ETA
ETA 2824-2
The verdict
A 25 jewel Swiss automatic, 25.60 mm across and 4.60 mm high, running at 28,800 vph with hours, minutes, sweep seconds and a quickset date. It is durable, easy to regulate and the movement every watchmaker knows. ETA sells it in four execution grades and no longer offers it to brands outside the Swatch Group.
On this page (9 sections)
The ETA 2824-2 is the automatic caliber the Swiss watch industry standardized on. It is 11 and a half lignes across, which is 25.60 mm, it stands 4.60 mm high, it runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour and it shows hours, minutes, a sweep seconds hand and a date in a window. For four decades it was the default answer to the question of what to put inside a Swiss watch costing somewhere between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars.
It is also, now, a movement ETA will not sell you. ETA's own product page for the caliber is titled "2824-2 - unavailable", and the pages for the 2892A2 and the 7750 carry the same suffix. The caliber is still made and still repaired. It simply stopped being something an outside brand can order, which is the entire reason the Sellita SW200-1 exists.
Where it came from
The 2824 family dates from the early 1970s, and the dash-two revision, which is what everybody means by "2824", has been in volume production since the early 1980s. ETA does not print an introduction date on its own product page, so treat any exact year you read as industry recollection rather than a manufacturer statement.
The business model behind it matters more than the date. ETA sold the same ebauche to dozens of unrelated brands in four different qualities at four different prices, and each brand cased it, regulated it or did not, and put its own name on the rotor. That arrangement is what made an affordable Swiss mechanical watch possible at all, and it is the subject of our comparison of in-house versus third-party movements.
The specification
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Size | 11 and a half lignes, 25.60 mm diameter |
| Height | 4.60 mm |
| Jewels | 25 |
| Frequency | 28,800 vph, 4 Hz |
| Lift angle | 50 degrees |
| Power reserve | 38 hours in the 2009 technical communication, 42 hours typical on the product page |
| Functions | Hours, minutes, central seconds, semi-instantaneous date with quickset |
| Stop seconds | Yes |
| Hand winding | Yes |
The two power reserve figures are not a contradiction. ETA separates a minimum from a typical value, as it does openly on the 7750, whose technical communication prints 48 hours minimum and 54 typical. Read 38 hours as the factory floor and 42 as what a healthy example does.
How it is built
Energy enters through the crown or a ball-bearing rotor. The rotor winds in both directions: the spare parts list contains a reversing wheel and an auxiliary reversing wheel, which is how a movement turns rotation either way into winding in one. From there the story is the ordinary one told in how a mechanical watch works.
The escapement is a Swiss lever with a single barrel feeding it. The balance is regulated by an index, not free sprung, and ETA fits a regulator corrector, a small eccentric that lets a watchmaker move the index in controlled increments instead of nudging it with a screwdriver and hoping. The stud carrier is adjustable too, which is what makes beat error correctable on the bench in a couple of minutes. That combination is a large part of why independents like this movement: it can be brought into adjustment quickly, with no special tooling.
The date is semi-instantaneous, meaning it does not snap over at midnight but takes a while to complete the change. That is worth knowing before you use the quickset, and it is why changing the date late at night is a bad habit on this caliber.
The four grades, and what actually changes
ETA sells its mechanical calibers in four executions: Standard, Elabore, Top and Chronometre. ETA's own sheet, Executions des mouvements mecaniques, valid from 1 January 2003, sets out what changes for the 2824-2, and it splits the four into two material tiers.
- Standard and Elabore get a Nivarox 2 hairspring, a nickel-plated gilt balance, polyruby pallet stones, a Nivaflex NO mainspring and Etachocs shock protection. Standard has no decoration; Elabore carries ETA's base decoration.
- Top and Chronometre get an Anachron hairspring, a gilt Glucydur balance with blind holes, red ruby pallet stones, a Nivaflex NM mainspring and Incabloc shock protection.
All four have 25 jewels, stop seconds and a fine timing device. The differences are metallurgical: a better hairspring alloy holds its rate across temperature, a Glucydur balance is more stable dimensionally, and Incabloc is the better shock system. What the grade really buys, though, is adjustment. Higher grades are timed in more positions before they leave the factory.
What the grades promise, and what is not published
ETA does not publish a daily rate tolerance per grade in any document available to the public. Its technical communications are repair manuals and contain no rate table, and its product pages list functions and dimensions only. Any figure you see attributed to ETA for Standard or Top grade is not sourced to an ETA document you can open.
What can be checked is Sellita's table, because Sellita publishes one and uses ETA's execution names for it. Its 2017 technical documentation for the SW200-1, a caliber built to the same architecture, gives a mean daily rate of plus or minus 12 seconds for Standard adjusted in two positions, plus or minus 7 for Elabore in three, and plus or minus 4 for Top in five, with maximum spread across all positions of 30, 20 and 15 seconds a day respectively. Those are the numbers people quote for ETA grades, and they are the industry convention, but the published source is Sellita's sheet rather than ETA's.
The Chronometre grade is the exception, because its criterion is external. A Chronometre execution is submitted to COSC and tested against ISO 3159, whose headline requirement is a mean daily rate between minus 4 and plus 6 seconds. That is a published, independently administered standard, and our guide to accuracy and chronometer standards explains what the test actually involves.
Accuracy in practice
A 2824-2 in good health, properly regulated, will usually sit inside about five seconds a day on the wrist regardless of grade. The grade sets how tightly the factory adjusted it and how well it holds that adjustment. It does not set a ceiling: a Standard grade movement a watchmaker has demagnetized, cleaned and adjusted in five positions will beat a neglected Top grade one comfortably.
