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Manufacture
Modern definitions of this word are not clear-cut, but most experts agree that the term should be used for a company that manufactures at least one caliber, or extremely important parts of it such as the base plate, on premises. While fifteen years ago this constituted only a handful of companies in Switzerland and Germany, today's competitive market has forced a number of other creative souls to invest in developing their own movements. ETA, owned by the Swiss Group, is the largest manufacture in Switzerland. The word itself is derived from Latin (though horologists prefer to use the French variation) and means "made by hand."
