High-End Watch Knock-offs

Originally Posted by likeitaloud

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Dude it's a watch...it's 3 thin metal lines rotating in a circle, So you spend 25,000 not 100 you'll have to correct it once every 5 years instead of once every 5 months? So what.

can you respect that their are different walks of life, and different people who have different levels of appreciation for high quality goods.

Can you agree that the level of quality built into a Patek watch is higher then that of the Gold plated "replica" without working complications?

Can you agee that the level of quality build into a Rolex whose movement is build completely inhouse, whose body is built of stainless smelted at the rolex factory, whose accuracy is factory calibrated is going to be HIGHER then that of the replica costing $25-$500.

If the "true" value of these high end watches was really that of the replica do you honestly think that these companies have build a brand solely on duping those whose chose to by the original? If they truely are meanlingless values to you, then why are you so bent on having the "appeal" of that....or do you not really believe in the story your selling?

If you believed in the idea that your selling to us, then you would have no interest in Bearing the world "Rolex" on your watch, reguardless of origination.

Is it safe to buy the thin (eg, < 5mm) dress watches from grey marketers?

There are no off-the-shelf mechanisms available, are there? So as long as it isn't quartz inside, is it safe to assume you are buying the real thing?

Originally Posted by likeitaloud

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Dude it's a watch...it's 3 thin metal lines rotating in a circle, So you spend 25,000 not 100 you'll have to correct it once every 5 years instead of once every 5 months? So what.

Enjoy your Timex, small timer.

Originally Posted by B1FF

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Is it safe to buy the thin (eg, < 5mm) dress watches from grey marketers?

There are no off-the-shelf mechanisms available, are there? So as long as it isn't quartz inside, is it safe to assume you are buying the real thing?

Mechanical watches under 5mm are rare. Most of the watches that thin are quartz but there are some thin mechanicals like the JLC Ultra Thin.

It is not safe to assume anything on the internet, make sure you buy from someone trustworthy. If you stick with a good grey market dealer you should have no problems.

Originally Posted by Night Owl

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Enjoy your Timex, small timer.

Oooh. That's a whnay moment, right there.

some of the watches in chinatown are betterlooking than the real ones... but yuck i hate fake anything... if i cant wear a rolex ill wear a gucci, if i cant wear a gucci ill buy like a polo watch or something, but why fake stunt..

Enjoy your Timex, small timer.

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Why would I, I own a fake Enjoy your 25 thousand piece of art that you can appreciate all day. I'd rather put that into my car.

can you respect that their are different walks of life, and different people who have different levels of appreciation for high quality goods. Can you agree that the level of quality built into a Patek watch is higher then that of the Gold plated "replica" without working complications? Can you agee that the level of quality build into a Rolex whose movement is build completely inhouse, whose body is built of stainless smelted at the rolex factory, whose accuracy is factory calibrated is going to be HIGHER then that of the replica costing $25-$500. If the "true" value of these high end watches was really that of the replica do you honestly think that these companies have build a brand solely on duping those whose chose to by the original? If they truely are meanlingless values to you, then why are you so bent on having the "appeal" of that....or do you not really believe in the story your selling? If you believed in the idea that your selling to us, then you would have no interest in Bearing the world "Rolex" on your watch, reguardless of origination.

