ETA/Unitas Caliber 6498-1 Watch Movement

Eta 6498 1 Mechanical Movement

Manufacturer	ETA
Caliber Number	6498-1
Base Caliber	6498
Lignes	16.5”’
Diameter	36.6mm
Height	4.5mm thick
Jewels	17
Vibrations Per Hour	18,800 bph
Lift Angle	44 degrees
Power Reserve	46 hours officially (some claim 48, up to 53 hours)
Functions	Central hours; central minutes; small running seconds subdial at 6:00
Hacking Seconds?	No
Country of Manufacture	Switzerland
Known Models	Votum Blue Ocean, Eberhard & Co. Traversetolo (Too many to list, add your watch in the comments below…)

The ETA/Unitas caliber 6498-1 is part of ETA’s Mecaline Specialies line of movements. It is a hand-wound or manual-wound movement and is considered to be one of the most common mechanical calibers on the market. This is essentially a pocket watch movement that has been adopted by the wristwatch.

Some of the topics covered in this caliber listing:

6498-1 vs 6498-2:

The main difference between the 6498-1 and the 6498-2 is that the -1 beats at 18,800vph while the -2 beats at 21,600vph. Click here to learn more.

6497 vs 6498:

The caliber 6498-1 is often mixed up with the ETA/Unitas 6497-1. The main difference between these two calibers is that the 6498 has the seconds subdial at 6:00 and the 6497 has the seconds at 9:00. Click here to learn more.

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. 6498-1 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.

Other Examples of 6498-1 Powered Watches:

The example below was found in this Eberhard Traversetolo flieger watch. Notice the perlage finishing, custom branded ratchet wheel and other branding.