Speaking with my WM, who is Omega/Rolex specialist mentioned that he is less worried about the change in Omega parts supplies than if Rolex were to do the same. "If Rolex stops letting me buys parts I'm just gonna sell everything, close up shop, and work for someone else."
As for ETA parts, they are pricing spares so high as to make many watches uneconomical to fix: 7750 balance wheels at 56 pounds, a movement screw priced at 6 pounds each, 2836-2 balance 42 pounds, complete movement at 225 pounds, rotor at 63 pounds, etc...prices have tripled or more over the past few years, and that's before the supply is cut off. Wait till after 2015 to see what happens. If the supply pool was so deep then why are supply houses asking customers if they have any part for sale? Value of the watch vs cost to fix is going to be a big deciding factor for a lot of folks.
As a member of another watch message board has stated, if the Chinese ever take a serious look at how the quality of their movements compares to that of Swiss movements, and do something about it, the Swiss will be in trouble! Some Swiss companies, maybe, but not Swatch Group.
I wonder if some Swiss non-Swatch Group companies that produce Quartz watches only would be inclined to jump in to fill the void? Swatch is turning their backs on a huge market by cutting of the supply of movements to other companies. It would seem that this should be a golden opportunity for other enterprising Swiss companies.
Well...yes and no. Read this to get a clearer picture of who is actually making what:
http://www.europastar.com/watch-knowledge/1004087450-mechanical-who-will-succeed-eta.html
From the article, Sellita's production as of last year was around 40% still assembling ETA movements they buy from ETA. By 2019 they hope to have all 1.6 million movements per year produced by them, but there is a catch...the bigger issue is balances and balance springs, and mainsprings. They are trying to put in place the ability to make these parts, but recognize that about 90% of Swiss watches rely on Nivarox for parts. COMCO has ordered Nivarox to keep supplying these parts for now. Once it's demonstrated that others are working to fill the void, I suspect they will allow Nivarox to start cutting back supplies of their parts.
The bottom line is that Sellita still relies heavily on parts from Swatch group. They can't even get their production of approx. 1.6 million movements to be fully in house yet, let alone replace the 5-6 million ETA movements that are sold every year (well before the reductions started anyway).
Same situation for Soprod, so although there are makers that are moving in the right direction to fill the supply, they won't be able to produce what Swatch is removing from the market by any means.
There will be plenty of ETA parts floating around for decades to come, so I don't believe the watches will become paperweights any more than any other watch that has discontinued movement parts would be. If the watch is desirable, then it will still get repaired as other desirable watches do now.
Cheers, Al
Of course one issue is the nomenclature of SWISS MADE - perhaps the Chinese or Japanese will set up in Switzerland.
In reality more than 99.9% of swatch movement parts are made in SE Asia.
I'd buy a sundial before I'd buy one of the clones you mentioned. The huge number of those that come my way for repair (I refuse them) inspires no confidence in them whatsoever!
