WHAT IS A COUNTERFEIT ?
Counterfeits exist since many years. They are fraudulent because all original creation falls into the scope of intellectual property. I am not going to tell longer on that subject, the one which interests us most being the counterfeits of the best watches brands. There are numerous watch counterfeits and this concerns most of the main Swiss watch brands. In the counterfeit business (replicas, fakes), you can find several qualities, another subject I will develop later on. This is important to know each one of those qualities, some of them being easily identifiable as counterfeits and some of them definitely more difficult.
Some brands invest very important budgets in counterfeit enterprises hunting down activity. You must know that for a watch company (for any company), the sole act to denounce a replicas company, to record the product by a sworn officer, i.e. a bailiff, to sue the company and get it closed, will cost many thousands of dollars. But the same way it took a lot of time for a company to get known, to implement a good marketing, to create their image and make their place on the luxury watch market, it also takes time and finances not to loose those assets by letting the market be invaded by counterfeits, those later tarnishing their brand image.
Counterfeits are more often manufactured in Asia. They are poor quality compared to the original product and, to tell the truth, almost each piece can be identified as such. For example, let’s take a Rolex watch, which by the way will be the main subject of that book (the reason being that it is the most counterfeited brand in the world). You will discover that you can identify a counterfeit by noticing details such as the dial, the crown, the date font, the band, the bezel, the serial number, etc. and what is more taking a look at the caliber (watch movement) - the best way to identify a replica being to open the case. But this is not always possible, such as in a mail order deal (e-bay, ads in magazines, internet, etc.).
I will now try to reveal the more information possible on the different ways to identify a counterfeit, thus prevent a rip off. It is always unpleasant to find yourself in such situation when you have saved up more than 3000$ to afford the watch you wanted.
WHERE ARE THESE WATCHES MANUFACTURED ?
Chinese counterfeits
Chinese models (or Taiwanese, which are usually the same with regard the quality) represent the worst you can find on the market. More often such watches are not even steel made, nor are they in gold, to say the least! They are manufactured with a poor alloy. Just scratch it with a small knife and you will see the steel color disappear and let place to a yellow color metal alloy. Moreover, such watches are not provided with automatic movements but quartz ones, powered by a battery. Such watches are easily identifiable and it is useless to develop such subject. They are ugly, light weight, not professional, markings on the dials are cheap, obvious differences compared with the original, leather bands are plastic made and sound really fake.
You will find almost each brand in such category. If one day you have the opportunity to have one in hand, you will see what I’m talking about here. But as you will see me talking many times about this problem all along this manual, when shown on a picture, you can be fooled… you must train your eyes to be sharp so that you can notice the difference at a glance. I will help you achieve such skill.
Japanese counterfeits
They are pretty much better for most of them. A “Japanese model” is a better manufactured watch provided with a Japanese automatic movement. All the parts are not manufactured in Japan. In fact, the only Japanese part is the movement, a Miyota automatic caliber. This is a cheap automatic movement, nothing like a genuine Swiss movement.
"Swiss" counterfeits
Swiss models are definitely harder to identify. Regarding the outside of the watch, only few details can help you identify the watch, and the movements provided with such watches are ETA movements (good quality Swiss movements) for simple automatic watches, Poljot movements (Russian chronometer, middle quality) and Valjoux movements (good quality Swiss chronometer movements). These two later movements are often used in Daytona counterfeits. But notice that most of the counterfeits watches feature fake ETA, Valjoux movements!!
Here again, the only factor allowing the watch to be called a “Swiss watch” is the movement. Swiss counterfeits manufactures don’t exist, as some liars (e.g. counterfeits companies) would like you to believe.
Those watches are difficult to identify, but if you take your time, you will always find one or more details that will help you do so. Producing a perfect counterfeit would involve a lot of money, and that would oblige the manufacturer to resale such watch at almost the same price as the real one. For more details, please see the “Different grades of Counterfeits” chapter to find out all about the tricks.
WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT OUT OF A COUNTERFEIT?
It is possible that you are interested in this book to avoid a rip off but also to learn everything about different qualities of counterfeits with the intention of buying the best one. Don’t mess up, help you to buy one is definitely not my goal; Counterfeits should disappear from the market and the only thing you can expect from a fake watch is nothing more than owning a fake and thus keep on helping this fraudulent activity to expand. Never buy a replica, offer you an affordable watch, matching your economies and please yourself with such product.
There is nothing much to expect from a counterfeit than a personal participation to this market which falls under law and is labeled by such authority as “criminal”. The only thing you could do is buy one to put it into parts and learn all the tricks there are to know to be able to make the difference with a genuine model. But to do so you also need a real one! Don’t waste your money, I did that before and now I can share my knowledge with you in this book…
THE MOST COUNTERFEITED MODELS
The brands which have been the most counterfeited are Rolex and Cartier. The watch market is today in knowing a great expansion and many other brands are being copied now: Zenith, Tag Heuer, Blancpain, Breitling, Patek Philippe !!, Panerai, etc.
