Am I Really Getting a Swiss Movement?
With over tens of thousands of replica watch websites creeping up on the world wide web, we see an endless supply of sellers offering “Swiss Valjoux 7750″ movements in their watches for a full range of prices. Customers often ask me if the watches featured on a certain website have “Real Swiss 7750″ movements”. To this question I answer that only about 5% of them are available with Swiss 7750 movements, the other 95% are using Asian clone 7750 movements. Many websites claim that all of their chronograph watches feature real Swiss made 7750 movements, and justify the higher prices they charge with this claim. Any replica watch site offering Swiss 7750 movements are plain out lying and cheating you.
Here are three simple reasons why most
replica watches DON’T use Swiss 7750 movements:
1. The Swiss Valjoux 7750 doesn’t simply “bolt” right in to most replica watches.
When watches are produced at factories here, they are designed to accept Asian Valjoux clone movements. The Swiss Valjoux 7750 is similar, but not the SAME as the
Asian Valjoux 7750 automatic movement . Therefor, when watches come out of assembly designed to accept Asian Valjoux 7750 movements, they must be MODIFIED to use a Swiss 7750 Valjoux movement. Modifications can include the canon pins, hands, dial, date wheel, crown stem etc. The parts from an Asian Valjoux clone watch usually do not fit a Swiss 7750 Valjoux movement. Due to the modification necessary to use a Swiss Valjoux movement, most of these watches ship, and remain with Asian Valjoux 7750 installed.
2. The Swiss Valjoux 7750 movement is not cheap.
An unmodified Swiss Valjoux 7750 movement can cost upwards of $500 USD. On ebay, the lowest price you can expect to pay for a new, completely unmodified Swiss Valjoux 7750 movement is $300 USD. The price is for an UNMODIFIED movement. That means it doesn’t come with the proper crown, proper date wheel, the crown stem needs to be modified, and depending on the watch being used, some of the functions must also be modified before it can be installed into the replica. If you see “Swiss Valjoux” watches selling for $349 – $400, common sense should tell you that something may be wrong with this scenario.
3. The Asian 7750 movement is readily available, the Swiss 7750 is not.
Swiss Valjoux 7750 movements are not always readily available. They must be obtained from importers and distributors. Sometimes they are in stock, sometimes they are not in stock. Importers and distributors control the availability, and thus they control the price of the Swiss Valjoux movement. The cost changes depending on availability and import circumstances. The Asian Valjoux movement is made here in China. It’s always available, it’s always in stock, and if it ever goes out of stock, more can be made here locally instead of importing them. For a business, this is much more logical the depending on imported materials or mechanisms. If 100% of the parts are made in the same city, supply will be predictable.
So then, why do so many sites advertise “Swiss 7750 movements”? They can’t all be lying right?
- 1. They think their customers are stupid, and cannot tell the difference between Swiss 7750 movements and Asian 7750 movements.
- 2. They tell their customers that Asian 7750 movements are garbage, and will die after a few weeks (not true at all these days), and that customers should spend the extra few hundred dollars on a Swiss 7750 that will last forever. The customer believes the seller.
- 3. They then ship the customer an Asian 7750, which the customer accepts, because most customers are not watch makers, or watch experts and cannot tell that they have been charged a much higher price, and shipped the same standard Asian 7750 clone that came with the watch to begin with.
So how can I tell if the watch I bought, which was advertised as a “Swiss Valjoux 7750″ movement, actually contains the movement that I paid for?
Check out photos below showing the difference. If you paid for a Swiss 7750 movement, and what you received differs from the pictures below, then you have probably just fallen for a common scam and overpaid greatly for an Asian 7750 clone.
Differences:
1. The engravings on the Swiss Valjoux 7750 movement illustrated below. As of yet, these engravings are not found on the Asian movement, but there is a strong chance the producers of Asian movements may start putting these on their movements in the future.
Swiss Valjoux 7753 Movement Engravings
2. The date window on the Swiss Valjoux 7750/7753 watch should be FLUSH with the dial in most cases. In the picture below you can see a custom made replica Panerai PAM250 Daylight that I assembled for a customer using a real Swiss made Valjoux 7750 movement. The date wheel is flush with the dial. There is no gap or space between the dial and date wheel. With Asian Valjoux movements, it is currently impossible to make a Panerai replica with flush date wheel. The Asian 7750 movement causes the date wheel to be recessed from the dial, or “sunken” in.
You can clearly see a space between dial and date wheel on most Panerai Asian 7750 models. That being said, some watches from other brands, like Hublot or IWC DO NOT have recessed date wheels when using Asian 7750 movements. So this advise applies mostly for PANERAI and BREITLING replica watches, not other brands.
Panerai PAM250 Replica with true Swiss 7750
3. The movements themselves are not identical. The easiest way to check if you were scammed is to open the caseback of your watch and simply look at the movement. The model on the left is a PAM163 40mm with a modern Asian 7750 clone movement installed. The watch on the right is a replica PAM250 that I custom made for a customer, using a real Swiss 7753 Valjoux movement. Note the clear differences including but not limited to the color of the screws.
–The movements regulators have a different design. You can see the Asian regulator (left) has two pins holding the upper end of the regulator in place, while the Swiss valjoux 7750 (right) has just one pin. This is the best way to spot an Asian 7750.
–On these particular models, the rotor bearing assembly is completely different. You can see that the Asian 7750 (left) has seven ball bearings but the Swiss Valjoux movement (right) has five bearings. Also note the blue screw on the Asian movement. *****It should be noted that the latest generation of Asian 7750 movements (used in many Hublot, IWC, Chopard and Tag Heuer replicas) also have 5 bearings, just like the Swiss Valjoux movement, so this advice applies to only older Asian 7750 movements.
Asian 7750 compared with Swiss 7753
4. A close up of the regulators on the two different movements (below).
Asian Valjoux 7750(left) compared with Swiss Valjoux 7753 (right)
5. Last but not least, another obvious tell. The ETA logo engraving featured under the balance spring assembly WILL NOT be found on an Asian 7750 Clone movement. Look for this logo engraved under the balance spring assembly. If it isn’t there, you have probably just greatly overpaid for a watch with an Asian Valjoux clone movement.
ETA engraving on a REAL Swiss Valjoux 7750 movement
When ordering or shopping for a replica watch, it’s best to keep in mind the above mentioned facts. Many sellers do not mind lying to customers to extract extra profits, and when you confront them about sending you the wrong movement, they will probably not answer your emails. As a rule, you should assume that every 7750 replica watch you order will be coming with an Asian 7750 movement, and there is no point in paying extra for a so-called “Swiss 7750″ movement unless you personally know the seller, and you have personally seen with your own two eyes a watch custom made by them with a Swiss Valjoux movement installed.
Customers ask us about this frequently. “Why do your watches use Asian 7750 movements, but other sellers are using Swiss 7750 movements?” The answer is explained above. The truth is that almost NO ONE uses Swiss 7750 movements. Many sellers LIE about using Swiss 7750 movements, and a few sellers are HONEST about using Asian 7750 movements. the one replica watch website that is HONEST about their movements is
www.watchsolution.com If the above article was not enough to convince you, I suggest ordering and paying for a “Swiss 7750 Replica” from another seller, and then opening the caseback, and looking for the ETA engraving under the balance wheel assembly and bridge engravings pictured above. 99% of the time, you won’t find it, and by that time, the seller already has your money, and you will be in possession of an extremely overpriced Asian 7750 movement.
Bell&Ross Replica watches
