ETA movement

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ETA SA Manufacture Horlogère Suisse is a Swiss producer of mechanical and quartz watch movements and also manufactures clock movements, as well. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Swatch Group.

The company specializes in the production of ébauche movements which are used in a number of mechanical watches, and have owned Valjoux, Peseux and Lemania ébauche manufacturers for a number of years. They also manufacture quartz movements powered by self-winding mechanisms.

[edit] Current situation

Mechanical ETA movements are commonly used in many "middle" to "high-end" watch brands such as Officine Panerai, Omega, Tudor, TAG Heuer, and Breitling. Their Quartz Movement lines are also used in "high-end" brands as well as more affordable brands, such as Swiss Army.

In irony, many replica watches of these same brands also use ETA movements. Commonly, Omega Seamaster imitations will have a simple version of the ETA 2824-2 movement. Genuine Seamaster watches currently use an embellished version of the same family of movements, though also fitted with the Co-axial escapement. To counteract this trend, ETA has announced that it will stop selling movements to unauthorized manufacturers and assemblers. However, European Union competition rules prohibit this action from taking place until 2011, giving sufficient time for new and existing companies to develop watch movements that can replace the ones already produced by ETA. ^{[citation needed]} ETA movements have also been duplicated by various enterprises including Asian manufacturers and are usually being produced without license^[1].