Hey the WSJ is publishing a public service piece on fake watches

[NCRich 13,747]

How to Avoid the Craftiest Counterfeit Watches

 

Fake news you can use: The luxury watch world is worried about the flood of “super fake” timepieces that can fool even a savvy buyer. Here, how to protect yourself

 

 

 

 

 

TWO FACED | Rolex, Breitling and Audemars Piguet timepieces are among counterfeiters’ top targets. Here, the real things. From left: Oyster Perpetual Day-Date 40 Watch, $37,500, rolex.com; Navitimer 01 Watch, $7,965, breitling.com; Royal Oak SelfwindingWatch, $17,800, Audemars Piguet, 888-214-6858 Photo: F. Martin Ramin/ The Wall Street Journal

 

 

By

Michael Clerizo July 14, 2017 10:13 a.m. ET

0 COMMENTS

Q: I’m worried about inadvertently ending up with a counterfeit watch. Are fakes a big deal for the industry? How do I spot one?

A: The leading watch brands enjoy profits, prestige and a particular sort of glamour. Like other purveyors of luxury, however, they pay the unavoidable price of that success: fakes.

 

 

Illustration: Michael Sloan

Faking watches is big business—and yes, also a big deal. While about 30 million real Swiss watches are produced annually, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) estimates that one to two million fake timepieces are seized and destroyed every year.

Two types of fake watches exist. The first are cheap fakes, priced anywhere from $50 to the low three figures. You’ll find them on the streets of big cities and on innumerable websites, where they’re often spun oxymoronically as “genuine replicas.” With these watches, the external parts—case, dial, hands, bracelet—are usually shoddy versions of authentic components and the internal movement is flimsy and unreliable. Cheap fakes look and feel like phonies; sellers rarely try to pass them off as anything else, so at least you know what you are getting.

Then there are “super fakes,” watches intended to fool people into believing they are the real thing. Here, the external parts closely resemble those of authentic timepieces, while the movements are often Chinese or Japanese clones of Swiss movements disguised with engravings and decorations. To finesse the deception, super fakes usually come in near-perfect copies of brand boxes and are accompanied by counterfeit “proof of authenticity” papers. You might think you’d recognize a fake, but these are quite craftily well-done.

While super fakes can be produced for a few hundred dollars, sellers hope to unload them for the same four-, five- or even six-figure sum the Real McCoys command. Genuine watches have internal components that fakers cannot cheaply duplicate so the duped buyer often discovers the truth only when the watch is opened up and examined under a loupe. If you think a watch might be a super fake, this is unfortunately the only way to be sure.

 

 

‘Watch counterfeiters often use hazardous materials like lead.’

You might ask: What’s the harm in buying one if the price is right? Well, watch-faking is not a victimless crime. Apart from involving stolen intellectual property, fake watches can be physically dangerous. Counterfeiters often use hazardous materials such as lead, cadmium and mercury, which are banned in many consumer products, including watches. And super fakes often function poorly, which can become a life-threatening failure if you’re, say, a scuba diver and your dive watch malfunctions underwater.

Most disturbingly, according to a joint report by nine U.S. government agencies published earlier this year, profits from the sale of fake watches (and other counterfeit goods) fund organized crime, drug trafficking and terrorism.

If you’re the sort of person who would never buy a cheap fake, the question becomes: How do you avoid mistakenly purchasing a super fake? Regular readers of this column know I recommend buying new watches only from a brand or authorized dealer. While there are other legitimate online sellers, including individuals on sites like eBay, it’s easy to be fooled. Watch out for obvious red flags such as negative or outdated reviews on sites which include reviews. Also suspect are blurry photographs or ones that are clearly stolen from a brand’s website and don’t depict the timepiece that’s actually being sold. If contacting the site is even a little difficult, don’t buy. And while you might be tempted by, say, a Breitling Navitimer for $2,000—much less than the $8,000 to $48,000 a brand-new one usually costs—if a price seems too good to be true, it probably is. For further vigilance, always buy using PayPal or a credit card that offers protection on purchases. You may be able to reclaim some of your money if you’re duped.

[narikaa 129]

Well I never!

 

 

Maybe the safest route is bottom rung no name gens

[Daffy 105]

Hmmm. Using lead for the rotor might not be a bad idea.

[Moondustesp 136]

Lead!!!! Mercury!!! Really!!!!!!

[BlackjackWQ 32]

hahhaa "mercury"

 

what a load of bullshit.

[MetalMickey 179]

I'll be damned! Fake watches? What next?

[Thrasher 135]

If you ever find an old PAM with Radium in it its for sure fake. Please send it to me and I will destroy it for you in a safe and environmentally friendly manner just cover postage. Here is an example of what you should send.

