JGR
Good question. This is just my opinion and that's all it is, but I would place no bets on this being totally "Made in Germany". It says Steiner Germany on the box and the binocular. The printing on the box and included literature does everything to leave the impression that this is a German product. It talks about German engineering, German design, German excellence, and Steiner's experience as a German binocular maker. However, the terminology "Made in Germany" never shows up. For that matter neither does "Made in" ever appear. In my view, if this was a real deal "Made in Germany" what on earth should possibly prevent that from being large print advertisement both on the binocular, the packaging, and on the website? Personally the only thing I can think of is there is a substantial input of parts from elsewhere. I'm cynical enough to think that Steiner is well aware of the China sentiment and is avoiding the issue. I tend to think they do just enough to adhere to German legal status on the made in Germany issue and are leaving it there.
Steiner owns a big facility in China, so it seems to me this has to be used to get to the price/quality this shows. I'll give them the engineering, design, development and experience. That's not the issue. But I bet the design and development leads to a product of the Steiner facility in Germany and then it is given to the Steiner facility in China to produce at least some to a lot (who knows how much?)of the various things that are in a binocular.
This is probably like what Kruger does with the Caldera. Kruger owns the whole process of the binocular from start to finish, likewise Steiner owns the whole process from start to finish. However Kruger has to use terms like "Crafted in the USA" or "Engineered in the USA" or "Assembled in the USA from US and imported parts". Kruger also makes no effort to hide or mask the China influence as they use it.
I called Steiner a couple of times and the first person obviously had no clue and the second one adroitly danced around the question.
All that aside, this is still a very good binocular.