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I agree that without questions quality of the original Rolex is much greater, it would be silly to argue against it. My point is that this precision hardly makes a difference in a device of such simple function. You can make the process as complicated as you want by using the gears made by DaVinci's oldest living descendant from the metal extracted from Tutankhamen's tomb, and the oil extracted from the only living ancient turtle; it doesn't change the fact that the same movement can be achieved by a Chinese worker for 50$ materials + labor. The quality can be VASTLY different but because of the simplicity of the function, the difference, regardless of the design, will be completely negligible in relation to the cost. I do obviously understand that people come from all walks of life; I don't believe that there are any (maybe a few but I doubt that) people on styleforum for whom 25,000 is an amount of money they can dispose off on something without considering its worth. Those people I think should really go for the best, completely ignoring any practical appraisal. For people who did not make the Forbes top list I think it makes sense to at least consider the implication of luxury goods on the buyer. Something like cars, furniture, most forms of clothing can be much harder to fake because of the complexity of the material and the design. A fake Kiton suit is not really an option because few Chinese stores that sell fakes have access to material that is anything close to the real thing and non of them have designers that can copy the designs even "kind-of" right. Cars and furniture are self-evident. A man that has self-respect and has the money for these things will not skimp on them because he cannot without loosing the quality he wants. A Rolex is a different story. I honestly believe that anyone here that says that Rolex is justifiable in price because he appreciates the quality of good watches is full of ****, or rich. If you are in the category of the people that can ignore the price tag, yes your appreciation makes sense. Anyone who is ready to sacrifice a very large portion of his paycheck for something he can get an equivalent of (not equivalent but with minor differences which 99% of the people including the buyer will not even feel/see.) has to be either a die-hard collector/fanatic, or brainwashed by people who can afford to care about things this small. I also think that people who don't care about the perks of owning a Rolex/other high brand name because they get it for the quality and not the attention are either rich, crazy, or 99% lying to themselves. A watch is one of the top indicators of financial status and if you don't care about showing off your Rolex why wear it? Why not get a Timex to tell time and keep your Rolex in a glass safe at home; you wouldn't want to ruin the exquisite quality you appreciate so much by exposing it to natural elements, or worse accidentally break it or have it stolen; after all that's just wasteful no matter how much you make. A digital watch is more accurate anyway. To wrap this up a Rolex, whether or not you can afford it can be saved on without a hard trade off. Whether or not you want a Rolex real or fake is another story and it's up to you. If you are one of those people that starts hearing a constant heart bit in their head after buying a fake, maybe you should work on your perception of the real world instead of insulting people who can look at the world from a business perspective and not personal biases that prevent us from making smart decisions.

Originally Posted by likeitaloud

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Why would I, I own a fake

Enjoy your 25 thousand piece of art that you can appreciate all day. I'd rather put that into my car.



I agree that without questions quality of the original Rolex is much greater, it would be silly to argue against it. My point is that this precision hardly makes a difference in a device of such simple function. You can make the process as complicated as you want by using the gears made by DaVinci's oldest living descendant from the metal extracted from Tutankhamen's tomb, and the oil extracted from the only living ancient turtle; it doesn't change the fact that the same movement can be achieved by a Chinese worker for 50$ materials + labor.

The quality can be VASTLY different but because of the simplicity of the function, the difference, regardless of the design, will be completely negligible in relation to the cost.

I do obviously understand that people come from all walks of life; I don't believe that there are any (maybe a few but I doubt that) people on styleforum for whom 25,000 is an amount of money they can dispose off on something without considering its worth. Those people I think should really go for the best, completely ignoring any practical appraisal.

For people who did not make the Forbes top list I think it makes sense to at least consider the implication of luxury goods on the buyer. Something like cars, furniture, most forms of clothing can be much harder to fake because of the complexity of the material and the design. A fake Kiton suit is not really an option because few Chinese stores that sell fakes have access to material that is anything close to the real thing and non of them have designers that can copy the designs even "kind-of" right. Cars and furniture are self-evident. A man that has self-respect and has the money for these things will not skimp on them because he cannot without loosing the quality he wants.

A Rolex is a different story. I honestly believe that anyone here that says that Rolex is justifiable in price because he appreciates the quality of good watches is full of ****, or rich. If you are in the category of the people that can ignore the price tag, yes your appreciation makes sense. Anyone who is ready to sacrifice a very large portion of his paycheck for something he can get an equivalent of (not equivalent but with minor differences which 99% of the people including the buyer will not even feel/see.) has to be either a die-hard collector/fanatic, or brainwashed by people who can afford to care about things this small.

I also think that people who don't care about the perks of owning a Rolex/other high brand name because they get it for the quality and not the attention are either rich, crazy, or 99% lying to themselves. A watch is one of the top indicators of financial status and if you don't care about showing off your Rolex why wear it? Why not get a Timex to tell time and keep your Rolex in a glass safe at home; you wouldn't want to ruin the exquisite quality you appreciate so much by exposing it to natural elements, or worse accidentally break it or have it stolen; after all that's just wasteful no matter how much you make. A digital watch is more accurate anyway.