 

[wdev 0]

Pfffff, still applying the same fear mongering tactics. Sponsoring terrorism, childlabour, mafia. Mercury and leadpoisoning is new though :D

 

What will they think of next? Perhaps using radiation hazardous lume is a good idea, I hear radium glows in the dark quite well.........

[fatarms 7,777]

I had a watch with a mercury bracelet, it was heavy as hell until it fell off. Every 4 seconds.

[NCRich 13,747]

I had a watch with a mercury bracelet, it was heavy as hell until it fell off. Every 4 seconds.

 

Who gets this?

[MetalMickey 179]

I had a watch with a mercury bracelet, it was heavy as hell until it fell off. Every 4 seconds.

 

Who gets this?

 

I do.

[narikaa 129]

I believe you can all but walk across the Mediterranean with the surfeit of dead rep wearing scuba divers and drowned refugees

[GC 4,483]

I had a watch with a mercury bracelet, it was heavy as hell until it fell off. Every 4 seconds.

 

Who gets this?

 

I do

[RUSH2112 11]

Steel seems cheap and plentiful. Why would they use these other materials? Anyone enlighten me?

[Wriggles 12]

I had a watch with a mercury bracelet, it was heavy as hell until it fell off. Every 4 seconds.

 

Who gets this?

 

I do.

And me

[Daffy 105]

I had a watch with a mercury bracelet, it was heavy as hell until it fell off. Every 4 seconds.

 

Who gets this?

 

 

That's about the time it would take for a bracelet made of frozen mercury to thaw and fall off as a liquid.

[Rokerite 2,441]

It is highly hypocritical of Rolex et al to condemn replica watches in this manner. Their watches whilst being undoubtedly beautiful pieces of design are not worth the exorbitant prices they charge. They set an unnaturaly high mrp so as to make the watches "exclusive" and only available to those with the disposable income to spend £10k on a timepiece. If these Chinese people can produce a watch that is practically indistinguishable from their product for 5% of the price that tells you how overpriced their products are in my humble opinion

[Paparolf 45]

Your not paying for the product, your paying for the name. As with all high value brands.

 

[MetalMickey 179]

fake watches can be physically dangerous. Counterfeiters often use hazardous materials such as lead, cadmium and mercury, which are banned in many consumer products, including watches. And super fakes often function poorly, which can become a life-threatening failure if you’re, say, a scuba diver and your dive watch malfunctions underwater.

 

Fuck. I was going to go Scuba diving while licking my watch.

[RepGuy 108]

It is highly hypocritical of Rolex et al to condemn replica watches in this manner. Their watches whilst being undoubtedly beautiful pieces of design are not worth the exorbitant prices they charge. They set an unnaturaly high mrp so as to make the watches "exclusive" and only available to those with the disposable income to spend £10k on a timepiece. If these Chinese people can produce a watch that is practically indistinguishable from their product for 5% of the price that tells you how overpriced their products are in my humble opinion

 

You have to take into account their research and development costs. They may spend tens of millions of dollars to develop a new case or movement, and some of those costsvget passed down to the consumer.

The rep factory then only needs to measure and replicate this already created design, which is far cheaper due to the lack of research costs. These major brands also have legal departments, HR, Marketing, ect. while rep factories only hire workers to build and fabricate the watches as quickly as possible before the next raid.

Don't get me wrong, I love my reps, but you have to be realistic about why they are so much cheaper.

[NCRich 13,747]

It is highly hypocritical of Rolex et al to condemn replica watches in this manner. Their watches whilst being undoubtedly beautiful pieces of design are not worth the exorbitant prices they charge. They set an unnaturaly high mrp so as to make the watches "exclusive" and only available to those with the disposable income to spend £10k on a timepiece. If these Chinese people can produce a watch that is practically indistinguishable from their product for 5% of the price that tells you how overpriced their products are in my humble opinion

 

You have to take into account their research and development costs. They may spend tens of millions of dollars to develop a new case or movement, and some of those costsvget passed down to the consumer.

The rep factory then only needs to measure and replicate this already created design, which is far cheaper due to the lack of research costs. These major brands also have legal departments, HR, Marketing, ect. while rep factories only hire workers to build and fabricate the watches as quickly as possible before the next raid.

Don't get me wrong, I love my reps, but you have to be realistic about why they are so much cheaper.

 

 

Hmm..so Rolex has made major modifications to their movements and/or cases............

 

Would be unfreakin' believable to think it would cost millions to say..........hmmm...43mm sub...........hmmm how bout a 41mm datejust..

 

Just saying.

