Unitas 6497 Asian Vs Swiss

[haratua]

I am looking to assemble a watch and have been looking at Unitas 6497/6498.

 

See the picture below, one is an Asian 6497, the other is Swiss Unitas 6497. One is less than $100, the other is at least double or triple that.

What's your experience with these Asian vs Swiss movements both from service point of view, and also from accuracy of timekeeping point of view.

 

[Geo]

I have a couple of watches with Asian movements, but not of the type you are looking at. One is a chronograph and the other is a tourbillon. Both are very well made and keep time that would qualify both to be chronometers.

I have not serviced either, but I would imagine parts would be very difficult if not impossible to obtain parts.

If I were you, I think I would buy the Asian movement and save your money, bearing in mind worst case scenario is you buy another Asian movement if something disastrous was to happen to your watch, which is highly unlikely. When it comes to servicing, there would be really no difference between the two.

Regarding the finished watch, if you decided to sell it, I'm not convinced that you would get a lot more for it if it was fitted with the more expensive movement.

Edited September 11, 2014 by Geo

[WillFly]

I have both. The Swiss one is in my Hamilton Khaki Mechanical "Field Officer's" watch, and the Asian movement is in the custom watch I put together myself. The Hamilton is s/h, by the way. It's early days yet for me with both watches. It was the purchase of the Hamilton - from a member of another watch forum - that prompted me to investigate the 6497 movement generally. It was then that I decided to do my own thing - just out of curiosity. At the moment, both watches wind, set and run absolutely perfectly, but - without actually taking the Swiss movement from its sealed case (which I'm reluctant to do) - my gut feeling is that, in the long term, the Hamilton will last longer and be more trouble-free.

 

But who knows! There's no question that the overall case and dial build on the Hamilton is superior by far to my own, which was assembled from completely individually sourced bits. But both movements - so far - are functioning perfectly.

[matabog]

I hope I don't upset anybody, but this is the best article I've found so far about this swiss-china comparison:

 

http://watchguy.co.uk/comparison-sea-gull-st2130-eta-2824-2-peacock-sl3000/

 

If you found others, please share!

 

Bogdan

[matabog]

@WillFly:  I personally would like more details about that custom watch project, if you don't mind.

[WillFly]

@WillFly:  I personally would like more details about that custom watch project, if you don't mind.

No probs - I wrote it up fully here:

 

http://www.willswatchpages.com/make-one-yourself.html