Counterfeits and fakes and bears! Oh my!

If only some of the people there spent half as much time, effort, and talent trying to advance their products instead of figuring out the best ways on how to make a couple extra dollars...

 

Behringer is an interesting company in the pro audio world. German in name, but their manufacturing is all Chinese and they rip off designs shamelessly. They don't even bother to change aesthetics to match the rest of their gear, and there have been many lawsuits brought against them over the years.

This is one of the more blatant ones with a cable tester:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/CT100
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SwizzArmy
With this one Ebtech chose not to sue because it wasn't worth it to pursue them. They posted it publicly and let people know, but that's about as far as they took it.

Here a ripoff of SPL, with an even larger price gap:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/2Control
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MONITOR2USB

Most people in the pro world know this, and many don't want to support a company like them, but for many others the bottom dollar is what matters and that's how Behringer keeps winning. The thing is, Behringer is actually capable of designing and building good products (I have more faith in their digital stuff), but they choose to cut corners and keep stealing designs.

Early on Behringer had additional bad reputation for poor quality and high failure rate (especially with power amps and other rack gear), but they eventually cleaned up their manufacturing. From what I've read online, they moved to a new plant and established more quality control which improved their products. Ironically, Mackie at that time moved their manufacturing to China and wound up in the same plants formerly used by Behringer, and Mackie's reputation for quality tanked very quickly (mostly due to the fail rates of their powered speakers) until they finally rebuilt their name on their mixers.

 

You should do some research on Luxoticca. High-end glasswear is a sham imo.

 

I'm too lazy to research.
Do tell

 

Basics: luxotica has a monopoly on eyewear, high-end and low-end, owns most retail stores as well as manufacturers most. It's silly imo

 

At first, I thought the guy was genuine, but hey, I'm naive.

Great.

Totally offtopic to this thread, but...

Which is why, so long as that guy's posts remain visible, however much he may be discredited, he has still got his advertising up and active on the internet. He won.

I know the tradition is that walking the plank and keel-hauling is public and left for all to see, but in cases of outright shilling, perhaps the content should not be left up?

And back to the thread. I have never spent more than GBP100 on a watch, and never will. Never will be able to is only a part of that. A friend and colleague used to think me extravagant, saying that he would never spend more than GBP-five on a watch, and his five-pound watch was just as accurate as my 100-pound watch. Of course, he was right. Casio can probably equal anything from a Swiss workshop so far as telling accurate time is concerned.

Whatever it is that people buy those fantastic pieces of engineering (yes, I do admire them) for, it is not accuracy.

 

Wow, that's what I'd call a....

 

Here is my perspective as someone who owns some > GBP100 watches...

First, you & your colleague are 100% correct.
Though one could also say that a genuine LV hand bag is just as effective as a $10 pleather bag from walmart when it comes to carrying a cell phone, make-up, etc. Most purchasers of high priced watches and handbags will acknowledge that their purchase decisions were absolutely not based on the level of utility (how well the LV bag carries stuff & how well their Rolex keeps time). When it comes to fashion, jewelry etc. it really comes down to a combination of what you can afford, what your priorities are, and who you associate with at work and play.... and its a matter of different strokes for different folks. I can tell you that I think it's nuts to spend $200 on a boss or lacoste polo when I can get a really nice one for $50, yet for some reason I have no problem with a $2000 watch. My justification is that I figure I'll wear one of my five watches pretty much every day and a new watch is something I acquire only every 5 years or so.

Maybe its also important to acknowledge the difference between "I paid $10,000 to have a watch that can do this" VS "I did so, and the additional accuracy is something I derive a real benefit from". This is no different than buying a supercar, I'd imagine there is some pride in the fact you can hit 60mph in 3 seconds and pass 200 mph BUT it matters little when all you do is cruise in rush hour traffic with your windows down.

This reminds me of a post I read (on SBAF I believe) about road bikes. The poster suggested a certain brand was along the lines of "everything you need in a casual bike". Having only ever been exposed to < $750 brands I figured it would be a really good $1500 racing bike. I was stunned that the list price for this casual bike was in the range of $6500+!!! Edited to include the bike's brand name... Cannondale (the $6500 one )

 

it is only a few hundred years since it was a challenge to make any time piece sufficiently accurate, durable and stable for navigation of a relatively slow-moving ship. I imagine that, these days, my friend's five-quid watch would do fine. Not even the navigator needs greater accuracy.

As an outsider looking in, I'm curious to know: when you are buying USD-$$$ watches, are they mechanical or electronic? Accuracy with electronics seems to be cheap and easy these days, but is there any practical difference in the accuracy of different-priced mechanical watches?

I had always thought that what people paid for with mechanical watches, apart from precious metals and jewels (on the outside) was complexity, eg those incredible things that tell you where Venus left its shopping list last Thursday. And do it with incredible beauty too. I can always accept pride of ownership as a good reason for spending one's money. I can see the pride of ownership in complex watches.

Come to think of it (thinking while waffling!) I can see the pride of ownership in a non-complex but high quality hand-made mechanical watch.

 

In my case I could not care less about accuracy as long as my watches are accurate enough that I don't notice. In that sense a $10 casio is more than enough for me. TBH, I feel the quote you inserted above (if read on its own) takes my point out of context and its certainly not how I feel.

My first >$100 watch was a stainless steel TAG Aquaracer that I recall was in the range of $1000 about 15 years ago. It is a quartz movement but its been virtually indestructible and carries a lot of good memories with it. I'll probably give it to my son in a couple years. I have one other quartz but the other 3 are all mechanical. Pride of ownership is definitely a motivation for me.