"Real and fake watches"

The fight against fakes

Marie Leberre - Fabrice Guéroux’s book is presented as a "counterfeit watch reference book". A fan since he let himself be seduced by James Bond’s Rolex Submariner, the author has carried out his own investigation and delivers a practical guide to discern the real from the fake.

Fabrice Guéroux’s book* is presented as a "counterfeit watch reference book". A fan since he let himself be seduced by James Bond’s Rolex Submariner, the author has carried out his own investigation and delivers a practical guide to discern the real from the fake.

Marie Leberre

Fabrice Guéroux takes the observation that watch counterfeiting is experiencing a runaway growth via the Internet as a starting point. Today, helped by the fad for luxury watches, most well-known brands are copied. While certain replicas are easy to identify, more and more are deceptive and counterfeiters are swift to confirm this illusion. "Only five years ago it was quite easy, for an informed eye, to know the difference between a counterfeit and a genuine watch. Today you almost need to open the watch to identify a counterfeit to discover an ETA or Valjoux movement instead of the original movement" the author points out. The assessment distinguishes five grades.

Vigilance is necessary

Grade 5 and 4 models manufactured in China or Taiwan are particularly shoddy, equipped with quartz movements in oxidisable alloy cases that discolour the wrist. You can find automatic models at grades 3 and 2, generally equipped with unreliable Japanese Miyota movements that don’t display the date. The casing commits a crime due to the mediocre quality of the plated metal or leather.

Grade 1 covers the models driven by Swiss movements, on no account manufactured in Switzerland and on no account 100% faithful to the originals. They will go as far as bearing the right series numbers on the cases and being delivered with authenticity certificates. They become difficult to identify from photographs and you need to be extremely vigilant with regards proposals on the Internet. You can even spot "in-house" watches, improved grade 1copies and remarkable counterfeits of collection pieces now appearing on the market.

Financial reasons

Nonetheless you can always tell the difference. Fabrice Guéroux replies that: "The reason is simple and to do with money. If a manufacturer wanted to make a 100% identical watch, first of all it would require a huge amount of time and money to make the tools allowing him to succeed and the cost price of a watch would border on 75% of its real value at least. It then remains for him to invest in distribution and in the end there’s 0 euro profit." Reminding us that a movement’s authenticity can be checked easily - you just need to open the case for it to stick out a mile to anyone with a minimum amount of knowledge - the author explores everything that from the outside could differentiate a real watch from a fake one. There is a demonstration using the Rolex Submariner date reference 16610 as an example, examined in detail.

More than twenty comparison criteria are broached and illustrated. Then the specific case of collection watches is elaborated on where purchasing by mail order is strongly advised against. The warning is based on the fact that these watches are subject to modifications over time and you need to be capable of recognising all the spare parts. While it deals mainly with Rolex watches, the most copied watch in the world, the guidebook also covers Cartier and Officine Panerai as well as A. Lange & Söhne, Audemars Piguet, Breitling, Bulgari, Chopard, Corum, IWC and Vacheron Constantin. It presents various models in the form of comparative tables on double page spreads. Without being exhaustive, it represents a precious tool for beautiful watch enthusiasts anxious to avoid funding a fraudulent market. Fabrice Guéroux intends to take part in cleaning up the situation. His message is "Don’t buy copies, buy yourself an affordable watch that’s within your budget and spoil yourself with that". ■

*Vraies et fausses montres - the counterfeit watch reference book by Fabrice Guéroux.
Published in french only by Argus Valentines, Luxembourg, 2006
www.argusvalentines.com
www.fabricegueroux.com

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