Caliber Sellita SW-200

 

The Sellita Caliber SW 200

 

Sellita is a Swiss manufacturer of mechanical watch movements founded by Mr. Pierre Grandjean in 1950 and based in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Mr. Pierre was buying watch parts and assembling movements as OEM watches. This is how his story began.

 

He sold over 100.000 calibers per month and stopped when ETA assembled their own movements in 1990. Sellita delivered movements to many watch brands and companies.

 

In 2002 they stopped making watch parts and only focused on making assembled movements. Since 2003 it has been developing its own movements based on ETA calibers with expired patent rights and has managed to become one of the main movement manufacturers of the Swiss watchmaking industry.

 

In Switzerland, they are the second largest movement manufacturing company. Mr.Miguel Garcia is the current owner of Sellita. There are no investors or any other watch groups behind them.

 

When Mr. Miguel Garcia bought the company the number of employees have raised drastically. From 100 employees to 500 in 15 years. Sellita has 19 calibers that they are offering.

 

The Story Behind The SW 200.

 

Their first caliber was the SW 200 and it had a surprisingly low price in 2004. People were saying that it was because they were using Chinese parts in the manufacturing so they had a low cost of making them. That was very much incorrect. Up to this day, they are using parts that are manufactured in Switzerland. In their own country, they had 100+ suppliers.

 

There are loads of well-known brands that utilize Sellita’s movements or their slightly modified versions to power their watches. Hublot, IWC, Oris, Sinn, TAG Heuer and even more. We can’t mention every brand because the list that is working with the Sellita movement is very long.

 

In every business, the testing phase is one of the most important. Not everything is perfect on the first try. As this was their first time making their own movement the SW 200 came with some problems that must be solved. They learned throughout many years and they sold well over 10 million movements.

 

It has a diameter of 25.6mm and a thickness of 4.60mm. The SW 200 is considered as the competitor of ETA 2824. Sellita sources the same supplier as ETA for parts and components. So it’s most likely that they are crafted with the same materials.

 

It features manual winding and hacking capabilities and a 38-hour power reserve. It can produce 28,800 beats per hour. As well as it provides the main timekeeping features like the hours, minutes, central seconds, and date.

 

One of the reasons why watch brands like to work with the Sellita movements is because it’s considered easy to work with. Because of that, they can modify it in any way they would like to.

 

The Different Grades Of The SW 200

 

STANDARD GRADE - Can be adjusted in two positions and It’s capable of generating an accuracy of +/- 12 seconds per day with a maximum of +/- 30 sec per day.

 

SPECIAL GRADE - Can be adjusted in three positions and It’s capable of generating an accuracy of +/- 7 seconds per day with a maximum of +/- 20 sec per day.

 

PREMIUM GRADE - Can be adjusted in five positions and It’s capable of generating an accuracy of +/- 4 seconds per day with a maximum of +/- 15 sec per day.

 

COSC GRADE - This is considered the best of them all and it’s matching the criteria of the Swiss Chronometer testing institute.

 

 

How To Tell The Difference Between Grades

 

On the special and standard grades, the pallets are polyrubies. In the case of the premium and COSC grades, the pallets are red rubies. However, all four grades share some features.

 

The balance wheel is gilt, and the pallet forks are polished. The hairspring collet is Nivatronic, the escape wheel is polished and epilame-coated as well as the balance staff.

 

We can tell the difference in the finishing as well. The finishes are standard, refined, and Tailor made.

 

Sellita has date codes under the balance wheel. It looks like a laser etched code that starts with DM which means the movement origin is from Sellita. You can check your movement if it has a two-digit number like 20 for 2020 or 21 for 2021.

 

The Features Of The SW 200

• - Features: Hours, minutes, hacking sweep seconds, date window
• - Beats per hour: 28,800 (4 Hz)
• - Power reserve: 38 hours
• - Jewels: 26

 

DWISS WATCH THAT IS USING THE SW-200

 

DWISS is also using a modified Sellita SW-200 movement in their current TOP grade and rare Anniversary watch called M3W.

 

These are currently the best watches DWISS is offering in their collection. It costs only $1,990,00 USD and is limited to 500 pieces ONLY. The supplies are running out fast, and as of now, there are only 60 pieces left.

 

It comes with scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, an easily interchangeable strap or metal bracelet mechanism, uses LumiNova BG-W9, and is water resistant to 20 ATM (200 meters / 660 feet).

 

The case is crafted from 316L Stainless steel and has a diameter of 42mm, as well as a thickness of 14,7mm. The back of the case is see-through, and it has a Swiss made automatic movement, using the Sellita SW-200 (modified).

 

The power reserve is 38 hours with 25 Jewels. It’s using DWISSES wandering hours display with a double domed Sapphire crystal and a multi-layered dial.

 

Because of the LumiNova BG-W9, it also lights up in the dark in a very cool way for better visibility.

 

Conclusion

 

“The Sellita Caliber SW 200”

 

As we went through the history of the Sellita and the SW 200 we learned how it was created and what grades there are. We buy the watch knowing what movement it has but many of us are not really sure about the grade. As we discussed it is possible to tell the difference between grades, but it’s not easy. Sellita is a big company with a big history behind it and makes great movements.