THE DIFFERENT QUALITY REPLICAS
Before developing deeper the different qualities of counterfeit grades and in the scheme of training your eye accuracy, I propose to you to visit the specialized shops and see for yourself the different models. You will be able to see how accurate each part can be, test the watch weight, see the quality of the crystal, quality of the steel or gold, the different complications when visible on the back of the watch…
A counterfeit, even the best, will never have the same touch and feeling as a genuie watch. This is true now and will stay true for a long time.
THE DIFFERENT COUNTERFEIT GRADES
(From the lowest quality to the best)
Grade 5
Pictures 1 & 2. Grade 5 counterfeits are bad quality, battery powered watches. They are manufactured in China or Taiwan and have nothing to do with the real but the so called name. There’s almost no chance that a person will propose you such a watch and stating it as a genuine, this watch being easily identifiable (in order to help you train your eyes to recognize different grades, they will be illustrated with pictures all along the following chapters.) In this category, you will find some Rolexes, e.g. “President” model and “Submariner”, this later being the most counterfeited watch all over the world.
Grade 4
Pictures 3 & 4. Grade 4 watches are also battery powered watches. They are bad quality too but look better than the Grade 5. Some of them have functional chronographs movements (quartz), which do not exist in Grade 5 watches. The steel quality provided on such watch is very bad quality alloy and while wearing them, you can often see your wrist become black. The reason being it oxidizes with sweat. Due to the metal quality, the weight is about 50% less than an original watch. Grade 4 watches are very close to Grade 5 and they are very far from the genuine.
When you have one on hand, you can notice the difference at a glance. The problem is of course never having such watch on hand at all, and this is the reason why I will show some samples on photos of those watches in the next chapter.
This is also the first category to provide other brands than Rolex.
In this category, you will mainly find the following brands:
•
Alain Siberstein
• Breguet
• Rolex
• Patek Philippe
• Bulgari
• Hublot
• Daniel Roth
• Panerai
• Tag Heuer
• Jacob & Co.
• Locman
• Xemex
• Parmigiani
• IWC
• Etc.
Grade 3
Pictures 5, 6 & 7. Grade 3 watches become more difficult to identify. Grade 3, 2 and 1 watches only concern Rolex replicas. For the moment, there are no other brands provided in such quality. Some will try to deny such fact, but this is simply not true. The reason is easy to understand: Rolex replicas have been in business on the market for many years and above all, the models rarely change. Just figure out the cost of a counterfeit manufactured with all the machines, hardware, parts, molds, dials, etc. it implies.
This represents a huge quantity of materials and this involves a lot of money.
If we try to make an evaluation of the necessary investment for such enterprise, about 2 million dollars would be necessary for a factory to be able to build Rolex replicas. So try to figure out the cost of the same factory providing 5 or even 10 more brands from their production departments. For a fraudulent activity and obviously ephemeral (something that most of counterfeiters don’t understand), this is rather risky!
Though they are proposed with automatic Japanese movements, these watches remain bad quality replicas. They are the last grade proposing other brands as above.
Grade 2
Picture 8. Now we enter into middle quality replicas domain. These are the “so called” Japanese made watches. They are called “Japanese” due to the automatic Miyota movement powering the watch (17 jewels). In this category, you will only find Rolex replicas… mainly all the Rolex models ever produced by the Swiss firm.
You will even find the new Milgauss model! From this point, you must be careful regarding recognizing a replica from a genuine, though they can rather be easily identified for date models such as Submariner, Day-Date, Datejust, etc. But you will see later on that vintage watches (most of them without a date), having a more and more important part on the market, are being copied and become an important production target in counterfeit business. The bracelet (band) is also a significant part. Once well indoctrinated on the subject of counterfeits, you will be able to identify them easily enough to avoid rip off.
As previous models, steel and gold/steel watches are plated, better quality but plated. Which of course tends to disappear relatively fast after the purchase. These bracelets are not scratchproof.
Grade 1 (or A)
Pictures 9, 10, 11 & 12. Such grade becomes difficult to identify when you are not familiar with counterfeit identification. The movement is still a Japanese one but the steel quality is improved compared to Grade 2. The watch is provided with a serial number (for most of them), the bracelet is good quality (though easily scratched), it comes with screw links.
For sport models such as Submariner, the crystal is not a genuine sapphire but a regular one. The sapphire glass is a synthetic high quality crystal cool when touched. You can also notice that on such products, there are no green reflects, whether you look at the watch front or profile, it is always white. The mineral crystal is a glass with green reflections. The hands are clean and the different markings are present and finally, all the logos and markings are featured on the dial, 90% identical for some of them.
