Well, it's not, so that's the key thing.
It's true that Sellita was involved in "making" ETA movements, but my understanding is that was limited to assembly, not parts production. But either way that is a moot point, because when Sellita decided to make their own versions of these movements (starting with the ETA 2824-2, making the SW200), they didn't use the same designs. The "envelope" dimensions of the movements are the same, and they have the same functions, but these are not the same movements.
For whatever reason, Sellita chose to abandon the longstanding and well proven design of the ETA movement, and "improve" on it. So looking at the 2824-2 and the SW200, some of this was successful, and some not. So for example adding a jewel in the barrel bridge didn't cause any issues - not sure it was a huge advantage, but I'll call it a positive. Here is a comparison of a 2824-2 bridge, and the SW200 bridge:
Many people believe that the parts in these movements can be swapped - but in many cases they can't be. So you can see the jewel instead of a bushing, but you can also see that the steady pins are on the bridge on the ETA, but on the Sellita there are holes - the pins are on the main plate - these parts are not interchangeable.
There are other differences to, for example the reversing wheels:
You can see that the pinions at the center of each wheel are different, so these parts can't be swapped between the ETA and Sellita versions. Now is this a big deal? Well maybe, because I find that suppliers charge far more for Sellita parts than they do for the equivalent ETA parts, sometimes many multiples.
But is that all? Nope - here are the two ratchet wheels:
You will note that the teeth of the ratchet wheel for the Sellita are a different profile, and less beefy than the ETA teeth. This is actually after they were beefed up, as the original SW200 teeth were thinner, and had a habit of snapping off in use. This is what lead to the SW200-1 where the tooth profile was changed:
So the SW200-1 was supposed to prevent this from happening again, but unfortunately it has not been 100% successful:
Although this problem is not as prevalent was it was early on, you can still find complaints of it happening on forums. I think in some ways this issue, and the failure to resolve it completely, has caused a reputational hit to Sellita that still lingers.
Now I don't hear of problems with the SW300's or the SW500's, but personally I don't see those much as I see the SW200 series most. I don't actually see those very often either, yet I've had a few with damaged ratchet wheels. In comparison, I'm not sure I've ever had an issue like this on the 2824-2, and I've serviced hundreds of those.
Anyway, not picking on Sellita, but it's important to know that when people say they are "identical: to the ETA, they really aren't.
Cheers, Al
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