You're confusing water clocks and mechanical clocks.
Mechanichal clocks appeared in the same time in both China and Europe, ca. 1080.
But both inventions are unrelated, like typography and rudder (possibly compass as well, but still debated).
The apparition of mecanichal clock in Europe is directly due to its invention by (and for) religious communauties, and not from widepsreading of Chinese clocks (whom the first ones actually mixed hydraulic and mechanical components).
Well all I was saying was that the Chinese had it just as well as the Europeans (and the Chinese one was apparently started by Buddhist monks) so the Europeans weren't doing anything special or advanced.
Conclusive proof then. I mean, it's not like Germany had to incorporate a decrepid communist run economy at a mismatched currency rate or anything.
Up-to-date statistics also help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_hour_worked
So Germans are better paid? How does that prove anything to do with efficiency and work ethic? I've heard that Americans are often classified as the most productive workers, but they definitely aren't the best paid.