Nolan Craft

Watches, craft, history, and culture.

    Movement Manufacturers

    If movements are the engine, these are the engine builders. And the first thing worth knowing is that most watch brands don’t build engines at all. They buy them. The number of companies actually making movements is much smaller than the number of names on dials, which is one of those open secrets the industry doesn’t love talking about.

    That leaves you with two tribes. There are the suppliers, companies whose whole business is making movements and selling them to whoever wants to buy. Sellita will sell you a movement. So will Miyota, or Sea-Gull, or La Joux-Perret. Then there are the in-house manufactures, brands that build their own movements and keep them for themselves. When someone tells you a watch has an in-house movement, what they’re really telling you is which tribe made it, and charging you accordingly.

    This page is an attempt to list all of them. The suppliers first, then the in-house crowd, then the dead ones. The dead ones matter, because they explain how we got here.

    The suppliers

    Companies that make movements and sell them to third-party brands.

    Switzerland

    • ETA SA, Grenchen (Swatch Group): the biggest movement maker in the world, and these days they only supply Swatch Group brands. The 2824, 2892, 7750 and Powermatic 80 are the default calibres half the industry was built on.
    • Sellita, La Chaux-de-Fonds: independent and family owned, the great ETA alternative, selling to hundreds of brands. The SW200, SW300 and SW500 families are evolutions of classic ETA architectures, and the new SW200-2 Power+ stretches to 65 hours.
    • Soprod, Tramelan (Festina Group): around since 1966. The A10 and the newer Newton are aimed straight at the ETA 2824 crowd.
    • Ronda, Lausen: family owned Swiss quartz specialist. If your Swiss quartz watch ticks, there’s a decent chance Ronda made the movement. They also make the mechanical R150 line.
    • La Joux-Perret, La Chaux-de-Fonds (Citizen Group): around 140,000 movements a year, from workhorse automatics to tourbillons. They revived the old Peseux 7001 as the D100.
    • Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier, Fleurier: haute horlogerie automatics and micro-rotors. Owned by Parmigiani and Hermès, who are also the main customers, plus Richard Mille.
    • Chronode, Le Locle: Jean-François Mojon’s atelier, building a few thousand bespoke movements and modules a year for MB&F, Hermès, Czapek and the like.
    • Agenhor, Geneva: Jean-Marc Wiederrecht’s complications atelier. Poetic complications for Van Cleef & Arpels and Fabergé, plus the AgenGraphe chronograph you have seen inside the Moser Streamliner.
    • Dubois Dépraz, Le Lieu: around since 1901, the historic chronograph module specialist. They co-developed the 1969 Chronomatic, one of the first automatic chronographs, and still make on the order of 100,000 modules a year.
    • Concepto Watch Factory, La Chaux-de-Fonds (no public website): chronograph specialist founded 2006, supplying around 40 brands including Hublot and Jacob & Co.
    • Kenissi, Le Locle (no public website): Tudor’s movement arm, founded 2016. Seventy-hour manufacture calibres now supplied to Tudor, Breitling, Chanel, Norqain, TAG Heuer and Bell & Ross.
    • Le Temps Manufactures: small Swiss specialist making tiny hand-wound mechanicals.

    Japan

    • Miyota (Citizen Group): the 8215 and 9015 automatics are the default engines of the affordable watch world. If you bought a microbrand watch, it probably has a Miyota.
    • Time Module (TMI) (Seiko Group): the NH35 is the other microbrand workhorse, plus the VK mecha-quartz chronographs.
    • Seiko Instruments (SII): quartz movements and components for third parties.
    • Seiko Epson: quartz movements for third-party brands; their mechanicals stay in-house for Orient and Seiko.

    China

    • Sea-Gull, Tianjin: founded 1955, claims something like a quarter of the world’s mechanical movements. The ST19 chronograph is a descendant of the Swiss Venus 175, which tells you a lot about how this industry works.
    • Hangzhou Watch Co.: state owned, since 1972. Broad automatic catalogue plus tourbillons and complicated in-house calibres.
    • Beijing Watch Factory: mostly builds for its own watches. High-end in-house calibres, tourbillons, and a Chinese calendar complication.
    • Shanghai Watch Co.: historically huge, now much reduced, mostly a heritage brand.
    • Peacock, Dandong (Liaoning): in-house tourbillons since 2003, plus movements at scale for other brands.
    • Dixmont, Guangzhou: smaller, one of the surviving old factories, OEM work.
    • Memorigin, Hong Kong: the city’s first tourbillon manufacture, founded 2011.

    France

    • SilMach, Besançon: not a traditional calibre maker but a technology supplier, building silicon MEMS micromotors meant to replace the quartz stepping motor. Won a CES innovation award.

    Russia

    • Vostok, Chistopol: makes the rugged Komandirskie and Amphibia movements, and supplies movements to other brands too.

    In-house only

    Brands that manufacture their own movements and don’t sell them to anyone else.