Measure before you spend. Our accuracy calculator turns a week of readings into a rate, and timing your own watch covers how to take those readings in a way that means something. Rate is only half the picture: amplitude and isochronism tell you whether the movement is healthy or merely happens to be running near zero today.
Servicing, parts and cost
This is the 2824-2's strongest argument. Every trained watchmaker in the world has worked on one. The layout is taught in schools, the tools are ordinary, and parts have been in the trade for forty years. A full service by a competent independent typically falls in the same band as any simple mechanical watch, roughly $250 to $500, with brand service centers higher. Those are indicative US figures quoted before sales tax, which varies by state; labor rates vary from one city to the next, bench prices in other countries differ again with local parts and duty costs, and all of them move over time. See what a watch service costs.
The unusual part is that replacement is often not the cheaper option here, which is the opposite of the situation with budget Japanese calibers. A serviceable 2824-2 is worth repairing, because a like-for-like replacement now has to come from the spare parts trade at an uncertain price.
Known weaknesses
The reversing wheels in the automatic work are the classic fault. Their lubricant thickens with age and the rotor stops winding efficiently, so the watch runs down on the wrist. It presents as a healthy-looking movement with a poor power reserve, and it is a cheap fix once diagnosed.
Hand winding feels gritty compared with a purpose-built manual caliber, because the crown drives through the same automatic train. That is normal, not a fault. The date change is slow rather than instant, so the quickset must be kept away from the hours either side of midnight. The 38 hour minimum reserve is short by current standards: take the watch off on Friday evening and it will very likely be stopped by Sunday, which is the mechanism behind automatic watches stopping overnight. And in Standard grade the Etachocs shock system and Nivarox 2 hairspring are the parts that limit how tightly the movement can be held over years.
The alternatives, and who it is for
Against the Sellita SW200-1 the 2824-2 wins on nothing measurable. They share dimensions, beat rate and grade structure, and the Sellita is the one you can actually buy new. Against the ETA 2892-A2 the 2824-2 is a full millimeter thicker and less finely finished, but it is more robust under a heavy rotor and cheaper to keep. Against the 7750 there is no contest, because the 7750 does a different job. If price is the constraint, the Japanese and Swiss options are laid out in NH35 versus Miyota 9015 versus Sellita SW200.
Where you will find it: Swatch Group's own mid-range brands, Breitling's caliber 17, Tudor's pre-2016 Black Bay, and a long list of independents including Sinn, Stowa and Steinhart. Many watches sold with a brand caliber number are 2824-2 derivatives with a different rotor.
Buy a 2824-2 watch if you want something a local watchmaker can fix in 2045 without ordering anything from Switzerland, and if you would rather spend money on a case, a bracelet and a crystal than on a movement nobody can see. Do not seek one out for its own sake at a premium over a Sellita, because the premium buys a name and a supply problem. If you already own one, the useful next step is to measure it for a week and only then decide whether it needs anything at all.
Common follow-up questions
Is a Top grade 2824-2 worth paying extra for?
It buys a better hairspring, a Glucydur balance, Incabloc shock protection and adjustment in five positions instead of two, so the movement holds its rate better as your wrist changes position and it stays adjustable for longer. Whether that is worth the money depends on the watch. On a $500 watch the case and bracelet usually deserve the money more.
Can I still buy a new ETA 2824-2?
Not as a brand, in the ordinary way. ETA's own product page for the caliber is titled unavailable, and ETA's obligation to supply third-party customers ended on 31 December 2019 under the COMCO settlement of 21 October 2013. Loose movements circulate through the spare parts trade and older stock, and Swatch Group brands continue to fit derivatives of it.
How can I tell which grade my watch has?
Usually only by asking the brand, because the grade is not marked on the movement. Visual clues exist for a watchmaker with the caseback off: Incabloc shock settings and a Glucydur balance point to Top or Chronometre, while an undecorated plate points to Standard. A brand that paid for a higher grade almost always states it in the specification, so silence is itself informative.
How long does a 2824-2 last?
Serviced on a sensible interval, decades. The design has no known structural weak point and the parts that do wear, reversing wheels, the mainspring, the setting parts, are cheap and available. Watches with 2824-2 movements from the 1980s are still running. The limit is usually the case and the owner's patience, not the caliber.
Sources and further reading
- ETA SA, Communication technique / Technical communication CT 2824-2, FDE 481688, 27.03.2009, for the movement height of 4.60 mm, the running time of 38 hours, 25 jewels, a lift angle of 50 degrees, 28,800 A/h and the spare parts list including the two reversing wheels of the automatic device.
- ETA SA product page for the ETA 2824-2, which gives the diameter as 25.60 mm, the height as 4.60 mm, 25 jewels, 28,800 vibrations per hour, a typical power reserve of 42 hours and a semi-instantaneous quickset date, and which is titled '2824-2 - unavailable'.
- ETA SA, Executions des mouvements mecaniques, valid from 1 January 2003, sheet for the ETA 2824-2, for the four execution names and the components that change between them, including Nivarox 2 versus Anachron hairsprings, polyruby versus red ruby pallet stones, Nivaflex NO versus NM mainsprings and Etachocs versus Incabloc shock protection.
- Sellita Watch Co SA, Documentation technique SW 200-1, version 05, 31.08.2017, whose grade table uses ETA's execution names and publishes the mean daily rate and positional tolerance for each, which ETA does not publish for its own calibers.
- COMCO (Swiss Competition Commission) press release of 19 November 2004 and decision of 8 November 2004 in the ETA SA Manufacture Horlogere Suisse investigation, for the finding that ETA held a dominant position in Swiss-made mechanical ebauches priced up to CHF 300.
- ISO 3159, Timekeeping instruments: Wrist-chronometers with spring balance oscillator, for the criteria a Chronometre grade movement is submitted against.
Last reviewed 4 September 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will fix it in public.