Croton Aquamatic

[anilv]

Morning guys (at least in South East Asia!)

Digging thru my collection to find something to wear this Friday I pulled out this.

A 'Croton Nivada Grenchen Aquamatic'.. now that's a mouthful, as the actress told the bishop.

Inside we find a nicely finished ETA1256 movement. This would be one of the first ETA automatics. ETA kindly provided instructions on the rotor (hammer)... "TO REMOVE HAMMER ASSEMBLY UNSCREW 3 SCREWS 'A' ". Probably they were worried that watchmaker of the day would have problems with these newfangled technology!.

Croton were one of the early innovators of waterproofing and they achieved this on early models with a case back that was fastened by 4 screws. These might have worked back in the day but they're just a pain today as the screws are usually badly damaged. This example is a bit recent and has a screw down case back. I wonder is the stamped 61S denotes year of manufacture? Groton watches are not too rare but stainless steel cases are less common and you usually find basemetal cases watches.

I've got it on a vintage brand which is super supple and suits the watch. It is similar to a 'bonklip' in function.

This is the bandmakers mark.

Cheers!

Anilv

 

[noirrac1j]

Very nice watch...looks a like an Eterna movement.

Joe

[anilv]

The way I understand it, Eterna started ETA to brand their ebauches so that the companies who used their movements could not be said to be using Eterna movements.

So if a higher end brand were to use Eterna, they would not want to be associated with Eterna (lower priced range). Customers would say why pay more for the same ?

Conversely, If a cheaper brand were to use an Eterna movement... who would buy an Eterna? You would be getting the same quality movement at a lower price!

We see a lot of high priced watches used ETA movements (the ETA 1256 was for a while a favourite of Girard-perregaux) but you also see it in some weird brands.

This association between movements works elsewhere. The omega 1481 was also used in Tissot where it was called the 2481.  Apart from the nicer finishing on the Omega.. you will just be paying more for the name.

Longines started their slide when the started using ETA ebauches, but this only mattered to the cognoscenti.

Anilv

[noirrac1j]

Has Longines been in downslide, in your opinion? They still have relatively nice designs.

J

[anilv]

Since they went down the ETA route I've kinda lost interest. I had a chance to handle a Legend Diver some time back but it didn't do anything for me. Having a 2836 inside didnt help.

Sad because they made some nice watches back in the day, I especially like their Admiral series (although they are some with designs only a mother could love!).

I still have 2 watches powered by  cal 990 automatic which are as good as it gets when it comes to swiss automatics. Thin and capable.

Anilv

[noirrac1j]

Admirals are nice, and I'd like to find a 990 at a decent price, but haven't been able to.

J

Edited August 11, 2017 by noirrac1j