To wrap this up a Rolex, whether or not you can afford it can be saved on without a hard trade off. Whether or not you want a Rolex real or fake is another story and it's up to you. If you are one of those people that starts hearing a constant heart bit in their head after buying a fake, maybe you should work on your perception of the real world instead of insulting people who can look at the world from a business perspective and not personal biases that prevent us from making smart decisions.


The irony in your post is that you can understand the reasoning for owning and wearing expensive clothes, but not expensive watches. You also seem to be perfectly fine with spending large amount of money on a car....but not on a watch .

I think you need to realize there may be reasons for owning something outside of your immediate realm of thinking (at least that which are presented in your post). I own two rolexes, i own both of them becuase my best friend was a rolex collector, when he passed away i bought a datejust.

in the 2 years I've owned my watches, 2 people commented, one wore a submariner and a datejust and he really appreciated rolexes, the other is a friend of mine who was looking into buying an omega. So if my intention was to buy a watch people would recognize and comment on.....i was sorely mistaken. Luckily that was in no part my intention.

buying a fake is similar to a Kit car, on the outside it looks like the real deal, but when it comes down to brass tacks its only a shell of the original.

Originally Posted by likeitaloud

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The quality can be VASTLY different but because of the simplicity of the function, the difference, regardless of the design, will be completely negligible in relation to the cost.
So what about clothes? There only utilitarian purpose regardless of design is warmth and to cover up the body. Why pay more for something that a $20 track suit can do just as well? Why not buy 2 for $200 suits from the Men's Warehouse?

Originally Posted by likeitaloud

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A fake Kiton suit is not really an option because few Chinese stores that sell fakes have access to material that is anything close to the real thing and non of them have designers that can copy the designs even "kind-of" right.
Can you tell the difference in a fake Kiton suit if I didn't give you a real Kiton suit to compare it to? Do you think the vast majority can tell or even care? Why not buy a fake Kiton suit too to match your fake Rolex? Do you think that it is that hard to copy a designer suit when it is apparently so easy to replicate a Rolex?

Originally Posted by likeitaloud

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A man that has self-respect and has the money for these things will not skimp on them because he cannot without loosing the quality he wants.
Exactly. How you do not see the parallel between and watches any other luxury item is beyond me.

Originally Posted by huy

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So what about clothes? There only utilitarian purpose regardless of design is warmth and to cover up the body. Why pay more for something that a $20 track suit can do just as well? Why not buy 2 for $200 suits from the Men's Warehouse?
Expensive/designer clothes look and feel much better than the cheap stuff, I'd think it's fairly obvious.

Originally Posted by huy

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Can you tell the difference in a fake Kiton suit if I didn't give you a real Kiton suit to compare it to? Do you think the vast majority can tell or even care? Why not buy a fake Kiton suit too to match your fake Rolex? Do you think that it is that hard to copy a designer suit when it is apparently so easy to replicate a Rolex?
I probably would, depending on the fake. Generally I would think it is next to impossible to do a great fake of a suit because #1 the material is on a whole new level (read my post it's in there) #2 the stitching/sewing is impossible to fake without being a professional in the industry & knowing the nuts and bolts of the particular design. Obviously these professionals are hired by top sartorialist companies and not shady Chinese shacks. Without the experience the fit will simply be off and with the cheaper material will render the fake useless as the look and the feel will give it away.

