Jump to content

Chinese Tc 2824 Vs Swiss Eta 2824-2


Recommended Posts

The Swiss are going to learn a simple lesson - you cant control the market by restricting supply, people just go elsewhere. I still cant fathom what they hope to gain in the long run, bankruptcy perhaps? The only ace they hold at present is the general mistrust of Chinese goods regarding quality, an argument that used to be put forward about Japanese cars, motorcycles, electronics etc. etc.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting video, and some good comments. Also some rather daft comments, probably from Switzerland.

 

There will undoubtedly be  those who will claim that the comparison is not scientifically valid because only one of each example has been scrutinised but there seem to be more and more such side by side reviews appearing (here's a good one; http://watchguy.co.uk/comparison-sea-gull-st2130-eta-2824-2-peacock-sl3000/)which are coming to the same conclusion.

So not only is the sample size growing, but the number of reviewers is also increasing, reducing the risk of bias.

 

I currently have only one Chinese based watch housing a UT6497 clone and I have to say that it is an excellent time keeper, and the finish, although not perfect, is still good enough to warrant a display back. I would have no qualms what so ever about buying another.

 

What the Chinese need to do now is to get in place a supply chain for components and parts because although the movements are easy enough to source, I don't think that the parts are, and where their parts are interchangeable with the Swiss parts they would stand to clean up after the Swiss pull the plug. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another interesting Vid.  It depends on how the Chinese are going to play it. Hopefully not but they might just supply movements & NO parts.

But if the movements are supplied at reasonable prices then no need to worry about ETA. It will be a case of being honest with the customer, no repair just change the whole movement.

 

One thing is for certain the swiss are playing a very dangerous game. Bad word spreads fast and customers who can afford £5k for a watch will soon catch these negative vibes. (If I have my way that is, letters are ready to be sent)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm... I'm a have to get one of those to use for the Timezone course. I also wish the Japanese or maybe the Germans would take the initiative. The Chinese are perfectly capable of quality manufacturing, but you never know what you're going to get. The TC 2824 may be very good quality, but the Chinese even rip off their own companies. So if I buy a TC 2824, is it the real one or a crap clone of a clone?

Edited by Don
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A word of caution (& a slight contradiction to my earlier post). Upon further investigation it appears that the gentleman who is behind the video manufactures high end Rolex replicas/fakes (depending which side of the fence your on). Now I am not going to get judgemental as to if they are good, bad or indifferent, or the fact that the Rolex sub is the most copied, homaged, faked watch in the world, just an observation that a lot of these are reported to fall apart after a short while (not the gents in question I would add). Could the same thing happen with the new movement? I would suggest that a bit more rigorous testing would be in order, before any conclusion about the build quality can be reached.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would suggest that a bit more rigorous testing would be in order, before any conclusion about the build quality can be reached.

Valid point BL.

It would also be interesting to see a batch of 100 or more put to the test and see how the results average out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We cannot forget what happened with Japanese, that they passed from manufacturing of cheap copies in the years 50 and 60, to manufacturers of equipments with extreme quality (remember the tools, photo cameras and lenses, watch, etc.). They copied but they perfected and they developed his own technology that now is copied by other. Now, let's wait to know if Chinese will follow this road or they will continue flooding the market with cheap copies without quality. For the way, they are in the good road, now it is to pass from the copy to the own movement design.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

The Chinese manufacturing industry is interesting. I think like many things the quality of product is dependent on the demands of the customer.

When I set up a coffee roasting business some years ago, the highest quality (and most desirable, and expensive) roasting equipment was from a German company called 'Probat', who had been supplying the industry for decades. Suddenly everyone noticed a small (but perceptible) increase in product quality around the end of the 90's. It turns out that they had off-loaded a lot of part manufacturing to China.

Obviously, the customer (Probat) had demanded a very high quality product - and got it,

Very recently I purchased 3 automatic oilers for £5 (the lot). They came from China. They were so bad, it turns out (after reading reviews) that they would have NEVER worked - so they went in the bin. Obviously the enterprising westerner who had ordered a gazillion oilers at the cheapest possible price had got what he paid for.

