The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi Guys,
one of my friends told me that omega & few other high end swiss brands actually assemble their watches in china?
the parts are made in swiss but assembled in china? is that true? find it very hard to believe, anyone knows any info regarding this?
Does breitling do the same?


Thanks..

Not true at all, and that goes for any high-end Swiss brand who call themselves Swiss Made. There are very strict laws about when a watch can be called "Swiss Made" (like Breitling and Omega watches), and assembly in China would most definitely breach those laws. To have the Swiss Made moniker on the dial or caseback, a watch must adhere to the following minimum standard under Swiss law -

a) The movement must be Swiss (see below),
b) The movement must be cased up in Switzerland,
and
c) The manufacturer must do the final inspection in Switzerland.

And the movement can only be called Swiss if -

a) It has been assembled in Switzerland,
b) It has been inspected by the manufacturer in Switzerland,
and
c) It is made up of at least 50% (by total value) Swiss manufactured components.

Therefore, some components may well be constructed abroad, but the watch must be assembled in Switzerland.

Additionally (and this is from Wikipedia), in 2007 this law was further tightened up with the following wording - "Accordingly, any mechanical watch in which at least 80% of the production cost is attributable to operations carried out in Switzerland would be considered as a mechanical Swiss watch. For other watches, particularly electronic watches, this rate would be 60%. Technical construction and prototype development would moreover need to be carried out in Switzerland. Raw materials, precious stones and the battery would be excluded from the production cost. The Swiss movement in the existing ordinance already has a value criterion, namely the rate of 50%. Considering that here, too, the definition needs reinforcing, the draft amends these value criteria. For mechanical movements therefore, the rate would be at least 80% of the value of all constituent parts. For other movements, particularly electronic movements, this rate would be 60%. Technical construction and prototype development in Switzerland would also be a requirement in this case. The draft also stipulates other provisions concerning the definition of Swiss constituent parts and assembly in Switzerland."

Hence, high-end brands such as Omega, Breitling, Rolex, etc, have to adhere to these controls in order to be called Swiss Made watches.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

I never understood this....what if the Swiss Watchmaker decides to move to China, but use all Swiss parts, even uses Swiss watchmakers, basically they just move their locale to China, but everything is exactly the same as in Switzerland?

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End of Discussion.

Then it's a Chinese watch.

my friend was given this info through a multi brand swiss watch dealer, what crap people spread..

Just think though - let's imagine they were made in China, how much would they be if they were then made in Switzerland?!

Stop all this talk of Chinese watches.

I still regret not buying this Fiyta Space Watch when I saw one in Shanghai...

Sigh.

D

As much as they are now. If they were made in China, there would be no way to justify the current prices.

well the topic is not about made in china, its assembled in china thats what was told to my friend, dunno why people didn't get the topic right except for driver8

The line between "assembled" and "made" is a blurry one. As D8 pointed out, in order to be Swiss "made," the watches must be assembled in Switzerland, in addition to having a requisite number number of parts that were manufactured in Switzerland. By definition, if the watch is assembled in China, it would not be Swiss made, even if it has all Swiss parts; by that logic, it would then be "made" in China.

hmmn, yup that makes sense..

mmm, reminds me of Doxa...

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"The biggest difference between time and space is that you can't reuse time". // {Merrick Furst}

Assembled is quite unambiguous to me. It MUST be assembled in Switzerland. Period. Who cares if some component parts that go into final assembly come from elsewhere? It's not as though you can import the Chrono module to slap on a Swiss three hand movement and still call it Swiss Made.

I've read claims before that the pre-assembly or even final assembly of ETA movements is done in secret in China. Yeah, and the factories are gaurded by Yetis.

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SHARKMAN

Apart from price though, would it really make a difference to your next purchase IF it were assembled under licence in China: with all the appropriate QC & warranty etc.? Would it put you off from buying it? Just curious...

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Oyster Date '78, Blackbird chrono DLC '10, Blackbird chrono' 02, Navitimer Fighters '02, Aerospace Evo , Seamaster Chrono Diver 300' 02, Carrera cbm2110

yes it would, unless the prices slash is more then 50% then its something to think about..