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Old 30 August 2014, 01:06 PM   #27
michel33
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: france
Posts: 796
Hi guys, some more info I'd like to share with you about this watch.

I wanted to verify if the watch had been sold in North America, so I opened it to check the movement's jewel numbers.

Why? because during my research, I found that in order to protect US watch manufacturers, "The USA had an import tax for jewels Any count above 17 jewels was taxed heavily so you'll see many US caliber versions have 17 jewels (and are marked unadjusted even though they were adjusted because there was a tax on that too). The extra jewels were usually in the automatic winding system or some other extra function".(I quote this great explanation that comes from the Omegaforums.net member, "Ulackfocus").

For example, as an entry level diving watch, the 5513 Submariners sold in the North American countries had a 17 Jewels 1520 movement, but the 1680 and the 1665 kept their 26 jewels movements as they were sold as high end diving watches.

The Tudor 9401 2776 ETA, is originally a 25 jewels movement.

And yes, my watch features a 17 "unadjusted" jewels 2776 ETA movement, that proves it had been sold in North America.

I join hereafter a picture of another 9401 round markers/snowflake hands that features an ETA 2776 "north american" unadjusted 17 jewels movement, as you can see it engraved.  




And here is the summary table of Tudor Submariners movements featuring the "regular" jewels number:

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