So, just wondering what the collective opinion is. Obviously, fake people wear fakes, but where does a well made swiss/german 'homage' fit in? genuinely curious about this....
Its a grey area, but we don't like them or encourage them. Homage watches won't be allowed in the FS forum either. Basically there are forums that cater to this market and we're not one of them. There are more than enough Omega models without the need to dabble with homages, and you can get a better quality vintage Seamaster with an in-house Omega movement for the same money as most of these "swiss homage" pieces, so our position is, buy a vintage Seamaster or something.
My problem with homage watches is most of them are made in China. Would you bet against the very next run of watches they produce with the same parts being a group of fakes with "Rolex" or another real brand name on the dial? Some of these counterfeiters have been sued out of existence by the real brand or it's parent company (ie: Marina Militare eradicated by Panerai / Richemont).
Im genuinely not surprised legal action usually ensues. It doesn't seem right for another company to deliberately replicate the look and feel of an icon, regardless of where its put together.
Counterfeiting usually involves all or any of trade mark infringment, copyright, design right or even plain old passing off (causing confusion in the mind of the buyer). In most countries, including China, exporting an infringing item or part is an infringment in itself. So, companies can & do stop this stuff being exported from the country of manufacture as part of their approach to the issue.
So many companies make a watch that look like a Rolex of one sort or another, I'm not too bothered unless it's a true fake with Rolex on the dial and is being passed off as the real thing. I can't say with any certainty (and I don't think anyone else can either) if the watches are made in a facility that also produces fakes. In this case I doubt it. Is Seiko also making counterfeit Rolexes when they make a model that resembles a Datejust? Bulova used to make one like this also as did many other fairly major manufacturers. I don't think that watches that look like someone else's model are always produced by fakers. I have worked on a few of the Steinhart/DeBaufre watches that resemble Rolex models. One I can think of off the top of my head is the Ocean 1 model. Overall they are decently made watches, and the models I have had in the shop have been fitted with ETA 2892A2's - one might have been a GMT with a 2893-2. 2 or 3 of the watches that came to me were defective in some manner or another, and the warranty support was not really great from the company. No one in Canada to go to for warranty work, so they brought the watches to me and I fixed them, and they asked for reimbursement from the company - I know at least 1 person did get the money back. That was for a faulty automatic winding mechanism. I have had 2 of these watches fail pressure testing using a proper dive watch testing process. This involves high pressure wet testing to 125% of the rating on the watch. I now refuse to do this testing on them because they fail - the only 2 I tested this way both failed. I believe personally it's because the case backs are quite thin and very flat, so they don't hold up to the pressure and deflect inwards and cause the seals to leak. Mind you this is at 37.5 bar, so not a problem for most people and they are still good for swimming if properly cared for. I seem to get a lot of requests to remove the Cyclops off the crystals - not sure why people buy it if they don't like the Cyclops! Anyway, not bad watches, but in no way equivalent to the watches they are "paying homage" to. Cheers, Al