What I know about Kahles is the following:
The company was founded in 1898 by Karl Robert Kahles in Vienna. He started making the famous Telorar rifle scope. He suddenly died and his wife Anna continued the company and it florished. When her sons Karl and Ernst were old enough they continued the company and it was son Karl Kahles who also started the production of binoculars for hunting and sport next to the production of rifle scopes. In the beginning of the 1970's there were no Kahles descendants who could continue the company and in 1974 the company was sold to Swarovski. From May 1989 Kahles limited is an independent company within the Swarovski group.
You can get an impression of the size of this group from the data I have published on the WEB-site of House of Outdoor in the power point presentation about the History and quality development of Swarovski Optik.
Swarovski Optik actually is a fairly small company in the Swarovski group if you compare it with the other companies like crystal and grinding materials.
I have investigated one Kahles model in comparison with the Zeiss Conquest and that is also published on the WEB-site of House of Outdoor, but since Jerry gets a headache by looking at Dutch data I will try to accomodate him here. For those who speculate about Swarovski using Japanese or Chinese companies for their binoculars: I have visited the company a number of times and I could not detect any foreign product, every step was made in house. So for me there is no doubt that everything is made and assembled in Absam with the exception of the housings probably since that requires specialised companies.
Some data:
Kahles Helia 8x42 HD:
Weight 738 g, FOV 126m/1000m, Close focus 1,7 m, diopter range +/-4 dioptrie, 1,1-1,2 rotations from close focus to infinity, transmission 81,8% at 500 nm, 85,8% at 550 nm, price (2016) 949 euro
Zeiss Conquest HD 8x42:
Weight 800 g, FOV 128 m/1000m, Close focus 2-2,5 m (varies for different instruments), diopter range +/-4 dioptrie, 1,1-1,2 rotations from close focus to infinity, transmission 87-89% at 500 nm, 90,5-92,2% at 550 nm, price (2016) 1115 euro
Comparison with the Kite Ibis 8x42 ED may be interesting, since that is also made by Kamakura and it looks similar to the Kahles:
Kite Ibis 8x42ED:
Weight 747 g, FOV 126 m/1000m, close focus 1,5 m; 1,6 rotations close focus to infinity, transmission 86% at 500nm and 90% at 550 nm, price 960 euro when I tested it, but that is some time ago.
Gijs van Ginkel