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Gizmodo Writes About Our Shared Addiction


tenacious_b

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Actually I thought the article was very flattering to both us and the rep makers and basically spurned the Rolexs of the world to get with the program, follow China's example, and put out a high quality product that doesnt carry a luxury price tag just for the privelige of wearing it.

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I couldn't figure out the part about Guangdong, because I've always read about Guangzhou as the watch capital of China, but Paul apparently lives in Guangdong and his bank's in Guangzhou. I guess Guangdong is a suburb of Guangzhou, maybe.

Guangzhou is the capital city of Guangdong province. Shenzhen is a smaller city, which is also in Guangdong province. Most of the reps sole by our dealers are manufactured either in Shenzhen or in the suburbs of Guangzhou.

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Thanks Infinitime. As they say, it's all Chinese to me!

You're welcome! :) I actually had an opportunity to visit one of these plants in Shenzhen last year, when I was in China on business. Contrary to popular belief of a sweatshop operation, the factory was quite new and extremely clean, with the factory works in white-overalls seated at rolls of tables, assembly-line fashion. This particular factory was a subcontractor for an ETA affilitate, which manufactured and assembled the cases, crystals and steel bracelets for an unspecified medium-tier Swiss marque (given the case design, it was easily recognizable). I was told that the plant was set up to run three shifts per day of seven hours each, with the 3 remaining hours used for maintenance... Yes, you heard right, the plant runs essentially 24 hours a day!!!

With a nudge and a wink, my guide told me that the plant often produced surplus inventory, which was sold to "secondary customers" for "other" applications. Without giving away too much, he basically hinted that the overproduction was deliberate, and used for rep watches. Apparently, quite a few of the legitimate sub-contractors did this. If this guy was to be taken at his word, at least some of the parts used in the reps are genuine, or at least manufactured by the same people who make the genuine parts.

Another piece of information which came as a surprise to me, apparently the unit price of the cases charged of the Swiss company was LESS than for the "secondary customers". That means that the Swiss companies are actually paying less for their parts, then the rep dealers are paying! (Due to the volume of the order i imagine).

Overall, an interesting trip. In a subsequent phone conversation with the representative I spoke with, he quickly changed the topic when I raised questions about the "secondary customers"...:) I guess he got in trouble with his superiors for sharing too much information... :)

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