 

In terms of movements, if there is a market for 'quality' replicas of ETA calibres and spares (and nothing less), then I hope thats what we will get - in which case the Swiss can go screw themselves.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • This is an 8 day duration Longcase clock. I has two key holes and it should have two lines of gut that when you wind it up they wind around the barrels. It strikes on the hour with rack striking. It also has silent and strike work.  Replacing the suspension spring is easy. I can't quite make out the name on the movement. Can you tell me please. It has a brass arched dial   does it measure 12 inches across? With the name and place I should be able to date it A photo of the case would be nice.   Richard long case clocks do not have fusee movements. 30 hour Longcase clocks work on an endless chain and have a single weight plus what is called a donut which is a small weight that helps the chain to run and hang correctly.  
    • 🤔 it runs from AC  electric. Perhaps a picture would better explain my set up, if you laugh i won't speak to you again 🤣 . Prepare to be blown away, are you ready ?  You haven't said " I was born ready " yet.   I'm waiting 😄
    • I cleaned the balance and pallet fork with hexane and a brush as well as peg wood for the spring. The spring which were on the main plate went into the regular cleaning: ultrasonic in lighter fluid for wash ultrasonic in lighter fluid for rinse 1 ultrasonic in IPA for rinse 2 Dried out with hair drier But the movements in this case were really unbelievably dirty.  I'll add picture today or tomorrow when I have my sd card reader and can extract them from the microscope camera.  Like if they had spent some time buried in the woods outside of a case so I am not sure that learning to clean such is really actively useful.
    • Hello, if you have seen some of my posts since I started in this forum you know that I am new to watch making and I have had my share of mishaps but I think here is an accurate statement of where I am: 1) I think I can disassemble and reassemble an ST36 correctly without damaging the hairspring or loosing parts (most of the time) 2) I think I can clean a movement which is reasonably dirty (a new movement or one like the 6T15 I worked on which has 15 year old lubrication but no actual dirt or water ingress). 3) I have an idea of how to lubricate a simple movement but not practiced much and I am pretty sure I am messing it up 4) I made a watch out of an ST36 and parts.  I messed up doing the same for an NH35 as I cut off the wrong dial feet (I swear I checked which I needed to keep and then somehow cut those off).   Here are the different things I did to learn (mostly in order) Learned to disassemble and reassemble the ST36 and broke the setting lever screw and messed up royally the hairspring in doing so.  I have had some success correcting some of the hairspring mess then made it worst when trying to completely correct it.  I have put repairing hairspring aside for a bit Disassembled and reassembled a cheap Chinese skeleton 2650G movement with center second Disassembled and reassembled a cheap Chinese Date, automatic and center second movement DG2813 ( mostly a Miyota clone for the base movement and automatic works but different for the date) almost successful but lost the spring for the date jumper Disassembled cleaned reassembled and lubricated a 15 year old 6T16.  Nothing lost nothing broken but the movement is working worst than before with a crazy timegrapher reading.  This came from a watch I haven't put it back in yet Disassembled cleaned and gave up on reassembling 2 junk slava 2414 movements coming as part of a set of broken soviet movements     So finally here is my question.  What do you think I should work on/practice next?   In term of available movement I mostly have a new ST36 and a new NH35.  I was thinking about practicing more with the ST36 trying to correctly clean and lubricate it.  I also thought, now that I have a working microscope camera and I should have a reader for the SD card soon I can not only take pictures but videos.  If I filmed the process and posted it would it be too much to ask for comments on what I should do different/better and what I am doing correctly?  I could try to do that with the NH35 too but with the date and automatic works it will be more complicated and I only have Moebius 800 and Molikote DX so no lubrication for the barrel.
    • Those springs are not the easiest to deal with for beginners. How are you cleaning them and what with ? 
×
×
  • Create New...