Watchlords

Screen shots taken from walca asia site by me in 2009. After publication at watch forums the links went 404. Doxa has claimed to be swiss made but no one has ever toured their factory. Wonder why?




http://www.walca.ch/index.php?m=100&c=100

http://www.walca.ch/index.php?m=100&c=100







Jenny Family aka Walca owns Doxa also.

Wonder if this company employes the top 15% of all Invicta watchmakers who work on Swizmaid Cheez.
We should have them make a Watchlards Lalo timpiece

they could call it the cesspool...........

Innovation, discretion and reliability.

They Ain't telling nobody your Swiss made watch was made in China!

This image turns my stomach. I will now look at my 5000t with very jaundice eyes.

Interesting Doxa connection. In business "mainly to produce fine watches made in far east in a mid and high level range". Shorthand-we'll hook you up and stay quiet about it. Where do you think their brands are made? You can tell the text was written by someone with a rudimentary grasp on the English language.

I wonder who their Customer base is. Wenth through the Websites of the links, not a whole lot of information in their company. The Design to Production aspect was slightly comical, I doubt they have the capabilities to do a full blown design from scratch on their own. From the pic, it may only be a coincidence, but Doxa may be a Customer.

Mark1 wrote:Interesting Doxa connection.

Indeed....interesting

Explains why "professional" was spelled incorrectly on a run of 500 Doxas.

great find.

Jeeze - I've been coveting mrneddles' 5000T.
Not so sure now.

if a company in question does not have real watch factory in Swiss, not just office , its a good chance its either made in china or assembled by small company using know parts from top-tier suppliers, if a company is unclear where its watches are made , most likely have Chinese connection.

i have been lusting over a 1200 sharkhunter recently..........time for reevaluation

Just to add...

I don't necessarily mind if something is made in China, as long as the company contracting the production has strict QC or has someone on-hand to manage the work being done.

I've experience in this when I worked for a company that manufactured a custom piece of electronics (custom PCB, ASICs, housing, etc). When left to their own devices, the Chinese manufacturers would produce garbage. But if you reject the poorly made samples and provide proper feedback, you can get very high quality. Same factory, same workers, and in most cases the same price.

Someone should post the Chinese Doxa case pictures on WUS.

yes it makes sense in electronics thats a technology driven and products have short shelf life. Watches are priced according to company history , who and where its made , its a marketing gimmick that we associate as " BRAND" image. If a DOXA watch company says that their watch case is made in China and so on even the its very well made, who wants to pay "SWISS MADE" prices for their watches?

newmedia wrote:yes it makes sense in electronics thats a technology driven and products have short shelf life. Watches are priced according to company history , who and where its made , its a marketing gimmick that we associate as " BRAND" image. If a DOXA watch company says that their watch case is made in China and so on even the its very well made, who wants to pay "SWISS MADE" prices for their watches?

Where do you think your Italian suits are made? Italy? :) Hell, the "Italian wool" is probably from Italian-born sheep moved to China...

Weasel words are everywhere.

I don't wear suit and only one suit I have is custom made by family member + it does not have any label. LOL

Am fortunate to have owned the majority of my most coveted high end Swiss pieces for quite some years now. I suspect that my future high dollar Swiss purchases will mainly be for vintage pieces just because of the creeping "orientalization" of watch manufacturing. As I get older, I seem to be more and more a "Tory" in regard to my expectations for some products, especially "Swiss made" watches. "Sino-Swiss made" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Note that the letterhead also shows "Walca Switzerland". Do we have a photo of 23A Zurichstrasse in Bienne?

http://www.swisstime.ch/pgs/SwissTimeBrandPdf.php?e=559&l=en

http://www.swisstime.ch/pgs/rwi-pgs-entr-lgs-en-ide-559.html

http://baselcatalog.messe.ch/mch/zoomdetails_search.asp?exhibitor=114569


http://www.walca.ch/?m=300&c=300


http://walca.ch/index.php?m=330&c=330&id=15

This all has a familiar ring, scent, smell to it. I've heard there are less than 20 Swiss watch companies that claim 100% in country manufacture. I've also heard that I would be "very surprised" to see the companies that use Chinese components in their "Swiss" watches. From what I've been able to gather, most use cases and bracelets from China as well as buckles and deployants.
I feel that for the most part as long as the watch's quality remains as high as before I'm okay with it. I'll just continually remind myself that any "Swiss Made" watch which seems to have a very reasonable price very probably contains components of Chinese manufacture. I'm also starting to have a bit more respect for companies like Deep Blue that make no secrets about the fact that they buy off the shelf components, and then tell you about it. They make no claims of being Swiss made, but they use Swiss movements in many models and charge accordingly. I would much rather deal with a company like that than one with mysterious factories somewhere in Switzerland and has Chinese movements somehow end up in their "Swiss" watches. Sorta glad I didn't really take a liking to Doxa watches too.

That next to last link is most revealing. Mentions their ability to provide certificates of origin and that most of their Swiss production is (apparently) subcontracted although they make some specialized pieces at their own facility.

Just like my Tissots with Hong Kong stamped on the casebacks.



To paraphrase John's statement:

"... as long as Tissot complies with Swiss Federation rules, which we all know by rote, there's nothing particularly wrong with this. For the price, I'd expect Tissot watches to have Chinese cases."

check out the list of companies they make watches for.

http://www.swisstime.ch/pgs/rwi-pgs-nprd-lgs-en-an-2011.html