fake vs real

Kaise

right the question is can anybody actually tell the difference without touch, weighing, closer inspection?

I mean both fake and real are well constructed and beautifully formed, work to perfection (in most cases) and if its a good fake no one would know the difference or would they?

im talking watches, jeez, filthy mind in all of you - what would your mother say :shock:

anyway, mate went to dubai the other week and brought me back a breitling navimeter and it cost me £40 and i have looked at buying a real one a fair few times now and held off, and after picking this one up yesterday from him i cant fault it, comes with full instructions, serial numbers, the works!

VWsurfbum

I had one many years ago, Navitimer, still got it but back then it was battery and not automatic, lovely fake but the colour went a bit off and now the battery has run out and i dunno if i can be bothered to get it replaced.

cat_with_no_tail

I bought a "fake" Lacoste watch off a lucky lucky man in Tenerife once. Wore it for years thinking it was a fake, only worth the ~£10 I paid for it. Turns out it was actually a real one (probably robbed off some poor tourist).

Was a nice watch though.

.blitz

It was hilarious the other day we were in a meeting and the big boss started winding up his genuine expensive watch (something beginning with 'L' I can't remember what it was) and the crown fell off!

El Capitano

I've got 2 'good' fake watches, one Rolex and one Omega. Wear the Rolex one as my daily office watch. I also have an an excellent fake RQLEX Qyster Perpetual watch. I wear this one for special occasions.

In my last job, there was an unwritten rule that if you went on an overseas trip, then you brought back 'local' sweets for the team. I used to go to North America lots, so I'd bring back bags of mini Hershey bars. When one of the team, who was Chinese, ever went to China, she would bring backfake watches and handbags (for the girls...) as she knew where to get the 'bargains' from, which worked out cheaper than bringing back 'eadible' sweets from China.

cooldad

Except you always know it's fake which makes you a pseudo flashy git, instead of a real flashy git.

edhornby

I used to think that big watches would look silly on my small wrists - until I was given a 'peroni' watch that was a promo from the beer company, and I loved it....

this thread has got me thinking about getting a really chavvy fake britling or rowlecks

VWsurfbum

edhornby if you find a good supplier, it is your duty to put up the link on here so we can all sample the goodies. before Ebay banned the selling of fake goods you could find some real crackers.
My old boss had a real TAG Monaco and a fake one, the only difference you could tell was the blue dial on the fake one was slightly lighter.

Kaise

the goods!

http://twitpic.com/4c2r3o
http://twitpic.com/4c2r2j

not sure these will work

Gazlar

I love watches, but I like Seiko ones so real imported from abroad for me

mak3m

our lass wanted a chanel j12 for ages, finally got a fake one from thailand

the fakes ranged from £20 to £120 in price at the bottom end they are crap copies, she got the £120 and its mint exact copy, you still have to pay for craftsmanship and £120 is still way cheaper than the £3k watch she had her eye on :P

Kaise

just been getting my lunch and some guy from the floor below said
"they must be paying you contractors too much to have one of those"
my response "what for a £40 replica, yeah i get paid enough for one of those" his mates just started laughing at him

mac_man

Am in 2 minds about fakes....

Sometimes I think 'buy a really good one and everyone will think it's real". But that's only valid if it's something reasonable like a mid range Omega/TAG/Rolex as nobody would ever believe I'd spent £20K on a Rolex Daytona.

I think I'd rather get a proper 'homage' watch like this:

http://www.christopherward.co.uk/men/vi ... i-sks.html

or this

http://www.steinhartwatches.de/index.ph ... l_ID=9#191
Swiss mechanical movements, nice quality and warranted.

A £300 fake is still only a £100 watch at most, as the fakers are still after a profit.

cee

I have one of these....its real too!

MountainMonster

I hate buying fake watches. Or fake anything to be honest. If you're going to get called out about your watch, or whatever you are wearing, it's seriously embarasing to say its fake.

Yeah man, let's pretend were rich but not actually be rich.

BigJimmyB

Try www.famousbrandwatch.com

montevideoguy

Never bought fake watches...then again, I never wear my Breitling. Stick to my swatch for every day or casio G shock for training.

Kaise

MountainMonster wrote:

Yeah man, let's pretend were rich but not actually be rich.

or alternatively, i like the look of the breitling watches but i cant afford one, so i know i'll not spend the £5k i dont have and settle for something that looks good and keeps time well for, oh i dont know, £40!

360

kaiser83 wrote:

the goods!

http://twitpic.com/4c2r3o
http://twitpic.com/4c2r2j

not sure these will work

Back looks very very fake. On the front the bezel looks cheap and the crown sits too far out. Looks ok to impress your mates down the pub I guess if thats what you're after.

Brietlings are easy to fake because they all use standard movements that the chinese have made copys of.

