Watches
Eight watches with in-house movements for under £5,000
Words by Robin Swithinbank
21.8.18
What is an in-house movement? Why are they important? And should you spend your hard-earned cash on one?
If you’re a regular visitor to The Jackal and find your eye drawn to our watch pages, you’ll recognise we frequently refer to watches with in-house movements. This, like so many other terms in watch appreciation, is jargon at best, and affectation at worst. But by and large, it does mean something.
In fact, it means a lot, particularly to those who obsess over watches. An in-house movement – a true in-house movement – is bespoke to the dial name. That means the brand behind the watch designs, develops, produces and assembles the movement inside it. Rolex, as an example, is totally vertically integrated and produces every part of a watch and its movements in its own factories. The likes of Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin and Jaeger-LeCoultre are similarly endowed.
Now, without wanting to complicate matters, there is no agreed definition of ‘in-house’ (or manufacture, the sometimes used French synonym). Brands use the term liberally, and sometimes not always justly (woe betide any who get caught with their hand in the in-house jar), because not all claiming in-house status will produce every part of a watch movement. The most commonly imported part is the hairspring, the delicate spiral that sits on the escapement wheel – the one that oscillates and gives a mechanical watch its ticking sound.
But let’s not split hairs too finely. Most would agree that an in-house movement is designed and made to be specific to a watch company and sometimes a single watch, the alternative the one used by the broad majority of mechanical watch companies, which outsource movement production to Swiss companies such as a ETA and Sellita, or Japan’s Miyota. It’s a bit like automotive groups sharing engines and chassis. There’s nothing wrong with those third-party movements (in fact, they tend to be more reasonably priced, very reliable and easier to service), bar their universality. The joy of a watch with an in-house movement is in its relative novelty.
Over the last 10-15 years, lots of Swiss watch companies have sunk many millions of their Swiss francs into developing not just their own movements, but also the facilities and machinery required to make them. With interesting results. Many are more accurate than the off-the-shelf models; many have bigger power reserves; others have unusual, but useful characteristics.
They join that elite group of brands that have long-since mastered the many skills required to make a watch in-house – many of whom create exquisitely decorated movements that are as much works of art as triumphs of engineering.
But those are for another day. For now, here are eight watches with in-house movements for under £5,000.
1. Omega Seamaster Aquaterra 150M
Omega’s in-house creds got a significant boost three years ago when it announced its Master Chronometer movement programme. These movements, now seeping through the range, are mechanical movements on steroids. Omega builds them, and then sends them to an independent Swiss testing institute called METAS where they’re bombarded with anti-social things like magnetism and wild temperature variations, and checked for claims of accuracy, power reserve and water-resistance – a process that’s repeated once the movement’s been cased up. This new, blue-dialled version of the handsome, utilitarian Aquaterra, a 38mm steel number on a bracelet, is anti-magnetic to an industry-leading 15,000 gauss (like all Master Chronometers), is chronometer-certified for accuracy, has a power reserve of 55 hours, and is water-resistant to 150 metres. £4,080, shop now
2. Zenith Defy Classic
Zenith’s reborn Defy never looks better than in its entry-level three-hand date guise, particularly as here in this dusky blue. Inside it is one of Zenith’s landmark ultra-thin Elite calibres, an automatic with a 48-hour power reserve based on a design introduced back in the mid-1990s at a time when only the boldest were even considering developing new mechanical movements. For your money, with this model you also get a 41mm brushed titanium case and a black rubber strap with a blue alligator leather coating. £4,900, shop now
3. Cartier Clé de Cartier
Cartier is famous first for its abilities as creator of case shapes, but over the last decade the giant has sunk untold fortunes into movement development. At the base end of that spectrum, if we can call it that, is the automatic 1847 MC (the year of the company’s founding and Manufacture Cartier). A simple three-hand date movement, it sits inside a number of case shapes, including this deliciously louche 40mm steel Clé. £4,300, shop now
4. Rolex Air-King
One of the reasons people love Rolex is because it does all the simple things so well – design, materials, function, and of course build quality. The Air-King’s dial may have split the critics (for the money, I’d take the Oyster Perpetual 39mm instead), but for a combination of quality and value, there’s not much to beat it. Inside its Oystersteel case (Oystersteel is a higher grade of steel than standard in watchmaking) is Rolex’s own Calibre 3131, which, like all Rolex’s automatics, is chronometer-certified for accuracy. £4,550, shop now
5. NOMOS Glashütte Club 38 Campus
The most affordable watch on this list was always going to be made by NOMOS Glashütte, the German company that only makes in-house movement watches, most of them under £5,000. This is the Club, the company’s entry-level piece, powered by its hand-wound Alpha calibre. Seen here with a white dial and on a relaxed grey leather strap, it’s the perfect gateway into in-house watchmaking. What’s the catch? There really isn’t one. But for a few hundred quid more, you can have a sapphire case back so you can see into the movement – worth every penny. £1,100, shop now
6. Tudor Pelagos LHD
Signs that Tudor is well and truly back in business (it was absent from most major Western markets for more than a decade earlier this century) are rife these days, but few point to its health quite so readily as its burgeoning suite of manufacture calibres. The super-cool Pelagos LHD (which stands for left-hand drive because the crown is switched to the left) diver’s watch houses the MT5612 calibre, an automatic with a 70-hour power reserve, roughly double that you’d get in an off-the-shelf equivalent. £3,160, shop now
7. Montblanc 1858 Geosphere
The latest round of updates to Montblanc’s more outdoorsy line, the 1858, includes this Geosphere model. Under the hood is a movement that combines a third-party base calibre with a module invented by the boffins at Montblanc’s Villeret manufacture, making it a hybrid of sorts. That module gives the watch a second time zone (on the subdial at 9) and two rotating half-globes that combine to create a world time function. The red dots on those globes mark the peaks that form the Seven Summits Challenge. £4,500, shop now
8. Breitling Superocean Héritage II
There is a reason this watch is last on this list. The Breitling website will tell you its diver’s watch is powered by the B20 Manufacture calibre – which it is. What it won’t say, although it’s no secret, is that the movement is a rebranded version of Tudor’s MT5612 (as seen in the Pelagos above). The two non-related brands have a reciprocal deal in place, whereby Tudor gets Breitling’s automatic chronograph movement (the B-01), and Breitling gets Tudor’s three-hand date automatic. The purists won’t encourage it, but the upside for less fussy buyers is that the Superocean Héritage, an icon, is still available for well under £5k, chronometer-certified movement and 70-hour power reserve all in. £3,840, shop now
