Presenting--------Aragon
[quote source=/post/295)9)/thread author=@darkoverlord timestamp=)449498)5)]. . .[br][br]So we have some virtuoso and museum divers, a but of great colors, what looks to be Val 775)s. [br][br]. . .[/quote]ETA 775)'s would greatly surprise me considering ETA is reducing its supply of movements outside Swatch Group each year with a schedule to reach ZERO by 2)2). That's not a drop dead cliff, it's year-by-year reduction using decreasing percentages of production from (IIRC) 2))9 or 2))) volumes. If you don't already have a contract with ETA for movements, you're not going to get any, and those that do are getting increasingly reduced volumes. I'd wager what we're seeing is a Sellita SW 5)), which is an ETA 775) clone. I mention Sellita as they're the only Swiss manufacture alternative to ETA with the production volumes and similar movement price points. The other Swiss movement alternatives are substantially more expensive from exceptionally low volume firms. Even Soprod (owned by Festina Group), which has started to supply their A)) movement as an alternative to the ETA 2892A2, is much lower volume compared to Sellita. The only other Swiss Made 775) alternate I'm aware of would be the Eterna 39 which they've started offering, and it's supposedly form, fit and function identical. Ironic as Eterna created ETA circa )932 to make their own watch movements (ETA = ETernA), even though the 775) was absorbed into ETA's movement portfolio from Valjoux, just as they absorbed selected Unitas and Peseux calibers, keeping their original caliber numbers and branding them as ETA. I have doubts though that they could provide Sellita SW 5)) pricing as lower production volumes drive higher prices. The third possibility is a stockpile of 775) movements that were accumulated and shelved for future use, which would work for a some limited edition models, but it's not a long-term solution. Eventually the stockpile runs dry.[br][br]Notes about Sellita:[br]Sellita has been a (very real) Swiss movement maker for some time. They were a contract house doing production for ETA for many years. That enabled them stepping into the void Swatch Group's ETA was creating very quickly, a move that apparently surprised ETA and strained Sellita's relationship with Swatch Group. I have several Sellita powered watches. While the whole movements are completely interchangeable, a few of the movement parts are not. From a form, fit, function and usage, including the hand-wind feel, you wouldn't know them from ETA except by looking at the manufacturer's marque on the movement bridge, and with the SW 2))-), taking note of 26 jewels on its rotor, vs 25 jewels marked on an ETA 2824-2 rotor. The 25j SW 5)) chronograph movement is form, fit, function, and user feel identical to the 25j ETA 775). It's a clone like the SW 2))-) and ETA 2824-2. The designs for all ETA's 28)), 2892A2, 775) and 6497 movement families are all public domain now, with any intellectual properties (i.e. patents) associated with them having expired long ago.[br][br]It will be very interesting to see what Wing does with (real) Swiss movements, and which ones he uses, as Aragon grows and develops. In addition to the SII (Seiko Instruments) and Miyota 9))) family, I'm hoping he can offer decently priced models with (real) Swiss movements in them.[br][br]John[br]