The Pellaton winding system is invented by Albert Pellaton in 1950, the Magic Lever System came later in 1959. There was a debate whether the magic lever was indeed an improved version of the Pellaton system. However one thing for sure, watch manufacturer under Richemont group, IWC, Panerai, Cartier and even JLC does using the magic lever system in some of their watches and admit albeit secretly it is adopt from a seiko design. You're also correct, as they didn't buy a seiko ebauche to put in their watch per se.
My point is the swiss then to be rather petty when it comes to acknowledgment of others beside their own. I don't think it is a big fuss to adopt an existing system and improve upon it but trying to hide the fact by mislabeling isn't helping their integrity.
On top of that IWC and JLC actually are great company. they are not like TagH or OP(Panaerai). I think in order to to be cost effective they have to use to Magic Lever system in some of their lower end watch. Just like they use quartz but they don't try tell you it's not power by battery.
On one side I'm happy that Seiko's technology is regard among the best in the world but on the other side I hate to see other abuse it by not giving them proper credit. Are the swiss ashamed by the fact they are adopting some of seiko design? Seem rather insecure to me.
We as customer sometimes being misled to believe all IWC comes with pellaton winding system but on da vinci and aquatimer chrono it's more like a magic lever system. Where the actual Pellaton are only to be found on the more expansive 500x caliber and 80xxx.
It's sad to miss out important detail like that.
Regards
Tyler
Albert Pellaton invented the all famous Pellaton winding system. It was use for most of their watches from 50s till 90s. However their new caliber 89xxx and 801xx is actually using seiko magic lever type design. They won't tell you in public but I think they will admit. Seiko's Magic Lever winding design is a better system for mass manufacturing.
Regards
Tyler
Ya i want to know too....
Whats the story behind them?
I don;t know about IWC but I do know about Seiko and Tag 1887 calibre. So what about IWC?
I don't think IWC is using Seiko magic lever. It is similar in design to the Pellaton design perhaps simplified or maybe even adopted. Both the Pellaton and Magic lever came out about the same time but the Pellaton had more parts thus making the Magic lever 'better' as it has less parts and easier to mass produce. Even Cartier new in-house movement uses the same design. It is no biggie to me as I always believe in why recreate the wheel.
