I think, for those with the Miyota or Swiss movement, it’s probably because it’s been assembled in Germany, rather than actually made there or maybe because the dials, made from the owner’s luxury cars, might be classed as an essential selling feature for those watches even though the movements are not German. As I said, German Chamber of Commerce have guidelines, but how strictly watch brands adhere to that god knows, I don’t think it anywhere near as strict as Swiss Made standards, which itself is not strict enough, seems to be enough ways for dubious brands to get around that.
I’ve looked at Proxima watches(and the San Martin, 62MAS homage) a few times, they’ve got a few nice Seiko homage watches at good prices. Although I do think it’s a wee bit unfair to compare prices, there is bound to be a big difference in labour costs between Chinese brands and Seiko, BTW the SBDX017 does have sapphire and of course a way better movement, but having said that I do think a lot of Seiko watches have gotten overpriced in recent years. Although I do think eventually well see Chinese watches rise in price, at the moment the brands are able to take advantage of the very low labour costs, but I think that will change over time.
I agree with you, lot of better quality Chinese brands out there these days, but there still is a lot of poorer quality watches, with little quality control. Seen a few watchmakers on youtube taking apart Chinese movements that look good through the display back, but once they start taking them apart, it’s obvious that there is poor quality control, with scratches, marks, dust/dirt, fingerprints etc on/in parts of the movement.
