I've been in the checking fixture game for 14 years. I've seen lots of Chinese fixtures over the years, and they've pretty much been all shit. They "look" nice, but are all over the map (I call them immaculate deception). Take anything apart and it's full of crazy glue, and it never goes back together right, etc..... Last week we got some fixtures in to update to latest rev level, and not only were they the nicest Chinese fixtures I've ever seen, they're right up there with the best fixtures I've seen period. The only thing I could think of was.....faaack. They've got it. They're still a couple questionable construction methods, but for the most part it's game over.
I know they've been able to make good quality gauges for quite a while now, but I've always heard those shops at the end of the day were close enough with us for price and delivery that it wasn't worth rolling the dice. These last ones were quite a bit cheaper than we would have quoted, and the quality and accuracy was right up there with us. Heard from another customer of ours who pretty much said don't expect any new builds from us anymore, just revisions....not sure that's going to be a great way to keep the doors open.....