Scary replica website

[689maple]

I have a client come in yesterday with a bnib Pam 005 wanting to trade the watch for legal services. If the fellow couldn't pay $1000 for defense of a criminal case why would he trade a new $4700 watch for it I thought. We live in a rural area with no ADs anywhere but after 26 years as a defense attorney I have learned to ask questions. I told the fellow I was sending the watch to an AD overnight for verification and if they authenticated it then we had a deal and if not the cops would have a few questions for him. He finally confessed it was a Chinese copy. To the untrained eye, such as mine and to the semi trained eye ( a jeweler next door) the watch looked 100% right. The web site guarantees its 1 to 1 in copying the original. Not posting the website here but if you want the name of it pm me. it is downright scary what is out there now for novices like me who only wear watches but don't "know" them.

[TARDIS]

Just as well you told him you would have the watch checked out. Unfortunately there are many websites selling fake watches. It is a thriving industry in China, and indeed they are getting better at it.

Caveat Emptor!

[Dr.Brian]

There are whole forums like TRF for replica watches. I joined a couple when I was looking to buy a hard to find, and likely copied watch a couple years ago to get an idea what to look out for. People go so far as to take a scary fake and mod it further to make it even more indistinguishable from real. They're just as proud of their fakes as we are of our Rolexes. Some people had 30+ fakes in their sigs. I'd rather have a real Timex. It's crazy.

[bayerische]

People are crazy...

Who the HECK! would be proud of a fake. Doesn't matter if it's a watch or a diamond.

[Boadicea]

Originally Posted by Dr.Brian

I'd rather have a real Timex. It's crazy.

Me too, fake watches are for fake people

[Numismatist]

Disregard, thought it was in the Genreal section.

[Lol-x]

Every aspect of fake/replica watches and other products connote criminal activity.

There are huge criminal networks that use replica watch production and sales to cross-fund other types of criminal activity.

[Rolex116520]

Originally Posted by Lol-x

There are huge criminal networks that use replica watch production and sales to cross-fund other types of criminal activity.

Possible , but would that not be true for most organized criminal networks ?
Racketeering , kidnaps , bank robbery traditionally provided the income to fund terrorist groups like ETA in Spain , IRA and their loyalists counterparts in Ireland , Bader-Meinhoff in Germany , Action Directe and the Corsican FLNC in France , Brigate rosso , mafia , camorra in Italy . Later these and the emerging middle east groups like PLO added drug and arms trafficking . Nowadays Al-caida uses all of these and has added internet / fraud /financial crimes to the list .
You can't stop progress .

[Michael M.]

I've seen some pretty good fake Panerais, watch out!

[TARDIS]

I was watching a show on TV about antiques. The term fake refers to an item made up of bits and parts from other items and not genuine.

A counterfeit is an object that is made with the original name counterfeited. i.e. an exact imitation of the original deliberately constructed to be passed of as an original.

This is worth remembering when it comes to high value Swiss watches.

[689maple]

The website claims the parts are interchangeable with an authentic example and they even sell boxes. I don't understand why the legit companies aren't doing more to shut these thieves down. This place is in China so maybe that is the problem but with what little I know about websites I think I would be exploring methods to go after their servers either on the up and up or with an army of young techophiles to end thier ability to reach the masses. Each counterfeit lessens the value of the brand and my watch in my opinion.

[TARDIS]

Originally Posted by 689maple

the website claims the parts are interchangeable with an authentic example and they even sell boxes. I don't understand why the legit companies aren't doing more to shut these thieves down. This place is in china so maybe that is the problem but with what little i know about websites i think i would be exploring methods to go after their servers either on the up and up or with an army of young techophiles to end thier ability to reach the masses. Each counterfeit lessens the value of the brand and my watch in my opinion.

x2

[Ray T]

there a lot of replica places around! need to watch out, i like reading about them, just to make sure that the next watch i buy if preowned doesn't turn out to be a fake.