This Tag Heuer Aquaracer came to me for a service as it keeps stopping. As you can see from the dial, it says its a calibre 5 movement – as with a lot of the brands, they make a slight adjustment to the movement and name it something else, this is really a simple Sellita SW 200.
Sellita are a brand of movement, that until recently were operated as a large outsourced company by ETA (a major producer of watch movements owned by The Swatch Group), to assemble their movements. However when the patent on the ETA movements ran out, Sellita basically copied them and began building their own movements. Many of the brands that would have once used ETA movements in their watches are turning to Sellita instead, this is because of The Swatch Group becoming more and more restrictive with regards to who they will supply movements and parts to.
Sellita movements are almost identical to their ETA counterparts, you have the SW 200 that I’m servicing here, its a direct clone of the ETA 2824 movement, they have the SW 300, which is a clone of ETA 2892, and you have the SW 500, a clone of ETA 7750.
They are so similar that some of the parts even interchange, albeit not all of them. Personally I prefer the ETA movements, I generally find I have more little niggles when servicing Sellitas, unlike the tried and tested ETA versions.
Case back off, and if you’re familiar with the ETA 2824, you will quickly notice the resemblance to it.
Movement de-cased and the hands have been removed.
Dial removed, again the dial side is to all intents and purposes, is an exact clone of the ETA version.
Just the keyless works remains.
Train bridge removed, as well as the ratchet wheel and crown wheel.
Train wheels removed, along with the barrel. I check each one of the train wheels for any signs of damage or wear. If I miss even the slightest bit of damage to the wheels or barrel, it would be enough to stop the watch, its a very important part of the watch service, and it cant be rushed.
All stripped, checked and ready for the cleaning machine.
The movement will be cleaned in the cleaning machine for 40 minutes, before its ready to be re-built and re-oiled.
Out of the cleaning machine, I’ve refitted the shock settings and started to fit the keyless.
Keyless completed.
Barrel bridge refitted, pallets and pallet bridge also fitted, as always the pallet fork and escape wheel are epilame treated.
Train wheels installed next.
Train bridge refitted, oiled and its back up and running.
Dial and hands fitted and its ready to be cased up.
Final checks on the timing machine.
The watch will then be tested for water resistance before going through five days of mechanical testing and finally being returned to its owner.
Thanks for reading.
The Watch Professional
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