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The brands in question ship the required cases, crowns, dials, pushers, hands and straps to Sellita, which then builds the completed watch around its own movements.
There are fully assembled watches from a number of different brands, sat in fully branded trays while one brand even has its own dedicated department within Sellita, which focuses solely on assembling its watches. The brands in question are a mixture of privately owned and group affiliated - and include big names from the major groups - however QP agreed to respect Sellita’s confidentiality agreements as a condition of entry.
Everyone knows that this happens within the industry, but that doesn’t alter how unsettling it is to see it for the first time. While these watches aren’t from brands claiming to be manufactures – this is not third party passed off as in-house or Chinese passed off as Swiss – it should give you cause to wonder which factory your watch actually comes from, if that matters to you.
With Sellita’s new acquisitions, both human and mechanical, the company could drastically widen its horizons. After all, Chaulmontet was better known for tourbillons and complicated chronographs during his time at Arnold & Son and Angelus.
Supply and Demand: An exclusive visit to Sellita HQ
Big brands may be moving to take everything in-house, but many mid-tier (and some higher-end) companies still rely on Sellita to fill the gap left by ETA. Now, the third-party supplier is working to develop its own movements from scratch.
By James Buttery
06/02/2019
https://www.qpmagazine.com/long-read...-headquarters/