ETA/Unitas Caliber 6497 Watch Movement

Brand	Unitas
Caliber Number	6497 (also see 6497-1)
Movement Type	Manual wind
Size (lignes)	16.5”’
Diameter	36.6mm
Height	4.5mm thick
Jewels	17
Power Reserve	46 hours (6497-1) / 53 hours (6497-2)
Vibrations Per Hour	18,800 bph (6497-1) / 21,600 bph (6497-2)
Lift Angle	44 degrees
Shock System	Incabloc
Winding Direction	Uni-directional
Hacking?	No
Functions	Central hours, central minutes, small seconds at 9:00
Country of Manufacture	Switzerland, Swiss made
Known Brands	Panerai, Victorinox Swiss Army Airboss Mach 4 (pictured), too many to list…add your watch in the comments below

The Unitas caliber 6497 is a Swiss made mechanical manual wind movement with 17 jewels. This movement is often confused with the Unitas 6498. This caliber is one of the most popular hand-wound mechanical movements in the watch industry. The 6497 is often referred to as a “pocket watch movement” because that is the origin of the design. Thanks to its large diameter, the 6497 is often found in flieger style pilot watches.

For modern watches, you may want to read: ETA caliber 6497-1.

Some of the topics covered in this caliber listing:

Non-Hacking:

The 6497 is a non hacking caliber, but there are brands (such as Chronoswiss) that have heavily modified base 6497 movements and added hacking mechanisms. If you know of a specific 6497 based caliber with an additional hacking module added, please mention it below.

Crown/Stem Removal:

The 6497 has a set lever detent screw to keep the stem in. In order to remove the crown and stem from the movement, first pull the crown out one click to time setting mode. Locate the small screw near the stem (see image below). Very carefully unscrew to loosen it, but do not go too far to fully remove it – unscrewing too much will likely result in screwing up (pun intended) the keyless works, which means pulling off the hands and dial to put the set lever back in place.

In ETA’s own words: “First pull the winding stem to position 2 (time setting), then unscrew the screw (see marking) a maximum of 2 turns to loosen the setting stem.”