ETA Caliber 6497-1

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

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:

• Nethuns No. 7 (stock standard ETA 6497-1): 386 clicks
• Kobold Spirit of America (decorated ETA 6497-1) 365 clicks

Others:

• Chronoswiss Timemaster (heavily modified 6497-1): 363 clicks (the watch started running after 29 clicks)

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.

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

Here is a macro view of the same movement:

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

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:

• ETA 6497-1 VS 6497-2
• ETA 6497 VS 6498
• Click for more examples of the caliber 6497