Jose (Perezcope) on Menta Watches

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Very interesting - thanks for the link!
 
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A bit of a harsh way to do it but if you are going to try and sell a watch for 700k you should be ready for scrutiny out there. Also, Mentawatche's explanation that he posted on instagram was that he wasn't an "expert" on these watches is absurd. Do your diligence if selling this type of watch as a dealer as people are going to foucs on it.

Also, not the first time there has been pretty strong evidence of this dealer swapping out dials - see link below. So I would not be surprised if allegations are true especially given his "non-expert" explanation.

 
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I love Perezcope, his exposes are always deep to the bone for the guilty party.
 
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not surprised one bit, Menta is now part of a long and distinguished list of Shyster dealers. I'm sure he's had scrupulous listings in the past, he just happened to get caught on this one.
 
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not surprised one bit, Menta is now part of a long and distinguished list of Shyster dealers. I'm sure he's had scrupulous listings in the past, he just happened to get caught on this one.
There is another thread from 2017 revolving around him where he was selling yet another high value watch with a swapped dial.

 
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Getting into vintage watches today is a minefield, too many crooks and fraudsters around. My foray into vintage spanned from 1985-95, but there wasn't much funny business going on back then, pre internet and all. But today, no way. Even mid grade watches like Omega are fiddled with too often.
 
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These prestige dealers and auctioneers are constantly around people who are wealthy and ignorant, and they just can't resist temptation. It's not enough for them to flip a few dozen watches a year for $5k-$10k profit each. They're hustlers and they want the big score.
 
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Alll crocs this Auctionners at the end when a watch is fake, when a watch is stolen etc….. at the end washing machines.
 
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Dials, bracelets and hands have been swapped forever, very often by dealers when the exact model wasn’t in stock. No real problem on a £3k Datejust.
A massive, massive problem on a super-rare ‘unique’ million pound watch sold as such.
Menta should have known better.
Crook? I don’t know. Idiot? Definitely
 
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After going down the rabbit hole on this thread/topic, it’s disappointing (to be nice) to see how the entire watch-selling industry appears to protect each other.
 
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My issue with everyone jumping to the sellers defence, saying they’ll make it right and it was an honest mistake, is that even if that’s true, when you’re selling such a rare and incredibly valuable watch, the onus is on you as a professional dealer to do your due diligence and make sure what your selling is what you say it is.

Just saying “oh it’s an honest mistakes and now they’re aware, they’ll make it right”, doesn’t wash. What if Jose hadn’t exposed this? Then tough luck to the buyer?

If you’re selling this watch publicly as a dealer, you should be doing the work Jose has done to be confident it’s correct. If you can’t or don’t want to do that, then you should be selling it trade.
Edited:
 
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I think at this rarity, expertise required and price levels, there is no room for honest mistake. Everything is intentional.

They had to buy the watch first, surely it wasn’t cheap so they would have done their due diligence.

What I don’t understand is how they can expose the watch that much publicly thinking that nobody would unearth these issues.
 
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My gut feeling tells me that there have been many watches with fake dials that we don't know of; that have been sold by these so called vintage, watch "expert" dealers. Knowingly by Adam? Probably not. Definitely carelessness.
 
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If the people simply done the research most people here do on a $1000 watch.
But most big ticket buyers aren’t collectors or enthusiasts…. If you’re paying $700k for someone else to do your research. Shonky dealers will always help you spend your millions.
 
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STANDY is 100% correct.

When you get to that level of watch buyer- 99% of them are not what we would consider watch collectors. It is now in the realm of a true investment. As in Art, the more expensive- history would say- the better the investment. So, park a million in a watch for 5-7 years, put it back up for auction and collect your 50-100% profit. The Art world is obviously not immune to fakes either. Probably happens in the watch realm more than any of us realize.

Sure entertaining to see some of these trusted "dealers" who claim legitimacy squirm when caught though- right??
 
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Anno 2025 luckily a few brands have a good working heritage team doing real research with nerdy sleuths & knowledgeable collectors who only care about bringing the real facts and data and aren't interested in any money!
When I saw a few, we can count these on one hand... .🖐
 
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Enlighten us? Longines and Omega?
 
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I think at this rarity, expertise required and price levels, there is no room for honest mistake. Everything is intentional.
Bingo…