Everything you need to know about Sellita
Buffy AcaciaIt wasn’t very long ago that buying a Swiss watch was nearly a guarantee of seeing an ETA movement. Now, the market is far more diverse, but the Sellita name has quickly become almost as recognisable. In fact, it took just over 20 years for Sellita to go from a parts supplier to selling 800,000 of its most popular movement in 2024 alone. That might suggest that Sellita stumbled into some secret formula for success, but the real key was taking initiative when it mattered. If you’re wondering where it popped up from and why its movements are everywhere, here’s everything you need to know about Sellita.
If it’s 75 years old, why haven’t I heard of it?
The history of Sellita prior to 2003 is frankly quite uneventful. It was founded in 1950, during a time of stability for the Swiss watch industry after World War II but prior to the rise of electronic and quartz watches movements. It was a manufacturer before anything else, producing ébauches and components, for various brands, many now being defunct after the so-called quartz crisis. As ETA took charge in its wake, Sellita was one of ETA’s partners in assembling its movements, namely, the ubiquitous ETA 2824-2. Millions of 2824-2 calibres must have passed through Sellita’s doors. Then, in 2002, there was a huge shake-up.
An announcement was made that Swatch Group, the owner of ETA, was going to stop supplying movements to brands that were outside of the Swatch Group umbrella. There was panic, accusations of corruption, and an anti-monopoly investigation as watchmakers realised they’d go bankrupt if Swatch brands were the only ones that had a reliable movement supplier. Even now, it’s estimated that 80% of Swiss watches are powered by ETA movements, so the concerns in 2002 were definitely warranted. As the investigation began, most companies kept their heads down and either stuck to the status quo or searched for alternative movement providers. Sellita spotted the opportunity and jumped on it.
The patent for the ETA 2824-2 was originally granted in 1984, meaning that 2002 was also the patent’s expiry date. That likely played a part in the Swatch Group’s plan to focus on making higher-end movements and interrupting supply of the 2824-2 to third parties, as it knew there would be clones incoming. Sellita had more experience with the 2824-2 than any other company and was able to replicate the movement perfectly in a relatively short amount of time. Some other clones like those from STP took longer because it wanted to upgrade the original, but Sellita’s SW200-1 was a near-exact clone with just one extra jewel in service of automatic winding. It hit the market in 2003, and as ETA was legally ordered to slow down its movement supply gradually instead of halting it, Sellita sales grew as ETA sales dropped.
Where Sellita stands today
22 years on from the first Sellita SW200 being sold, the revised SW200-1 that came out in 2008 has now become one of the watch world’s favourite movements. It’s easy to see why, because the 2824-2 was already so loved for its reliability and performance, and the SW200-1 simply delivers the same exact specifications. Brands that used the ETA movement could transition over to Sellita with no adjustment to their cases or dials, and new microbrands looking for Swiss calibres can’t find any ETAs for sale – so they turned to Sellita. The company now produces approximately 1,500,000 mechanical movements per year, with 800,000 of those being SW200-1s. The other models are also clones developed from expired ETA patents, making Sellita the ideal replacement for ETA’s “workhorse movement” legacy. There may still be competition, but there’s almost no question that Sellita will soon have the same impact that ETA had as the go-to movement for affordable Swiss mechanical watches.
Sellita’s grades of finishing and adjustment
Anyone familiar with ETA’s standards of finishing and adjusting its movements will find Sellita’s setup familiar because it’s also more or less a clone. Specifics such as accuracy can vary from model to model, but there are generally four grades available for each movement. Standard is the base level, and using the SW200-1’s specifications as a reference point, the Standard grade is adjusted in two positions for accuracy between ±12 seconds per day to ±30 seconds per day. After Standard, there is Special, which was known as Élaboré under ETA. It’s adjusted in three positions and the accuracy improves to ±7 to ±20.
The Premium (or Top) grade of Sellita movement is adjusted in five positions for more consistent accuracy, and its range is a solid ±4 to ±15. The Chronometer grade movements are certified by COSC, which has its own set of testing standards – however, the general guideline is testing across five positions to an accuracy within -4/+6 seconds per day. Aside from accuracy, each movement is ranked by four levels of finishing ranked from D1 to D4. The D1 and D2 standard finishes are quite industrial with sandblasted surfaces and brushed winding rotors, while the refined D3 and D4 finishes include Côtes de Genève, brushed wheels, and perlage base plates. D4 is the only grade which includes blued screws. Finally, there is a Tailor Made grade for brands to customise things such as winding rotors being skeletonised, PVD-coated, or other bespoke modifications.
