Clouds on the horizon? (1 Viewer)

[PeterPS]

For example:
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/family-feud-rages-swarovski-empire-094239373.html
We can only hope that the binocular business won't be badly affected.

 

[Troubador]

Grim news indeed.

Lee

 

[Dutchbirder64]

it was on Austrian television mid October when we visited my son racing. A lot of people laid off due to Swarovski downfall in their glass jewelry section of the company.

 

[Mono]

I don't really think it will impact the optics arm. It is an almost trivial part of the overall business less than 5%. It is managed as a self contained business and is profitable.

 

[sidpost]

The business reality is what it is. Family businesses like this can be the most difficult to manage in challenging times. It would seem things can't stay the same but, some don't want to see them change. The problem is that the marketplace has changed and if Swarovski doesn't they will decline from the retail powerhouse they have historically been. Do they really think cut glass crystals for clothing can seriously compete against similar options from China for ~1% of the cost?

Zeiss seems to be going through similar machinations in the retail optics business whether it is rebranding Meopta produced binoculars on the East Coast of the USA or rebranded Asian binoculars for mass-market retailers.

We all can see what happened when Phillips sold their retail electronics business even though they were one of the developers of the original Compact Disc. Now, they seem to be thriving having sold their retail electronics business to China and refocused on developing various medical technology lines of products.

 

[Jessie-66]

There are already new inexpensive series of binoculars with innovative optics, NLs are obsolete (vintage bins), Swarovski CL (Crystal) are new contemporary trendsetters ...

SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL MEMORIES FERNGLAS, Minifernglas, Schmuck | eBay

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SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL MEMORIES FERNGLAS, Minifernglas, Schmuck | eBay

Finden Sie Top-Angebote für SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL MEMORIES FERNGLAS, Minifernglas, Schmuck bei eBay. Kostenlose Lieferung für viele Artikel!

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[dries1]

With my time left, I will enjoy what is left of Western Civilization; no more glass from the far east for me.

Andy W.

 

[Troubador]

Zeiss seems to be going through similar machinations in the retail optics business .........rebranding Meopta produced binoculars on the East Coast of the USA

Really? Please tell us more........

Lee

 

[PeterPS]

There are already new inexpensive series of binoculars with innovative optics, NLs are obsolete (vintage bins), Swarovski CL (Crystal) are new contemporary trendsetters ...

SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL MEMORIES FERNGLAS, Minifernglas, Schmuck | eBay

Finden Sie Top-Angebote für SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL MEMORIES FERNGLAS, Minifernglas, Schmuck bei eBay. Kostenlose Lieferung für viele Artikel!

www.ebay.de

SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL MEMORIES FERNGLAS, Minifernglas, Schmuck | eBay

Finden Sie Top-Angebote für SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL MEMORIES FERNGLAS, Minifernglas, Schmuck bei eBay. Kostenlose Lieferung für viele Artikel!

www.ebay.de

And if you are on a budget you can buy an ashtray...
Seriously, I hope that the impact on Swarovski Optik will be minor.
I have recently talked several times to their CS and felt that people there were visibly more stressed and tensed than before, and they needed longer times to act than they used to, but the cause might be the pandemic rather than the restructuring of their company.

 

[sidpost]

Really? Please tell us more........

Lee

Lee,

At least in the Dallas, Tx area, their lower-end product lines are the ones in the retail chains. If you want Terra binoculars or a ~$500 Conquest scope, they are pretty easy to find at places like Academy Sports.

At my last Dallas Safari Convention show, Zeiss was poorly represented with Swarovski being the 800-pound Gorilla in the optics realm. It was a toss-up between Zeiss and Leica in terms of overall representation at the show though the outfitters there definitely seemed to have a preference for Leica options.

Zeiss German manufactured sports optics distribution in the USA falls way behind what a saw as a former FFL many years ago. Big retailers like Bass Pro also show a strong bias towards Swarovski and towards the cheaper Zeiss options in my more recent experiences. The dealers I know reinforce this personal impression of mine.

 

[PeterPS]

Really? Please tell us more........

Lee

I have seen such claims before, for example:
"I used to own a Zeiss Diascope that said "Made in Czech Republic" right on it."
http://www.opticstalk.com/meopro-and-zeiss-early-conquest-the-same_topic42860.html
But I don't know if they are really true.

 

[PeterPS]

Lee,

At least in the Dallas, Tx area, their lower-end product lines are the ones in the retail chains. If you want Terra binoculars or a ~$500 Conquest scope, they are pretty easy to find at places like Academy Sports.

At my last Dallas Safari Convention show, Zeiss was poorly represented with Swarovski being the 800-pound Gorilla in the optics realm. It was a toss-up between Zeiss and Leica in terms of overall representation at the show though the outfitters there definitely seemed to have a preference for Leica options.

Zeiss German manufactured sports optics distribution in the USA falls way behind what a saw as a former FFL many years ago. Big retailers like Bass Pro also show a strong bias towards Swarovski and towards the cheaper Zeiss options in my more recent experiences. The dealers I know reinforce this personal impression of mine.

