I'll do your homework for you once, since you're going to believe whatever you want to believe, and that's fine.
This from searching Birdforum:
Hallo Bob and ofcourse all others Let me explain my background. Ik own House of Outdoor & Optics since 1993 and we have about 600 different models of almost every serious brand. I visit the several plants of the alfa's and beta's each year and this info of Kahles comes directly from the Kahles representative for the BeNeLux (Belgium Netherlands Luxemburg). I have just now checked our Kahles supplie and on the binoculars is only mentioned Austria. And NOT: made in Austria. So they do not lie!!!! About 8 years ago I visited the plant and saw no production facilities of bino's. Kahles is owned by Swarovski but is, within certain limits, an independent company. In Europe Kahles representatives are just business companys who deliver to the retailers like us and they have different brands in their portefolio. There is no connection for them what so ever to Swarovski. In fact, almost nobody knows all this. So in the Kahles samples I have there is no mentioning of where it is made, only Kahles Austria. Indeed, the new models are upgraded but they can't stand in the shadow of Big Daddy.
Jan.
David,
Bushnell, Opticron and Vortex have never, by my knowledge, made optics by themselves. In the past (and maybe still) the others produced some models and outsourced other models. So the optics of the first three are made, or can be made, in every optical plant in the world and some models are clones for sure. Kowa, Minox, Pentax and Nikon have produced by themselves and also sell clones under their name. Kahles only has one model in three versions; 8x32, 8x42 and 10x42. There is no need for them to go shopping around for a nicer price. The production quantity is low and their focus is more aimed at quality and personally I believe that Kamakura is making this model strict according to Kahles R&D specifications. So there will be no Chinese Kahles. There are though many Chinese, Japanese, etc. made Bushnells, Vixens, Opticrons, Vortex Pentax and Nikon bino's. Opticron is a british "clone" of the succes story of Bushnell. The founder (daddy) imported japanese optics and sold in mainly in the UK and now also on the continent. They have a very good and skilled repaircenter (like Bushnell has). Their label offers a lot of different models so the origin of countries will be divers. Kahles has just one model.
