Here is a related thing that I saw elsewhere on the net.
Everybody hears about "Swiss watches", and a Swiss watch will have written on
the bottom of the dial in very small letters "SWISS MADE". However they have
their own laws that govern this, and right now it only requires something like
51% of the value of the parts to be manufactured in Switzerland, and the last
assembly must be performed in Switzerland. Considering what some of the
brands charge for minor components, they could buy cheap Chinese made parts
for very little money, and supply a Swiss made dial that would cost just by
itself more than the cost of all of the other parts, and assemble it in
Switzerland, and comply with the rule to be "Swiss Made". IMO the label
"Swiss Made" only means that Switzerland is where the profits go, and the
product could be very poor. Well in usual fashion the name brands produce a
good product although you can still buy a $1,000 watch from brands like TAG
Heur and be receiving a $10 movement. This won't happen with brands like
Rolex and Omega, but beware of the brands advertised in magazines that you
never heard of. (I once bought a $150 Festina (French) and a $15 Casio, and
when it came time to change batteries I discovered that they had the very same
model of cheap Japanese movement.) There is a move in recent times to change
the law to require that 80% of the value of the components derive from
Switzerland. I think if I was buying a Swiss watch and paying 30 times as
much for it as I pay for my nice Seiko watches, I would want 100% of its parts
to be from Switzerland.
BTW, I am a big supporter of made in America but I find it a bit ironic that
we talk about such a thing on a mailing list dedicated to a car that was NOT
made in America.
> Jay Fishbein wrote: "If it means assembled from foreign
> parts.....well......"
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