Inside Replica Watches
We’ve all heard stories about the greedy customer buying what he believed to be a stolen Rolex on the streets of New York for $100, only to discover later that it is was actually a junky asian made knock off that wholesales for $20.
There are lots of stories told by Internet store customers who discover they didn’t receive quite they were expecting. Below are some of the features the distinguish a superior replica:
Features that distinguish a Genuine Rolex
(or a superior copy) from a Bad Replica
- Ticking second hand on fakes, real thing and better copies with more jewels have a smooth sweeping second hand.
- Second hand stops moving when winding stem is pulled out on the real thing.
- Second hand tip should reach the ticks on the face.
- Yacht Mast models have a fatter minute hand, some copies have a standard width hand.
- Hands and hour marks on the face should be luminescent on most non jeweled models.
- The rotatable outer bezel ring on the real thing should go around in 60 clicks, it’s marks should closely align with the second marks.
- See-through back cover: Only Japanese copies have back windows, No Rolex models do.
- Rolex back cover should have no engraving, some have the green authentication holograph. The cover should have 144 ticks to fit the Rolex opening tool.
- Band attached with press in pins: Real Rolex bands are attached with small screws, look for screw heads on the pins.
- No logo on the band signifies a fake.
- Serial numbers and case ID numbers (at 6 & 12 ends respectively) are sharply engraved under the band attach points. Serial number should match the paper work, some serial numbers, like R863698 is reused on numerous copies.
- Crown logo on the winder is separate attachment, looks for seams or leaked glue. Real crown logo has a row of 3 dots below it.
- Magnifier on all but best copies give x1.5 mag. Not the 2.5 Magnification of a real Rolex. The date should be well centered in the cutout.
- Triplock crown models, including. Submariner, Sea-Dweller and Dayton have a visible rubber seal on the winding stem, visible when the stem is fully out.
- A real Rolex comes in a nice wood or leather bound box, with paper in a wallet, and the Rolex seal. Hang onto this box to preserve the resale value of the watch.
Here are the going market prices for the various Rolex replica qualities
Replica – Quartz (Battery powered) $50 and less.
Replica – Asians 8 or 17 jewels $80 to $110
Japanese high end with Japanese movement 21 jewel $210 to $230
Italian Models – Swiss Case 27 -31 jewel $275 to $329
Swiss high end with Swiss 27 -31 jewel ETA $525 to $650
(The real things lists for $4000 to $75,350)
Lower advertised prices should be viewed with suspicion, they are likely delivering a quality less than advertised.
Here’s a dealer’s video tour of a replica’s details
BlueFakes.com advertising the latest versions, uniquely have videos showing off some models, adding credibility to their site. They have one unexplained entry in a scam report site, bear in mind some dealers sabotage the competition with bogus reports. I have identified that this site has paid incoming links used to boost it’s search engine ranking (an offence only in Google’s eyes)