Sellita Further Targets ETA With the SW300 And SW500 Watch Movements

To my knowledge, there are no places in Asia that this can be done right now outside of Japan (China makes some decent movements, but not in high enough quantities as I understand it). Europe's closest competitor in watch movements is Japan. But such a large part of the Swiss watch market are the Swiss-made movements. So a migration to Japanese movements, even if they were exact copies of European ones would really have a negative effect on an already hurting market as the "Swiss Made" phrase is such a valuable asset.Swatch is correct in the sense that there are too many watch brands. I will be the first to admit to the fact that new buyers or new watch enthusiasts are going to be overwhelmingly confused by the market and seemingly inundated with choices. This was especially the case just a few years ago.Sellita helps fill the gap. Offers two more movement ebauches that replace what so many relied upon ETA for. Ebauche - the term refers to a "blank" or un-assembled watch movement. Here is the definition from Wikipedia, "French term (but commonly used in English-speaking countries) for a movement blank, i.e. an incomplete watch movement which is sold as a set of loose parts, comprising the main plate, the bridges, the train, the winding and setting mechanism and the regulator. The timing system, the escapement and the mainspring, however, are not parts of the "ébauche."Basically they are watch movement kits that are to be finished, decorated, and assembled by the buyer. These are often sold in wholesale, and are cheaper to purchase than already finished movements (much cheaper).Until recently the biggest provider of watch ebauches was Swiss ETA, owned by the Swatch Group. For the last few years they have been slowly reducing the number of ebauche movements they have been selling to brands outside of the Swatch Group. Why? To "no longer supply the competition." My understanding is that ETA will continue to sell fully assembled movements - that of course cost much more. This means two things to the watch world, movement prices will go up and the availability of ETA movements will go way down. Surprisingly, there are only a few companies in Europe that can mass produce watch movements, especially mechanical ones (Ronda for example is a good place for Swiss quartz movements). So realistically ETA does not have too many major competitors. As a side note, this might cause a huge rift in the watch world by opening up demand for Asian watch movements that copy ETA ones.