I like watches and i've never seen a cheap (ie £100) fake that didn't look fake. You can buy superfakes that are much more convincing but they can cost £400-£500.

sheepsteeth

i like the idea of expensive watches, im just too poor to afford them. as such my watch related aspirations are relatively modest in the grand scheme but i am always a little bit impressed by a swanky watch.

i can recognise a fake but have only seen the cheap versions, i dont see the point in buying a fake watch, if the folk buying them really like them for their looks,i wonder if they woul like them so much if they were copies without the name emblazened on them.

Anonymous

I don't need a watch. The world revolves around me, so I decide what time it is.

yoohoo999

After a long stint away on business last year which went really well, and a solid year for the firm financially, i knew it was going to be a decent bonus year.

So, I promised myself i would buy a nice watch, had it narrowed down to 2, a timeless Patek Phillippe and a slightly more modern IWC. Both were about the same price.

Then i had a "eureka" moment and thought "what the f*ck am I doing??!!!".

I used the watch money for a 2 week holiday to Whistler, my Cove Shocker and a MacBook Pro.

I am immeasurably happier Although, I don't reckon a watch would have caused me so much pain!

There's plenty of time for buying nice watches when you retire.


As for fakes.....don't see the point. Using the "oh, but i just like the look but don't want to spend £10k" doesn't work. Do a bit of looking around, there are plenty of nice looking, unique and well designed watches for £100-£300 that don't rip off someone else.

Believe me, people who wear real nice watches look at what watch you are wearing. it's like an indicator.

I just laugh at people in cheap suits with "expensive" watches on, because it just adds to the cheap look since i know you probably bought it in ibiza and are now trying to pretend that you didn't. just buy something that looks good and isn't a rip off. be a bit original
/rant

Anonymous

Whistler is what I'd rather do with my money too, to be honest!

Deepunder

+1 IWC, nice watches.

I wear a Ollech & Wajs 3066 as my daily which I've had years, excellent quality, rugged and nicely finished also draw a few comments from watch lovers but didn't cost the earth. Got a chunky Hirsch strap for it and its lovely. Its a bit like a submariner but not really why I got it.

There's plenty of niche manufacturers which make top end stuff without the mega big label price tag, often the guts of them are just as good or the same.

Thought about getting a fake once, I like Panerai but could never afford a real one, and you need a chunky arm to pull one off.

Stevo_666

Deepunder wrote:

+1 IWC, nice watches.

IThought about getting a fake once, I like Panerai but could never afford a real one, and you need a chunky arm to pull one off.

Love IWC but Panerai have the cool factor 8) Like you say, massive watches.

Anonymous

If you own something that you think is cool, that instantly makes it uncool. Them's the rules.

yoohoo999

this is a true story, heard from the horses mouth rather than urban legend at work.

one of the associates i work with has a really nice IWC. he was doing a week long completion at the offices of another firm when he was about 3 years PQE (so about 28/29 years old). the other firm has it's own swimming pool and at the end of week he finished up going for a swim rather than an all day boozing session with everyone else due to feeling like poo after not having slept in a week.

when he was getting changed after his swim he found a rather nice IWC and handed it in to reception, leaving his details.

obviously, it's the firm's private pool so it was most likely going to belong to one of the lawyers there, which it did. apparently it had been missing for a couple of weeks and was a watch given to one of the partners by his wife and had considerable sentimental value.

the associate received a thank you phone call and about a week later a courier arrived with a box containing a really nice malt whisky and, yup, you guessed it, a stunning IWC watch. not bad going for finding an old watch in a changing room!!!

the whisky still sits in his office because he hates the stuff!

meesterbond

I've collected watches for a few years now and seeing some of the really good fakes about, you need to be a real expert (or to take the back off) to tell the difference... The thing is though, you know it's a fake therefore the only reason you're wearing it is to impress other people.

There are a loads of quality brands out there which cost a few hundred quid (similar prices to a 'decent' fake) - Chris Ward, PRS, Tissot, Seiko etc... why fund crime in the Far East when you can get something far more interesting over here?

lostboysaint

yoohoo999 wrote:

Believe me, people who wear real nice watches look at what watch you are wearing. it's like an indicator.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Complete w**k.

mak3m

yoohoo999 wrote:

the whisky still sits in his office because he hates the stuff!

if he ever wants to declutter point him over here :P

yoohoo999

lostboysaint wrote:

yoohoo999 wrote:

Believe me, people who wear real nice watches look at what watch you are wearing. it's like an indicator.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Complete w**k.

incorrect.

there's a reason many people buy expensive watches, and it's not because they are impressed by the beautifully engineered mechanism, it's because it demonstrates that you have money. aye, pretty shallow, but why else spend £15k on a watch?

so when you're sat in a meeting with a room full of people wearing suits, and someone sat on your left is wearing an IWC/PP etc, it's never occurred to you that people notice it? and in particular, the person who thought it important to spend £15k on his watch might be interested in what you have on your wrists, (given that it's one of the only demonstrable signs of wealth left after you put a suit on)

and it's never occurred to you that if you looked to your right and someone is wearing a shoddy TAG they bought while on holiday in tenerife that people don't notice that?

i suppose you think that people don't notice when you are wearing a crap suit either?


nouveau riche = buying an expensive watch

old money = having one handed down to you