OPINION – Joining Forces For The Best? The Tudor / Breitling Mechanical Alliance

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MONOCHROME

First of all, due to the fast development of the industry and growth in sales, the main movement supplier, that is ETA, had to reduce external deliveries (plus they were asked by the Swiss Concurrence Commission to do so). Watch brands had to find other solutions. Alternatives existed: Soprod, Sellita and even Seiko. Another solution was to develop their own movements, and many did. The second reason is simple. Watchmaking is an industry and as every industry, it needs to create value and profits.

Prior to 2015, Tudor was only using out-sourced movements: ETA-2824 no-date for the Black Bay, ETA-2824 with date for the Pelagos or ETA-2892 with Dubois-Depraz module for the Heritage chronograph. At Baselworld 2015 however, “the Shield” announced the introduction of the manufacture Calibre MT5612 on the Pelagos (3-hand and date) and of the Calibre MT5621 (3-hand, date and power reserve) on the North Flag, followed in 2016 by the Calibre MT5602 (3-hand, no-date) on the Black Bay.

The main point was that this addition of in-house calibres was linked to an increase in price of only EUR 200 (and the effect of the new movement might be even lower, diluted by the annual price increase…)

Overall, the arrival of in-house movements at Tudor was positive: low price increase, longer power reserve (70h vs. 38h for ETA), silicon hairspring (antimagnetic), transversal bridge for the balance (reliability and resistance to shocks) and COSC


https://monochrome-watches.com/tudor-breitling-alliance-movements-exchange-opinion/
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