This morning at the Chapter One mart, I saw a lot of Chinese watches. One was a real Tourbillon, and it was only $1000. Some of them had Swiss parts and were assembled and finished in China. Some were pretty rough copies of the famous brands. Some were (IMO) very nicely done, and were very inexpenive. This may be a case of horological Darwinism. If the Chinese are pumping these watches out at these prices, I think they might eventually overtake the Swiss as they improve. Check out the link below. I know this one is pretty flashy and not to everyone's taste, but I held the identical watch today. I was impressed that it could be sold for under $100. I did not buy one, but was tempted.

http://cgi.ebay.com/21J-AUTOMATIC-MULTIFUNCTION-SKELETO...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Scott,

I think Lindell is correct in his evaluation.

What we're in the procees of seeing is a 21st. Century "Industrial Revolution" where many, many items which used to be primarily manufactured in Europe or the USA are moving to China. I think this will eventually include much of the watch industry as we know it today. However having said this, I think there will always be a place for high end, luxury watches. Who knows where these will eventually come from in the future.

If you read Business Week on a regular basis you'll see that China is rapidly becomming the "Global Manufacturing Country" while India is fast becomming a primary provider of Software Development, Online Tech Support and Financial Services

NOTE:- I read recently, there were more Tourbillons made in the last year or so than had been made in the past 200 years since it was invented.

Most people do not realize that China has become the world’s largest consumer of precision computer controlled machinery. And it is not by a small percentage. We will see the demise of manufacturing in most of the traditional manufacturing countries in our lifetime. It has been happening for the last six years. Most of the world’s major manufactures have or are in the process of opening plants in China. They have also become the world’s largest user of oil and this is one of the reasons oil prices have and will continue to rise.