[RepGuy 108]

It is highly hypocritical of Rolex et al to condemn replica watches in this manner. Their watches whilst being undoubtedly beautiful pieces of design are not worth the exorbitant prices they charge. They set an unnaturaly high mrp so as to make the watches "exclusive" and only available to those with the disposable income to spend £10k on a timepiece. If these Chinese people can produce a watch that is practically indistinguishable from their product for 5% of the price that tells you how overpriced their products are in my humble opinion

 

You have to take into account their research and development costs. They may spend tens of millions of dollars to develop a new case or movement, and some of those costsvget passed down to the consumer.

The rep factory then only needs to measure and replicate this already created design, which is far cheaper due to the lack of research costs. These major brands also have legal departments, HR, Marketing, ect. while rep factories only hire workers to build and fabricate the watches as quickly as possible before the next raid.

Don't get me wrong, I love my reps, but you have to be realistic about why they are so much cheaper.

 

 

Hmm..so Rolex has made major modifications to their movements and/or cases............

 

Would be unfreakin' believable to think it would cost millions to say..........hmmm...43mm sub...........hmmm how bout a 41mm datejust..

 

Just saying.

 

Sort of off topic, but I still think a 42mm and 44mm Daydate/Datejust would be awesome. Hell, I'd even buy a fantasy size of the factories would make it

[Thrasher 135]

Nowadays it is little known that from the middle of the XVIIIth century up to 1860 Switzerland came to dominating watchmaking - by producing counterfeits: "Using the établissage system, the Swiss turned out far more timepieces than their European counterparts, who had yet to grow beyond a cottage industry. According to Mr. Christianson, England and Switzerland each produced 200,000 timepieces in 1800; by 1850, the Swiss were churning out 2,200,000 watches while the Brits saw virtually no increase. Quantity, however, did not imply quality.

“The Swiss were able to produce ‘fake watches’ that looked like English or French watches but were of lower quality,” he said." Hamilton, Breguet and others were copied in the tens of thousands: "The increasing dominance of American-made pocket watches threatened the Swiss, who tried to get the upper hand in the years between 1860 and 1880 by flooding the American market with cheap watches. “But they were junk,” Mr. Christianson said.

 

 

 

 

At the turn of the 20th century, the Swiss refined their strategy. “They started to produce a good quality watch at a mid-range price,” Mr. Christianson said. “That went on through World War I.” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/21/st...tchmaking.html

 

It´s all about which side of the glasshouse You´re throwing the stones

[NCRich 13,747]

Nowadays it is little known that from the middle of the XVIIIth century up to 1860 Switzerland came to dominating watchmaking - by producing counterfeits: "Using the établissage system, the Swiss turned out far more timepieces than their European counterparts, who had yet to grow beyond a cottage industry. According to Mr. Christianson, England and Switzerland each produced 200,000 timepieces in 1800; by 1850, the Swiss were churning out 2,200,000 watches while the Brits saw virtually no increase. Quantity, however, did not imply quality.

“The Swiss were able to produce ‘fake watches’ that looked like English or French watches but were of lower quality,” he said." Hamilton, Breguet and others were copied in the tens of thousands: "The increasing dominance of American-made pocket watches threatened the Swiss, who tried to get the upper hand in the years between 1860 and 1880 by flooding the American market with cheap watches. “But they were junk,” Mr. Christianson said.

 

 

 

 

At the turn of the 20th century, the Swiss refined their strategy. “They started to produce a good quality watch at a mid-range price,” Mr. Christianson said. “That went on through World War I.” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/21/st...tchmaking.html

 

It´s all about which side of the glasshouse You´re throwing the stones

 

 

My God..........I love this. Soooo Coooool......

[RUSH2112 11]

It is highly hypocritical of Rolex et al to condemn replica watches in this manner. Their watches whilst being undoubtedly beautiful pieces of design are not worth the exorbitant prices they charge. They set an unnaturaly high mrp so as to make the watches "exclusive" and only available to those with the disposable income to spend £10k on a timepiece. If these Chinese people can produce a watch that is practically indistinguishable from their product for 5% of the price that tells you how overpriced their products are in my humble opinion

 

You have to take into account their research and development costs. They may spend tens of millions of dollars to develop a new case or movement, and some of those costsvget passed down to the consumer.

The rep factory then only needs to measure and replicate this already created design, which is far cheaper due to the lack of research costs. These major brands also have legal departments, HR, Marketing, ect. while rep factories only hire workers to build and fabricate the watches as quickly as possible before the next raid.

Don't get me wrong, I love my reps, but you have to be realistic about why they are so much cheaper.

I believe they spend the majority of their money on celebrity endorsements not R&D.