Originally Posted by huy

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Exactly. How you do not see the parallel between and watches any other luxury item is beyond me.
I just wrote a page long answer on this...but here is some clarification A Rolex has a function of rotation 3 arrows. It is a very easy task to replicate, and the cost of replicating this task has the following relationship: accurate time measurement and small "sliding" over time - costs 10$-40$ VERY accurate time measurement with VERY small "sliding over time - costs 5000$-25000$ The technology and the professional input is different (Rolex has better professionals more expensive materials then Timex) in different quality watches. Unlike suits where a bad job means a terrible fit, in watches a cheap/bad design will simply mean this: You re-correct your watch every 5 months, not every 5 years (like a great watch that was designed to be very precise.) The penalty for a poor design here is almost negligible(do you care that you correct your watch twice a year and not twice in 10 years?) unlike a fake suit. Now moving onto design. There is a a saying "not all that is shiny is gold," in terms of fakes it doesn't really matter. Rolex doesn't use top grade diamonds that are impossible to replicate. Rolex uses small amount of high quality(correct me on this?) gold, steel, titanium, glass. In the amount that is needed for a watch, a person that designs a good fake can buy all of these materials (the exact same ones) for the cost that would still allow him to sell his fakes for under 200$. Even if Rolex has some secret metal formula that has a super gold mix, using a close enough gold will make no difference whatsoever in the design. It will look and feel the same. Now we follow the assembly: Rolex can be disassembled into parts that are later put together. For example we take the inner metal ring. The person making the watch doesn't need years of experience of sewing Valentino suits (to make a great Valentino suit) to master this, he simply needs to take a ruler and measure a 2cm diameter 1/2 gold, 1/2 steel 0.2 thick. After putting together all the parts, if the person has some experience dealing with watches it will be a very close resemblance. Here he doesn't need a hand of a painter or a pianist he just needs some good equipment. Yes because he is inexpirienced the little things that are achieved by having the watch cost 25,000$ will be lost, but the only thing they will do is limit the life of the watch to a few years instead of 40 (?). Due to how well (some) Chinese learned to imitate the real Rolex, the 200$ replica will be made so closely resembling the real thing that only top jewelers will be able to tell it apart from the real deal (watch the news once in a while.) So unlike a bad suit, a Rolex can be replicated without loosing class, feel, and look. You will loose reliability, and how long it lasts but in my opinion the trade off is worth it. 2 years, minute/month offset = 200$ 30 years, 1/2 second/month offset = 25,000$ They are the same in every other aspect. I hope this clarified my opinion on fakes. Also note that my numbers are not exact but I think they serve the purpose and even if they are off the ratios are understandable.

Originally Posted by fuji

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Not paying retail is not the same as buying a fake. No matter how you phrase it buying a fake rolex is trying to show people that you have wealth, which you do not actualy have, which is pathetic and is no different from low class people covering themselves with gucci and louis vuiton logos. I have seen my fair share of fake watches and after owning a rolex I would never even consider buying a fake. Not realy related to the question, but your uncle's brother's sister is a pretty long winded way of saying your aunt.

This is kinda funny as many buy real Rolex watches by overextending themselves on credit to show others that they "have made it"

As for fakes, I don't care much....I wouldn't buy one but if others want to then whatever.

And the whole Rolex thing, I have owned three, still own one...also own an Omega...the Omega is as nice and cost a third what my Rolex is now worth, there are many watches that are made nicer than Rolex for the same money, just as there are a few made as well as Rolex for alot less. You pay alot for the name.

Justified by price or not, buying a knockoff watch is tacky. Just like going 8K into debt on a real Rolex. If you're 17, listening to Lil Wayne, and desperately in need of a brand name on your wrist, then I can understand the appeal.

If you're older than that, come on man. Get a Seiko. If you can afford more, get an Omega. If you want a Rolex, then pick up a vintage one. Half the time the old ones look better anyway.

Originally Posted by likeitaloud

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Now moving onto design. There is a a saying "not all that is shiny is gold," in terms of fakes it doesn't really matter. Rolex doesn't use top grade diamonds that are impossible to replicate. Rolex uses small amount of high quality(correct me on this?) gold, steel, titanium, glass. In the amount that is needed for a watch, a person that designs a good fake can buy all of these materials (the exact same ones) for the cost that would still allow him to sell his fakes for under 200$.
Even if Rolex has some secret metal formula that has a super gold mix, using a close enough gold will make no difference whatsoever in the design. It will look and feel the same. Now we follow the assembly:


just highlighted the stupidity.

i'm amazed that you think an 18k version of the watch can be duplicated with less then $200 in gold.

They smelt the metals used in their watches so the gold is always the same blend of 18k white, yellow or rose.

Originally Posted by likeitaloud

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blahblah nonsense blah

GTFO

Rolex makes their gold and steel themselves so no a knock off company can not get ahold of them. Do you actualy believe that there is no skill in making a watch? The skill required to make a high end watch is far greater then making a good suit. They don't just measure out bits of metal and put them together. You say a replica rolex doesn't loose and class. How can something fake that you wear to try and convince people your rich when your not show class? You could have bought a vintage omega for $500, which is actualy a good watch.