Personally when I make a deal on a watch forum, eBay some of the local market place I request a meet up at a jewler to check the warch whenever possible. I see people dropping 450-1,500 on counterfeit wartches. I feel like tell them find a Hamilton or old bulova why drop that much on fake stuff. Now I’m hearing about these 1;1 copies that are spot on to the point jewlers can be fooled I don’t fear buying one of these as I don’t by a lot and do my studies but if it could fool a jewler I wouldn’t stand a chance.

Perhaps I am breaking a rule talking about this but you guys know a lot and I really want to know if what I’m hearing is BS or true I even see counterfeit made in Switzerland

 

I've seen very few watches that are truly perfect. If unsure, post pics on this forum and chances are other members will chime in.

 

Most of the time there are some pretty blaring signs that a watch is fake if you know what you're looking at. However, there are some which are really close. Knowing those are out there lends me to perform a lot of due diligence on not just the watch but the seller as well.

Ultimately, buy the seller.

 

1:1 no

Good enough to fool an uneducated jewler? Easier then you think.

Scary clones are Paneri, and 1st and esp 2nd gen planet oceans. Some Rolex get scary good. Many can pass cursory watch guys from 5 feet.

 

I remember reading the memoirs of an American General held as a POW during the Korean War.
He was assigned a full time squad of guards after a near suicidal escape attempt.
He wrote of how resourceful and skilled one of his Chinese guards was.
He watched as the man repaired an old watch with primitive tools and hand made a watch crystal from a fragment of a broken light bulb.

Like they used to say "Clever these Chinese".

PS
A local store keep told me he had a fake Rolex he'd like me to examine to see if its worth repairing. He gave it to his son long ago.
If he gets it back I'll try to post whatever information I can on it.

 

Know I meant educated jewler but as I said this is hearsay. And I’m talking about some of these 1,500 fakes made in Switzerland not just the 459 Chinese ones

 

The very best fakes are very different to distinguish from the real thing. I have seen incredible Rolex fakes where it is difficult to spot unless you take the back off.

 

IMHO, the most difficult fakes to detect are the vintage fakes with a mix of genuine parts. Fake but carefully aged and repolished case, genuine movement, service dial (or a good copy), maybe a genuine used bezel insert and presto! a submariner or an expl2... you must have sharp eyes to see these.

 

Many replicas are now being made with 1:1 chinese copies of real movements...Rolex 3135 for example. Want to check authenticity? Take off the back...ah a real rolex movement! But no. Fact is, it all still looks just a little bit off but its made to convince the uneducated jeweler, and give confidence to the knowing buyer he can pass it off.

There are even youtube videos on how to 'age' a replica so it can pass as even more authentic. And China is now making vintage models of all sorts, like 60s/70s Submariners, etc with simulated aged lume....beware!

But in the end, it was on this board I learned that the best way to tell if someone was wearing a fake was to look at the wearer. Its always a dead giveaway.

I read a thread on Reddit about a recent graduate asking which replica was best to give himself as a graduation reward. The response was astonishing....apparently this is a very popular 'in' thing to do.

 

Wearer is the dead giveaway? I’m not following. Usually it is the watch’s lack of subtle details, like off-centered dial printing, incorrect fonts, shallow engraving and bad case lines.

 

Google watch replicas. You'll be amazed at how good they are. Nothing you state happens with current replicas, but an 18yr old with a beat up honda wearing a Rolex GMT is a better sign.

 

I'm not sure this bears scrutiny.

One of my friends is a Rolex collector. He has a number of subs; at least one GMT; a Cellini; and, date-justs pass through his hands like we'd buy or sell oranges. The other week, he was showing off a GMT when I noticed it from a few metres away. It was wrong. Fake. I said "I notice you're not letting me get a close look at that one". He looked at me, smiled and winked.

Fakes aren't always, or even in the main, bought by 18 year olds. I've even given thought to buying one myself. Not so I can have a watch that I can't afford but rather so I can still wear my "Rolex" in areas I might otherwise think twice about.

As for the perfect replica ... seen some good ones. Not seen one that I couldn't tell was fake within a couple of minutes, without taking the back off. Most you can tell by touch. More by count (the seconds hand). The rest have issues with other ... details.

 

In the past few years the state of technology is such that $100 will buy you a watch you can't tell from real except under close examination. $500 will buy you a dead reckoning with copied movement down to last detail.

Of course, if you buy one at a flea market or island hut, it'll be crap.

 

Never understood why people would pay money for anything fake - watches, bags etc. But obviously demand is there, so is supply.

 

Oddly you can look and see the Swiss seek replicas for 1,500. Apparently all Swiss movement etc. I don’t get that I could get several or a couple nice watches for that. I guess those are not only damn near indistinguishable but very good watches.

My wife’s friends son spent 450 on a knock off, he is really into these things even joined some replica forum or something. He has a 450 dollar Chinese knockoff. I thought it was real, they have a lot of money but nope he told me the whole knockoff thing. I asked if I could look at it he handed it over and the first thing that struck me was the weight. Those Canal street knock offs you knew as soon as you held it it was fake just by how light they are. This one he had was a heavy SOB. The dial looked good he said the movement was marked appropriately but I didn’t open.

He is into watches I brought down one of my valet boxes of my watches and showed him some of the nice things he could have got for that price or not much more but he isn’t interested, he is intent on buying the most accurate knockoffs he can. I had to leave it at that. I wasn’t going to lecture him with his mother sitting at the table. So if a 450 knock off from China looks and feels so accurate I can’t imagine what the 1,500 hundred knockoffs from the Swiss look like

 

I've seen some incredible Pam fakes using movements almost identical the manual wound Unitas movements. I imagine in-house movements with unique finishing are significantly harder to pass off.

 

IMO it really sucks. But as long as a buck can be made fakes of anything can will be made

 

Relevant to the discussion:

 

And:

 

A few years ago someone once gave me a “quality” replica AP royal oak with self winding movement and it was pretty darn good. Though it was heavy and correct looking in many details, it lacked a certain something in the overall feel of quality. You could just TELL it wasn’t the real deal. That and the fact that the auto winding was kind of “scratchy” sounding and feeling...

T