I've been doing a lot of reading (including outside of this forum) because the subject matter of rep and gen watches and the inherent value of reps and gens fascinates mr from a philosophical perspective. The quality of a gen would undoubtedly be better overall, I don't think that issue is in dispute, but the question is 'how much better'... I would say it's mainly the movement that distinguishes the two (not including functionless 21j movements that don't correctly operate like the gen, but actual clone movements that replicate the operation an in most cases the functionality of yhe original, such as th A7750 and 28xx clones etc to name just the most obvious) With all the interesting posts on the level of finishing doe in china, with final assembly in Swiss to be able to stamp the movement, that is frankly the clincher. I would say that the products with slightly finished ETA movements (Breitling pre B01, Longines, Omega etc) are inherently worth less that the hand finished masterpieces from the hand-finished wonders from VC, Patek etc.
If we consider the case, I would say the level of machining sophistication that the Asian factories have is almost (but not quite) on par with the German CNC machines the Swiss use. I've gathered that tolerance issues when creating reps are not the fault of lack of tolerance in machining, but laziness from the factories. Though, to be fair, some pics of the latest super reps has shown that they are definitely pulling up their socks in this area.
A wise man once told me the 'Golden Rule' of product cost breakdowns. He said that, in most cases, for western-produced items the costs were almost always 33% labour, 33% production materials and 33% overheads. Incredibly, though you might think different industries skew this value, most industries creating a tangible product for sale need people to design it, male it and market it. This applies to Rolex, but not to Rolex clones. For Asian makers, they don't advertise, as Rolex does that for them (;o)) and labour costs are lower than in Western countries. So in a clone, you ate really only paying for tooling costs for the machines for the factory, the movements are sub US100 for the most expensive Chronos and a Swiss 6497 can be had for peanuts at Retail, so you know they're cheap to make at wholesale, there's a small wholesale profit to the dealers and then they put on their 20-30% which is fair enough.
Considering the fact the Asian movements are not as well finished, often not waterproofed to the same levels or in some cases not even functionally equivalent, it's ceasy to make the mistake than most people make and say they're not worth as much... But it's comparing apples to oranges. Speaking about the ETA-powered sector, they took about the same time to build (shorter with the asian cases and movts with less QC) and about the same amount of effort went into making each one. They both take a similar time and effort - the Swiss just did it properly the first time ;o)
I would say that Frankens represent (ironically enough) the MOST value for money. They are heavily QCed and remachined by their obsessive owners (the finger is squarely pointed at the Paneristi of the forum) who obsess and discuss the various thicknesses of CGs and the level of concavity of their crowns to within micron tolerances. Gen dials and hands (and in some cases, movements such as Concepta's wonderful Portos) are added and the end result is usually twice to three times the price of a rep factory item, but still only 10-20% of retail and at 98% accuracy. Cost/Benefit seems highest for frankens, which is why we see so many on the boards being made and traded. Plus it's fun )
It's been interesting to read the various perspectives on this issue, fascinating topic.