (escapement, balance, and hairspring) would still be sourced from Swatch’s Nivarox.

Soon, Sellita would launch their own ETA 2824-2 clone, the SW200 family, and rise again to prominence. These movements were in production by 2008, along with Cal. SW300, a clone of ETA’s 2892A2. In 2009, a Valjoux 7750 clone, Cal. SW500, was also released. Sellita expanded the range in 2014 with the SW1000, a compact calibre of their own design. Today, the company produces well over a million movements per year and stands as the primary supplier for dozens of respected companies. They still rely on Nivarox assortments, however, posing serious challenges going forward.

Read more: An Exclusive Peek Inside The Sellita Manufacture! (From The Archives)

This promotional image was widely seen when Sellita introduced the SW300 family in 2008

Research Notes

Although Sellita has been in business since 1950, the period I was most interested in was 2002-2010, when the company launched their SW200, SW300, and SW500 movement families. This nicely coincides with the Archive.org website collection range, which captures most websites since 2000. My typical process is to begin at the earliest archive image and “walk” forward monthly, recording changes to identify movement introduction dates.

Sellita added a catalog of movements to their site in 2004, so this was my start. That page shows only Sellita-constructed or finished versions of ETA movements until the site was redesigned in 2008. This includes Cal. 7001, Cal. 2660, 2671, 2678, and 2681, Cal. 2801-2, 2804-2, 2824-2, 2834-2, and 2836-2, and Cal. 2892-2 and 2893-2. It certainly appears that the company was focused on these movements throughout this period. This was a surprise, since many sources claim that Sellita announced their own SW200 family as early as 2002 and began production in 2004.

My next attempt to establish a date of introduction for the SW200 series was to look for contemporary news reports. I searched my own collection of watch magazines (QP, WatchTime, Europa Star) and the earliest mention of the Sellita SW200 series was 2008. I then searched Google, constraining the search by date, and the earliest mention I found was a November, 2007 article in A Blog to Watch with the strange title, “Sellita Movement Makers: A Little Bit of China In Switzerland“. I find this strange because there is no evidence that Sellita sources components from China, despite Ariel Adams’ headline.

This photo shows a Sellita SW200 in 2008

Therefore, I find it safe to say that the Sellita SW200 family was not in production (or at least named) until 2007. It is possible that the company slowly transitioned from ETA components to their own parts before this date, but “SW200” as a separate movement line did not exist. And since the hallmark of Cal. SW200 is an extra jewel over ETA’s 2824, one would thing it would be notable if it was “in the wild” before this.

Then there is the question of the “dash-1” variant of Sellita’s movements. A Sellita technical document dated August 19, 2008 shows that the company changed the tooth profile of three gears to make them more robust. This was clearly noted in the press, and Sellita’s own website shows Cal. SW200-1, SW220-1, and SW240-1 listed in Dec. 2008. The non “dash-1” versions could not have been sold for very long!

Cal. SW300 is a clone of the thin ETA 2892A2

It is also interesting that the SW300 series was already listed in December 2008, since these have often been suggested to be later additions to the line. Clearly Sellita’s 2892A2 clone was available throughout the 2010s. Cal. SW260-1 first appears in 2011, with a gap in the Archive until 2014, when calibres SW221-1 and SW290-1 are listed. 2015 is the first appearance of the SW400 family, as well as calibres SW210-1 and SW215-1 (both of which lack the “M” in the name seen later).

Cal. SW500 is a clone of the popular Valjoux/ETA 7750 chronograph

Research Continues!

The next big change comes in 2019, when the site is again redesigned and an explosion of movement variations appears. Today Sellita’s site lists hundreds of different variations across 11 different movement families! Although these are now well documented, it poses a challenge for me as I update the website! Watch for more Sellita updates in the months ahead.

Filed Under: Content Tagged With: Archive.org, ETA, Nicolas Hayek, Sellita, SW200, SW300, SW500, Swatch Group

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