    • Rolex: fully integrated, never sold externally.
    • Patek Philippe: Geneva manufacture, all in-house.
    • Audemars Piguet: Le Brassus, in-house only.
    • Vacheron Constantin: Richemont, in-house only.
    • Omega: Swatch Group; Co-Axial and Master Chronometer calibres for Omega only.
    • Breitling: in-house B01 chronograph family; not sold.
    • Zenith: LVMH; El Primero and Elite, in-house only.
    • TAG Heuer: in-house Heuer 02; also buys from Sellita and Kenissi for other lines.
    • Cartier: Manufacture Cartier, La Chaux-de-Fonds; in-house only.
    • Jaeger-LeCoultre: around a thousand calibres historically; in-house only now, though they used to supply half the industry.
    • Piaget: ultra-thin specialist; in-house only now, also used to sell ébauches.
    • Bulgari: Le Sentier manufacture; in-house only.
    • Chopard: Fleurier Ebauches; L.U.C calibres only.
    • Ulysse Nardin: in-house, famous for silicon tech and the Freak.
    • Girard-Perregaux: in-house only.
    • H. Moser & Cie: Schaffhausen; in-house, plus a sister company making escapements.
    • F.P. Journe: Geneva; fully in-house.
    • Greubel Forsey: La Chaux-de-Fonds; in-house only.
    • Armin Strom: Biel; in-house skeletonised calibres.
    • Bovet: Dimier 1738 manufacture; in-house only.
    • Parmigiani Fleurier: in-house (their sister company Vaucher sells to others, listed above).
    • Hermès: in-house via their Vaucher stake; not sold.
    • Louis Vuitton: La Fabrique du Temps, Geneva; in-house only.
    • Montblanc: Villeret manufacture, the old Minerva; in-house only.
    • Roger Dubuis: in-house only.
    • Oris: in-house Calibre 400 family since 2020; not sold.
    • Frederique Constant: 30-plus in-house calibres including the 40Hz Monolithic; not sold.
    • Grand Seiko: 9S mechanical, 9R Spring Drive, 9F quartz; never sold.
    • A. Lange & Söhne: Glashütte; in-house only.
    • Glashütte Original: in-house only.
    • Nomos Glashütte: in-house DUW calibres including their own escapement; not sold.
    • Damasko: in-house calibres with silicon escapements; not sold.
    • Moritz Grossmann: Glashütte atelier; in-house only.
    • Lang & Heyne: Dresden atelier; in-house only.
    • Bremont: Henley-on-Thames manufacture; in-house ENG300 series.
    • Pequignet: French manufacture; Calibre Royal, in-house only.
    • Yema: French; in-house YEMA2000 and up since 2019.
    • Raketa: Petrodvorets; fully in-house Russian mechanicals.

    Gone but not forgotten

    The dead ones. They explain how we got here.

    • Valjoux: the classic Swiss chronograph maker. Absorbed into ETA in 1965; the 7750 lives on as the ETA 7750.
    • Lemania: elite chronographs, including the Omega Speedmaster’s cal. 321. Became Breguet’s manufacture in 1999.
    • Venus: famous column-wheel chronographs. Closed 1966; their cal. 175 became the Sea-Gull ST19.
    • Landeron: mass-market cam-switched chronographs. Ended 1983.
    • A. Schild: one of the biggest ébauche makers ever. Folded into ETA in 1979.
    • FHF (Fontainemelon): making ébauches since 1793. Consolidated into ETA in 1985.
    • Peseux: ultra-thin hand-wound specialist. Absorbed 1985; revived as the La Joux-Perret D100.
    • Unitas: big hand-wound pocket watch calibres. Absorbed 1985; still made as the ETA 6497/6498.
    • Felsa: invented the Bidynator, the first bidirectional automatic winding, in 1942. Closed 1969.
    • Buren: micro-rotor automatics; co-developed one of the first automatic chronographs in 1969. Closed early 1970s.
    • Durowe: Germany’s main ébauche maker. Went to Timex, then Ebauches SA; the name now belongs to Stowa.
    • PUW: German workhorse movements. Bought by the Swatch Group in 1990.
    • Bifora: German movement maker. Closed 1978.
    • Excelsior Park: respected chronograph maker. Closed around 1983.
    • Eterna’s movement arm: spun off as ETA in 1932. Yes, that ETA.
    • Ebauches SA: the holding company that swallowed most of the Swiss ébauche industry, then became ETA in the mid-80s. The single most important structural event in movement history.
    • France Ébauches: France’s last ébauche maker. Closed around 2011.
    • Technotime: modern base movements with big power reserves. Bankrupt since 2016, despite still appearing on some lists.
    • ISA: big Swiss quartz module maker. Ceased around 2020.
    • Kelek: high-end complications atelier. Bought by Breitling in 2006 and absorbed.
    • BNB Concept: avant-garde complications. Bankrupt 2010.
    • Frédéric Piguet: ultra-thin chronographs including the legendary cal. 1185. Bought by Blancpain in 1992.
    • GUB: East Germany’s state watch combine. Became Glashütte Original after reunification.
    • UROFA: Glashütte movement works. Expropriated after the war.
    • Junghans: once the world’s biggest clock and watch maker with full in-house calibres. Stopped making mechanical movements in 1976.
    • STP (Swiss Technology Production): Fossil’s Swiss assembler. Closed January 2025.