ETA 1080

Description

The caliber ETA 1080 launched in 1950 and its construction was pioneering for nearly all manual wind movements of that decade. It got its accolade in terms of the ETA 1256, which was the first selfwinding ETA movement, based on exactly that ETA 1080.

It was available with different shock protections, the three-leg one use here could not be identified further.

There are no construction traces of older movements any more, it’s a very modern construction where no more distinct gear bridges are used, but all the gears are under one single, triangular shaped gear bridge, except the …

In the fifties, it was common, that the minute wheel was directly driven by the mainspring and located under an own cock. The upper jewel bearing is also used for the center second hand, which is also directly driven.

With a directly driven center second, this movement was up to date in the 1950ies and pioneering for uncountable other movement of the same construction.

The shock protected screw balance in beared in two Incablock shock protections and beats slowly with 18000 A/h. It easy to guess, that it controls a conventional swiss pallet lever movement.

On the dial side, everything is typical for the 1950ies, the yoke winding system, the Incablock bearings and the extensive use cap jewels, even for the oil-free lever bearing.

The specimen shown here, has got the highest number of jewels available, 21 jewels, but there were also other versions available with “only” 17 jewels, where most cap jewels were ommitted, except the cap jewel on the movement side for the escapement wheel.