17 Jewel Movements

The US and other countries apply customs import duties/taxes on mechanical watches manufactured outside their borders. Often you will see vintage watches with a US-version of a movement that only has 17 jewels, while the non-US version has more. The 17 jewels allow the watch to qualify for a lower tax.

A well-known example of this is the Zenith El Primero movement, which is found with 31 jewels or 17. Until recently, I was unaware that Omega made 17 jewel version of the cal. 1041 as well.

In the comments of my recent post on Speedmaster 125s, reader Hamish pointed to a Speedmaster 125 for sale with movement pics clearly showing a 17j movement that I do not doubt is legitimate. Until this example, I thought all 1040s and 1041s were 22 jewel movements but I was obviously mistaken.

Interestingly, this watch is currently in New Zealand. I’d love to know if New Zealand was also a market with high import duties on watches, and thus this practice was common.Oddly enough I’ve seen 22 jewel cal. 1040 movements delivered to the USA as verified by Omega through an extract  -you’d think if there was a 17j option the US would be an obvious region.

I don’t recall seeing any 17 jeweled 1040s, but it’s possible I just didn’t notice. I assume if they were changing the jewel count for one they’d do it for both. If you have an example of a cal. 1040 with 17 jewels, send me a photo of the movement.

By the way, the Movement Guide has been updated with this new information. Thanks Hamish!