Lee was wondering if you can give us an example of Zeiss binos made by Meopta.

 

[sidpost]

Lee was wondering if you can give us an example of Zeiss binos made by Meopta.

The Conquest line is, or least was, made in a plant in New Jersey owned by Meopta. I believe that is still true but, I'm not in a position to confirm its veracity today.

When I was an FFL a long time ago, Zeiss made a huge deal about 'Made in America' rifle scopes. What they didn't advertise was the ownership of the plant that made them. I think they also had some production from a Leupold plant too. At the time, Leupold and upper-tier Burris rifle scopes were definitely "Conquest" level quality and there was a huge gap in performance between them and German made Zeiss or my preference, Hensoldt scopes.

 

[Troubador]

I have seen such claims before, for example:
"I used to own a Zeiss Diascope that said "Made in Czech Republic" right on it."
http://www.opticstalk.com/meopro-and-zeiss-early-conquest-the-same_topic42860.html
But I don't know if they are really true.

It is well known that Meopta built some Diascopes for Zeiss and also some scopes for Leica.
Lee

 

[Troubador]

QUOTE: The Conquest line is, or least was, made in a plant in New Jersey owned by Meopta.
Sidpost: This is quite different from 'rebranding Meopta binos'. I have no knowledge of this kind of contract manufacturing of Conquest HD binoculars and don't recall this being mentioned by anyone on Birdforum in the past.

Lee

 

[Gijs van Ginkel]

Peterps, post 12,
That is old news really, when we visited Meopta a couple of years ago older Leica and Zeiss telescopes were shown made by Meopta for Leica and Zeiss. Nothing wrong with it since the instruments were made aacording to the following concept: designed by these companies and made according to specifications and quality standards, required by Leica and Zeiss. Since Meopta is a top quality optical company their instruments are also top quality, although users sometimes cling more to names and forget to judge the quality.
Gijs van Ginkel

 

[sidpost]

I'm not trying to say Meopta is bad or worse than the big three only that Zeiss products in the USA were manufactured to a lower quality standard for Zeiss (at their request) by a Meopta plant local to the USA market.

Zeiss corporate changes have shown some changes in their sport optics lines over time. The German manufactured options are still to my mind in the upper tier of premium options but, they are also marketing lines of Zeiss sports optics to a more mainstream market standard. Whether they are made in the EU, North America or, former Soviet satellite states are all related issues to the corporate desire to hit a market segment that won't pay >$2K for binoculars. My Hensoldt rifle scopes were built while they were owned by their Zeiss 'parent' and now, I believe they are owned by Airbus today.

Whether this matters to birders on this forum is a different topic of discussion. It is the blurring of the corporate image and name along with corporate changes that confuses things in the minds of many consumers.

While I'm going to buy a pair Zeiss Victory HT's, I would likely opt for Meopta options over Zeiss Terra's. Whether others would make similar choices is up to them and how they want to spend their own hard-earned money.

 

[sidpost]

QUOTE: The Conquest line is, or least was, made in a plant in New Jersey owned by Meopta.
Sidpost: This is quite different from 'rebranding Meopta binos'. I have no knowledge of this kind of contract manufacturing of Conquest HD binoculars and don't recall this being mentioned by anyone on Birdforum in the past.

Lee

At gun shows back in the days I was an FFL, I saw some Meopta binoculars that were dead ringers to my eyes of Zeiss Conquest models so, to me, it was a simple rebranding exercise.

Whether 'birders' ever saw this sort of comparison is a valid comment in my humble opinion as they were really different target audiences for these binoculars. In the gun show marketplace, former Soviet bloc products were really derided as substandard and low quality without any real substance to those biased thoughts. As a result, Meopta binoculars were really overlooked by the vast majority of people at gun shows.

Personally, back then, in that price class, I was more into Minox binocular options though, in hindsight I wish I had looked closer at the Meopta offerings.

 

[Gijs van Ginkel]

sidpost , post 18,
In another post I have shown with our test data that the Meopta Meostar 8x32 has virtually the same and in some aspects better specifications than the Leica Ultravid HD-plus 8x32 and all that at less than half the price of the Leica.
Gijs van Ginkel

 

[sidpost]

Thanks Gijs! Both Jan and yourself have been very helpful to me on this site with posts like this one!

After seriously trying to find a Zeiss 15x60 B/GA that would be compatible with my glasses and eyesight, the eye relief with the older options just didn't seem worth the risk to me. With that, I reconsidered the Swarovski and Meopta options.

The Meopta option and its cost is certainly attractive compared to other options for apparently similar or the same optical quality. Minor negative comments about final cosmetics are the main negative I see being reported by most users which is easy to accept if those users are getting better optical performance with their money. In my case, I will take the better Meopta optical performance and lesser cosmetics versus the name recognition and better cosmetics at a similar price point with the lesser optical performance. More money just for cosmetics is wasted unless you are posting on Instagram where brand recognition is important.

Once I get my Zeiss Victory HT's, I'm probably going to pick up a Meopta 15 power set of binoculars. Those Meopta Meostar 8x32's would be tempting if I didn't already have that covered by my Zeiss binoculars.