In the case of a mail purchase and to be able to identify the watch, it will be necessary to ask the seller to provide good quality pictures, front, left and right side, and back (for certain models providing markings on the back of the case, i.e. Seadweller). Regarding the pictures, you must know that it is not 100% reliable, the seller could show you pictures of a real watch, borrowed anywhere else on the net. I will develop later on the way to proceed with a seller and how to know if he is reliable or if he lies. People who lie always make an error, some way or another. Another very important point, the sellers now propose watches with the box and papers. Easy to counterfeit, this is a very good argument for them and therefore make the deal credible. There again, the box is different from the genuine (size and quality); another thing to help you recognize a fraudulent
sale.
Gold models and steel/gold are always plated, which make them easier to identify than the steel models, their weight is lighter than the genuine and the gold color is not yellow but more orange.
OTHER TYPE OF COUNTERFEITS
«Home made» counterfeits.
The quality of such watches can be very good. What I mean by “home made watch” is a watch modified on the basis of a very good counterfeit. Let us take a Grade 1 watch and modify some important details in the aim of obtaining the most similar watch ever. Thus, some persons can reach a quality which you won’t be able to identify on a picture.
They will show you details such as serial number, big size holes on the lugs, 2.5X magnifier with correct fonts, etc. Such watches are rare but they exist and most of them will need to be opened.
VINTAGE WATCHES COUNTERFEITS
Pictures 13, 14, 15 & 16. There are models of Rolex which are rare and very appreciated: the Red Submariner, the James Bond Submariner (first Submariner produced by Rolex), the Turn-O-Graph, the Explorer models (Milgauss, Steve McQueen model with orange hand), the Paul Newman Daytona, etc. Such watches are good quality for most of them and are not qualified as Grade 1 or Grade 2, they are just qualified by counterfeiters as “vintage Rolex watches”. They are new on the market but there are details which make them identifiable. The first one being that for vintage watches, they look rather “unworn”. I will develop this later on with pictures, examples and explanations.
CONCLUSION
All this can sound very freaky, even more when you look at the pictures. You can even think that you would better go to your jeweller and buy a brand new Rolex. Fortunately, there are flawless means to identify a counterfeit, regardless its quality. I am now going to try to show you all the means to become an expert in verifying watches, especially Rolex models… now we start the practical step.
FAKE/ORIGINAL. HOW TO SPOT THE DIFFERENCE?
Why are they different?
They are different for the only reason that it is impossible to make a 100% identical watch. This is just a matter of budget. If a counterfeit company decided to build 100% identical watches, then just for manufacturing the tools needed and the cost of such creation, it would easily amount a minimum of 70% of the value of the real watch retail price. Then you add the needed investment for the distribution and advertisement and you obtain a zero benefit business. This is a rather obvious reason.
Therefore, you will always find differences. What I am talking about here is the difference between the exterior of a counterfeit watch compared to the exterior of a genuine watch. The inside of the watch being identifiable on the spot once opened (movement difference).
What are these differences?
We are now going to study the differences between genuine watches and counterfeits. You will then find illustrated examples with photos of Rolex watches and some with other brands. Train you eye to be able to spot the difference. It can occur on the day of a purchase (e.g. a last minute “good deal”), you do not have this book at hand. Thus you must remember the main parts to be able to make the difference and avoid a money loss.
I will do my best to be as precise as possible.
Watch identification
The first asset to be able to identify a watch is your knowledge of the genuine one. For that, you must look at pictures or observe meticulously the watch itself if you can do so. For a Rolex model, you need to visit their website (www.rolex.com) and look at the models. But you can find better pictures with close ups on Rolex enthusiasts websites, i.e. www.oysterworld.de, www.uhrwald.de, http://www.qualitytyme.net (probably the most complete site on Swiss watches), www.redwatches.com, www.watchwallpapers.com. You can find more sites on Rolex watches but here you will find very good pictures and pertinent information on the subject. For other brands, you can go on their official websites.
Spare parts and details to be checked during an identification:
• Dial
• Case (case of the watch)
• Bezel (directional for Submariner, seadweller, yachtmaster,
GMT, etc models and fixed for daytonas and other models)
• Hands
• Logo
• Dial markings
• Date
• Magnifier (cyclope)
• Illumination points (Illumation markings on the dial: size and color)
• Crown
• Serial number
• Back of the watch
• Bracelet (band)
• Bracelet end piece
• Logos on the bracelet
• Bracelet serial number
• Bracelet link screws
• Diameter of the holes receiving the spring bars
• Spring bars
• Watch thickness
• Watch movement
• Movement sound
• Watch box
• Watch certificate and invoice
Each one of the above mentioned parts can show a detail or a difference compared to the genuine watch. Some of them are impossible to copy accurately, some unfortunately are not.
I will now develop each part one by one. For the simple reason that it is impossible to scan each detail for each watch model, I will take the example of the early Date Submariner (ref. 16610) to give you an idea of how to proceed with the identification of a watch. During your reading, keep in mind that these examples apply only to this watch.
Now you can check differences betwwen genuine watches and counterfeits in the comparison chapter. CLICK HERE
