Sellita Manufacture AMT

What is Sellita AMT?

When the “AMT” designation is found in Sellita caliber numbers, it represents a watch movement that was made by Manufacture AMT SA, a brand of Sellita.

In other words, Manufacture AMT is where Sellita produces high-end custom or bespoke “manufacture” movements for watch brands.

There is not much public information about Manufacture AMT, not even a website could be found. It sort of feels like: if you know, you know.

When other watch publications write about a watch powered by a movement produced by Manufacture AMT, you will likely see one or two sentences containing “Sellita” and “high-end”, without any other deeper information provided.

Even Sellita’s own website lacks substantial information regarding Manufacture AMT and the official 2022-2023 catalog only mentions it once:

“As a fully-fledged manufacturer, Sellita has in-house control over all the essential stages of the design, production and assembly of high-quality mechanical movements. Product of a strong vertical integration strategy, Sellita has its own movement blanks factory (Gurofa), its own electroplating and decoration business (Technicor) and a bar turning company (Helios). Sellita’s expertise even extends to the design and manufacture of its own machines as well as the regulating organ, the heart of the mechanical movement. In addition to its traditional core business, Sellita now also offers custom-made movements and complications as well as a range of high-end movements under the Manufacture AMT brand.” –Source

Furthering the notion of custom-made movements and complications, Sellita’s Head of Innovation and Marketing was asked about such capabilities in this interview. Here was the response:

“Yes, we have launched a second brand called Manufacture AMT to offer these services. Basically, everything is possible, from an entirely new calibre especially designed and reserved for a client to smaller aesthetic modifications of existing calibres. We also develop a lot of additional complications based on clients’ requests. Last, but not least, we also offer a lot of custom-made skeleton movements.”

When did Sellita start making AMT movements?

Sellita officially filed for a trademark on the logo and name in April 2019, claiming their first use of the trademark to be in November of 2018. The company appears to have been officially registered in Switzerland in October 2021.

Where is Manufacture AMT located?

Although Sellita is headquartered in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, Manufacture AMT SA appears to be located about an hour away in Grenchen, Switzerland – at least on paper. This is the same area that companies including ETA, Breitling, Eterna, Epos, Fortis and Nivada Grenchen can be found – also at least on paper.

Speaking of locations on paper, it is interesting that the current address used to register Manufacture AMT as a commerical enterprise is the same exact address as Eterna Movements SA (as well as Dreyfuss & Co SA and Fabrique de montres Rotary S.A.). Eterna (also Dreyfuss and Rotary) is owned by Citychamp Watch & Jewellery Group Limited (previously known as China Haidan Holdings), a Hong Kong based investment holding company. Eterna also has their own manufacture movements. The connection/relationship, if any, between the two companies is still unknown, but searching the Manufacture AMT address listed on Swiss Commercial Register documents, points to Eterna’s address – with the first result being Eterna’s contact page.

Movement Awareness: you may find watch brands that use custom or special order calibers produced by Manufacture AMT (or other similar so-called Manufacture movement makers such as Kenissi, Manufacture la Joux-Perret, etc.), but incorrectly refer to their movements as being “in-house”. Although marketing and industry-wide caliber confusion makes it foggy, there is a difference between an in-house movement and a manufacture movement. This is smoke and mirrors marketing tactic seems to be prevalent in the watch industry in recent years, particularly with Swiss luxury watch brands.

Additional Resources:

• List of Sellita movements