Swatch Automatic Chronograph

Source: Swatch

Swatch has been credited with saving the Swiss Watch Industry from the Japanese led quartz watch revolution when they introduced their range of trendy and affordable Swiss quartz watches in the early 1980’s.

Now the Swatch Group are again aiming to revolutionize the mechanical watch industry by introducing the most affordable automatic chronograph from a Swiss watch manufacturer. I may be wrong but at the current price point of less than 300Euros, the new automatic chronograph range may very well be the lowest priced mechanical chronograph ever from a major reputable brand, easily thumping the many manual winding chronograph watches powered by the variants of the venerable Russian Poljot 3133 manual winding chronograph calibre.

The new Swatch automatic chronograph range is powered by the automatic choronograph calibre C01.211 from ETA. According to knowledgable horological sources, the new C01.211 calibre is derived from the now discontinued, and much missed, Lemania 5100 chronograph movement. The C01.211 calibre contains 15 jewels, beats at 21600bph and has a power reserve of 46Hz. The same movement is also used in another range of affordable automatic chronographs from Tissot which are priced higher than the Swatch models.

Now that the Swatch Group has thrown down the gauntlet in the battle to offer the most cost effective automatic chronograph watches it remains to be seen whether the Japanese manufacturers such as Seiko and the Russian Poljot will rise to the challenge. Whatever the outcome, the consumer will be the main beneficiary as the automatic chronograph which used to be the domain of expensive luxury brands is now affordable to the man on the street.

For more information check out the cool review of the new Swatch Automatic Chronograph on aBlogtoRead.com.

Other resources:

i) Article on Monochrome.nl

ii) First look on the Escapement blog

iii) The Collection on Swatch store

iv) Blog post on Horology crazy