Nervous owner of my first swiss watch

Everyone is assuming the sales rep was rude and a jerk, but it sounds to me like he was strategically trying to make a sale. "Sorry to tell you that it's a counterfeit. Those resellers have a lot of fakes. But we have the authentic version for sale right here." 😜

Lots of assumptions here kids.

Who said the op didn’t push the issue after being politely declined for information they could not provide?

It sounds like most people here are saying the same thing, just from different perspectives, so I dont really under stand the second part of your post criticising other commenters.

Yes a good salesperson would and should go absolve and beyond to cultivate a potential future customer (and it sounds like this is the experience other have had). I’ve never worked in sales but unless I was flat out with customers who were spending with me there and then, I like to think this is what I’d do.

I’m not actually saying people should always do their own research for a one off modern purchase. What I was saying is that you should pay for the service/sales experience you need. If you’re confident in spotting fakes etc you can basically buy from anywhere. If you’re a complete novice and need reassurance that a watch is genuine, you should buy from a dealer you trust 100%. New or secondhand. Buying from one source then taking it to another for verification is relying on the second place going above and beyond to meet your needs, by providing a service they perhaps don’t actually provide (and almost certainly one you aren’t paying for).

Taking this further, it may be that some OBs cannot provide this authentication service. I read recently that Tag no longer authenticate watches in their stores (possibly as the modern fakes are so good) and Rolex certainly don’t. Unless you’re an expert, which most sales staff aren’t, the best way to id fakes is to open the watch up and see the movement. If the OB doesn’t have a watchmaker on site they can’t do this.

There's always two sides to a story. It's my experience that the entire picture of any story isn't completely accurate when just one side is presented.