Glycine 6497-1 ETA Unitas Caliber

ETA Caliber 6497-1

Glycine 6497-1 ETA Unitas Caliber

Manufacturer ETA
Caliber Number 6497-1
Movement Type Mechanical, manual-wind
Lignes
16.5”’
Diameter
36.6mm
Height
4.5mm
Jewels 17
Beat Rate
18,800 vph (21,600 vph for the 6497-2)
Lift Angle 44 degrees
Power Reserve
46 hours
Thickness 4.5mm
Shock System Novodiac or Incabloc
Hacking Seconds?
No
Winding Direction Uni-directional
Functions Central hours; central minutes; small seconds subdial at 9:00
Country of Manufacture Switzerland, Swiss made
Known Brands
Panerai, Victorinox Swiss Army, Glycine (Too many to list, add you watch in the comments below…)

The ETA caliber 6497-1 is a popular handwound watch movement that is based on a vintage Lépine pocket watch movement design. It beats at 18,000 vibrations per hour with 17 jewels.

Engraved text on a raw genuine ETA 6497-1 movement reads as: SWISS / SEVENTEEN 17 JEWELS / ETA logo and caliber number under the balance wheel

Eta Caliber 6497 Front Back

Watch brands using the 6497-1:

The ETA 6497-1 is found in a wide variety of watches from luxury brands and microbrands. Many brands modify the movement or rebrand the caliber number to their own designation. The example pictured above was found in this Glycine KMU 48 (ref: 3788.99AT P-LB9). According to Glycine, the movement in their watch is nickel coated and the bridge features a chessboard decoration.

Power Reserve:

The official power reserve rating on the 6498-1 is 46 hours. You may see others claim a 48 hour power reserve, even up to 53 hours. This could be due to a different configuration depending on the watch brand, or ETA simply used 46 hours as a guide for the lowest power reserve to expect from a full wind.

How many turns of the crown until fully wound?

Unlike some other movement manufacturers, ETA does not clearly define the number of turns needed to take a cal. 6497-1 from 0 to full power reserve. Perhaps this is due to the fact that technically the number of turns may vary depending on the crown size. In an effort to start crowd-sourcing this information, a few sample 6497-1 based watches were used to count the number of clicks from a stopped state until the movement could not be wound further. The results were as follows:

ETA 6497-1:

Others:

All examples have 56 teeth on the ratchet wheel.

Maybe not the best experiment, but interesting enough. Will test these again and update if there are any differences. If you wish to join this experiment, please comment below with your watch and how many clicks you counted from 0 to fully wound.

Examples of watches using the 6497-1:

Below is a Kobold Spirit of America watch using the ETA 6497-1 with Geneva stripes finishing and blued screws. Also notice the Novodiac shock absorber in this example.

Eta 6497 Kobold Spirit Of America

You may also find skeletonized versions of the cal. 6497-1, such as the one found in this Invicta Russian Diver Mechanical model 2625:

Eta 6497 1 Skeletonized

Here is a macro view of the same movement:

Eta 6497 1 Skeletonized Macro

Below is a plain Jane 6497-1 found in a Nethuns #7 microbrand watch:

Eta 6497 1 Plain Jane

More Watch brands using the 6497-1 as their movement:

Other brands using the 6497-1 as an ebauche:

  • Alpina (AL-435 / AL-650)
  • Chronoswiss (C692)
  • Glycine
  • Hamilton
  • Maurice Lacroix ( ML-16 / ML-1 / ML-100)
  • Panerai OP XXIX
  • Victorinox Swiss Army

Note: This short list is of brands and calibers using the 6497-1. There are plenty of other examples, not listed, which use the 6497-2 or original Unitas 6497.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

  • Easy to work on
  • Excellent beginner movement for tinkering or learning how to service/repair watches

Cons:

  • Non-hacking
  • Slow beat rate compared to other modern movements

Additional Resources:

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New Watch Alert: 8/21/2020 - The Truth About Watches
3 years ago

[…] caseback is shaped like an airplane window, not the face. The 43mm watch runs on a hand wound ETA Caliber 6497-1 – also used by Panerai, Victorinox Swiss Army, Glycine – with a repositioned crown and […]

trackback
Lépine Caliber Watch Movement | Caliber Corner
1 year ago

[…] At the time it was presented to the watch world, the concept of the Lepine movement was seen as a radical break from tradition, particularly the fusee which used two parallel plates. The Lepine only uses a bottom plate, with bridges. This made pocket watch assembly and repair easier, and the design quickly became the framework for the modern pocket watch. It is still found in wristwatch calibers produced today, such as the ETA 6497-1. […]

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Jewels Watch Movement | Caliber Corner
1 year ago

[…] pieces. Many basic manual-wind mechanical watches are equipped with 17 jewels (for example, the ETA/Unitas 6497-1), and popular self-winding automatic watched have 25 jewels (for example, the ETA 2824-2). The […]

Frank
Frank
1 year ago

Steinhart Nav B. Uhr 47 has this movement as 1 of 7 options

Karan
Karan
5 months ago

TISSOT T-COMPLICATION SQUELETTE MECHANICAL has this movement

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