The movements you should know about, starting with the SW200-1
You know the context of the SW200-1 if you’ve read the whole article, but there is always more to learn. It’s a drop-in replacement for the ETA 2824-2 that’s been a staple of Swiss watchmaking since the mid-‘80s, and even though not every single component is completely interchangeable, any differences in performance and quality are negligible. The standard model is an automatically-winding 3-hand movement with a date display, but it can also be ordered as a no-date version which also deletes the third position of the crown. Not only are they functionally identical to a 2824-2, but they’re also as affordable as the ETAs used to be, both to buy new and to service by an experienced watchmaker. There’s certainly no shortage of supply or demand.
For the 40+ years since the inception of the original ETA version, a power reserve between 38-41 hours with a beat rate of 28,800 vibrations per hour has been perfectly acceptable. Most people who wear automatic watches tend to wear them on a daily basis, so that’s enough to keep them going indefinitely. However, enthusiasts with growing collections have begun to prioritise higher power reserves for the convenience of having multiple watches in a weekly rotation. Those people will find news of an updated movement exciting because Sellita’s CEO Miguel Garcia announced last year that we can expect an SW200-2 with 65 hours of power reserve sometime in 2025. The SW200-1 has been used in more brands than can be counted, but some of the biggest names among them include Tudor, Oris, TAG Heuer, Frederique Constant, Mühle Glashütte, Maurice Lacroix, and Baume & Mercier.
There are 21 total configurations of the SW200-1 family directly from Sellita, all comprising of various complications and decorative elements such as open hearts or skeletonisations. They can range from something as simple as a power reserve at 6 o’clock like the SW270-1 or something decadent to the niche like the SW285-1 b that has a date, moonphase display, and a day/night indicator wheel. Additionally, the SW210-1 family includes 16 versions based on the same architecture but with manual winding that slims the movement down further. If a manufacturer finds itself wanting an SW200-1 to fit into a bigger, beefier watch, then the SW400-1 family is the same movement but scaled up.
Sellita SW300-1
For former ETA customers who were a little more upmarket, the Sellita SW300-1 is a clone of the ETA 2892-A2. It’s still an automatic movement with a smooth beat rate of 28,800vph, however, its main claim to fame is its total height of just 3.6mm. That makes it perfectly suited to watches that need help slimming down, such as automatic dress watches or svelte dive watches. Similarly to the SW200-1, it’s a three-handed movement with options for a date display or no date display. The one advantage it does have over the ETA 2892-A2 over its availability is the power reserve, as Sellita optimised the mainspring barrel in 2020 to deliver 56 hours of power which didn’t increase the thickness of the movement at all.
There are also some versions of the SW300-1 family with extra complications, such as the SW330-1 which has a fourth GMT hand, and the SW360-1 which moves the seconds to a small seconds subdial at 6 o’clock. Most notably, the SW300-1 is the base movement for TAG Heuer’s Calibre 7 which powers many of its time-and-date Carrera models as its use of the 2892-A2 is phased out. It can also be found as the base for the IWC calibre 35111 that’s used across many of its collections, and the Hublot HUB1110 that’s used in some seriously high-luxury watches. One of the movement’s most interesting variants is the SW331-2, which includes a world timer disk in the centre of the dial and is used by the Farer Foxe World Timer.
Sellita SW500
The ETA/Valjoux 7750 has a slightly complex history that can be traced all the way back to the Venus 188 from 1948, but under the Sellita umbrella, it’s simply known as the SW500. This design for automatic chronographs became fairly omnipresent during the ‘70s and ‘80s as they gained popularity as sports watches, particularly because their cam-switching actuation made them affordable to produce and reliable to use. It was also an integrated movement, meaning that the chronograph wasn’t added to another movement as a module, which reduced the overall thickness from previous attempts at making chronographs automatic. It’s still pretty tall at 7.9mm thick though, so sports watches with these movements tend to be at least 14mm thick as a rule of thumb.
The SW500 (as well as the 7750) is instantly recognisable from the dial layout, with chronograph subdials placed at 12, 6, and 9, and a day/date display at 3 o’clock. There are 12 variations that play around with those displays, as well as the SW510-1 collection which plays with a more traditional 3, 6, and 9 subdial layout. Then, there are manually-wound versions of both movements that significantly reduce the thickness. The SW530 and SW532 chronographs add a GMT hand into the mix, with the latter even allowing you to use half-hour increments when considering other time zones.