One parts distributor. Same day. A Swiss ETA 2824-2 for $276.79, and a Chinese ST2130 for $82. Movement databases describe the second as an almost 1:1 copy of the first.
Swiss watch exports were 25.6 billion francs in 2025. For decades, one company made the movements inside a huge share of them — and also the hairsprings, the rubies, the hands, the dials, the cases and the crowns, under sixteen brand names it owned.
Switzerland's own competition authority spent 18 years on it. It forced ETA to keep supplying its rivals on a schedule it wrote down: 75%, then 65%, then 55%, then nothing after 31 December 2019. And in July 2020 it closed the case — not because anyone won, but because the industry had already found the parts somewhere else.
This is where they found them.
IN THIS VIDEO: — Why the Venus 175 chronograph wasn't copied by China. It was sold to them, with the machines. — The COMCO countdown, straight from the Swiss government's own decisions — Sellita: the Swiss escape route, and why $199.50 wasn't enough to change anything — Tianjin and Dandong: $45 automatics, $82 ETA clones, and a flying tourbillon — Fossil, Stuhrling, Ingersoll, Baltic, Atelier Wen — the brands that bought, by name — The 60% rule: how much of a "Swiss Made" watch legally doesn't have to be Swiss — And the number that cuts the other way: 14.6 million against one billion
Every price, date and decision in this video comes from a published source — the manufacturer's own page, a parts distributor's live listing, or a Swiss government document. All linked below.
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