OVL / Skywatcher

[Guest]

I was looking for a x3 Barlow and came across some called OVL which I think means Optical Vision Ltd but they were also described as Skywatcher barlows. Is OVL a part of Skywatcher? What's the story there?

 

[johninderby]

OVL is a dostributor.

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by johninderby

[Cornelius Varley]

1 hour ago, woodblock said:

I was looking for a x3 Barlow and came across some called OVL which I think means Optical Vision Ltd but they were also described as Skywatcher barlows. Is OVL a part of Skywatcher? What's the story there?

 

OVL are the official importer of Skywatcher products but not all products distributed by OVL are made by Skywatcher, such as the 3x barlows.

[John]

Skywatcher equipment is manufacturered by Suzhou Synta Optical Technology Co in China and they are part of the larger Taiwanese based Synta group.

As Peter says above, Optical Vision Limited are the official UK importer of this equipment but also import other brands as well. At one point OVL imported the Russian made TAL, Intes and Intes Micro ranges.

 

 

[Guest]

Thanks, it seemed a bit odd. I've got a skywatcher scope and I've bought various other bit of skywatcher stuff, eyepieces and barlows and so on but they all just said 'skywatcher'. The one I was looking at was in Rother Valley Optics and I wondered why that particular item was identified with OVL. Does all Skywatcher kit come into the UK through OVL?

[Cornelius Varley]

9 minutes ago, woodblock said:

Does all Skywatcher kit come into the UK through OVL?

OVL are the official importers of Skywatcher branded equipment but they are also the importers of other brands and also brand some products with their own name.

[FLO]

3 hours ago, woodblock said:

Is OVL a part of Skywatcher? What's the story there?

OVL are an importer/distributor. One of the brands they import/distribute is Sky-Watcher. A few years back some non-Sky-Watcher products imported/distributed by OVL were mistakenly sold as Sky-Watcher products. I guess Sky-Watcher noticed then asked OVL to correct the situation. Today those products, because they don't have a brand name, are sold as OVL. 

HTH, 

Steve 

[Louis D]

Interesting.  In the US, Sky-Watcher founded Sky-Watcher USA to be their importer/distributor rather than rely on a third party.  Since Orion USA also imports some Synta products branded as Orion, I wonder how they interact here in the US.