Counterfeit watch - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A counterfeit watch is an illegal copy of an authentic watch

Watch

A watch is a small timepiece, typically worn either on the wrist or attached on a chain and carried in a pocket, with wristwatches being the most common type of watch used today. They evolved in the 17th century from spring powered clocks, which appeared in the 15th century. The first watches were...

. According to estimates by the Swiss

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

Customs

Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...

Service, there are some 30 to 40 million counterfeit watches put into circulation each year. For example, the number and value of Customs’ seizures rose from CHF

Swiss franc

The franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it is also legal tender in the Italian exclave Campione d'Italia. Although not formally legal tender in the German exclave Büsingen , it is in wide daily use there...

400,000 and 18 seizures in 1995 to CHF 10,300,000 and 572 seizures in 2005. Counterfeits watches cause an estimated $1 Billion loss per year to the watch industry.

History

Forgery of watches became a serious problem in the eighteenth century when Britain came to rival France as the leading producer of quality clocks and watches. By the middle of the century, watchmakers in Augsburg

Augsburg

Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...

(Germany) and in various small towns in French-speaking Switzerland were producing watches falsely signed with the names of well-known English makers such as George Graham

George Graham (clockmaker)

George Graham was an English clockmaker, inventor, and geophysicist, and a Fellow of the Royal Society.He was born to George Graham in Kirklinton, Cumberland. A Friend like his mentor Thomas Tompion, Graham left Cumberland in 1688 for London to work with Tompion...

and Eardley Norton

Eardley Norton

John Eardley Norton was a Madras barrister, judge and politician of British origin. He was also one of the founders of the Indian National Congress and a participant in the Indian independence movement.- Early life :...

. Other, less obvious, forgeries carried imaginary names with a vaguely English sound, such as 'Samson' or 'Simpton'. In the following century Breguet

Breguet

Breguet may refer to: * Breguet , watch manufacturer* Breguet Aviation, a defunct French aircraft manufacturer; was formally known as "Société Anonyme des Ateliers d'Aviation Louis Breguet"...

became a frequent target for forgers; at the same time British makers continued to suffer, many forgeries bearing the name 'M. J. Tobias' - a mistake for a real London maker named Michael Isaac Tobias. In the 1860s, when the American watch industry was gaining strength, the Swiss industry was responsible for many imitations of Waltham

Waltham

-Horology:* Waltham Watch Company, American watch manufacturer, pioneer in the industrialisation of the manufacturing of watch movements** Waltham International, Swiss subsidiary-Places:In Canada:*Waltham, QuebecIn England:...

watches; these, unlike most of the earlier forgeries, often imitated the appearance of the genuine article quite closely as well as borrowing the names. This practice died out in the early 1870s, as the Swiss could not compete, so surrendered the mass-market field to U.S. firms and focused on branding high end status symbols.

Modern infringers

Swiss Customs estimates that 40% of counterfeit watches come from China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, but counterfeits are produced elsewhere, even in the US

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

The Swiss Customs Service is obliged to confiscate and destroy such goods. While there are some exceptions, counterfeit jewellery is confiscated in all cases.

Types of counterfeits

Trademark violations: Infringing on the rightfully owned trademarks, hallmarks, symbols and any other distinctive signs of a reputed Swiss watch brand, with or without complete trade-dress or design violation. This extends to other false indications and or markings in violation of any law, or official agreement. Typical noted examples would include, "Swiss Made", "Water Resistant", "Shock Resistant", false precious metal or any other "Noble metal

Noble metal

Noble metals are metals that are resistant to corrosion and oxidation in moist air, unlike most base metals. They tend to be precious, often due to their rarity in the Earth's crust...

" indications.

Trade-dress or design violations: The second group involves counterfeit watches designed to resemble the original (a trade dress

Trade dress

Trade dress is a legal term of art that generally refers to characteristics of the visual appearance of a product or its packaging that signify the source of the product to consumers...

violation). Some high-priced counterfeit watches are produced from inferior materials and have gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

en parts and leather

Leather

Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

straps.

Counterfeit Rolex watches

Rolex counterfeits are illegally manufactured replica

Replica

A replica is a copy closely resembling the original concerning its shape and appearance. An inverted replica complements the original by filling its gaps. It can be a copy used for historical purposes, such as being placed in a museum. Sometimes the original never existed. For example, Difference...

s of Rolex
Rolex
Rolex SA is a Swiss watchmaking manufacturer of high-quality, luxury wristwatches. Rolex watches are popularly regarded as status symbols and BusinessWeek magazine ranks Rolex No.71 on its 2007 annual list of the 100 most valuable global brands...

watches. Like many high-priced luxury brand-name watches such as Cartier

Cartier SA

Cartier S.A., commonly known as Cartier , is a French luxury jeweler and watch manufacturer. The corporation carries the name of the Cartier family of jewellers whose control ended in 1964 and who were known for numerous pieces including the "Bestiary" , the diamond necklace created for Bhupinder...

and Bvlgari, Rolex watches are frequently counterfeited and illegally sold on city streets and the Internet. There has been an "open market" for these types of watches along Canal Street in NYC for over 20 years. These counterfeits are mainly produced in Asia. EU figures show that at least 54% of fakes seized in 2004 originated in China. They commonly retail anywhere from $5 to upwards of $1,000; the latter for high-end replicas with portions fabricated from solid karat gold (although most gold Rolex fakes utilize gold electroplating). Such watches have been nicknamed Foolex, Bolex, Frolex, Folex and Fauxlex. The fake Rolex trade has become segmented and the products marketed using glossy color brochures and catalogues containing counterfeited wares produced in China and offered for sale to retail vendors throughout Asia.

Counterfeit characteristics

A common myth states that a genuine watch can be discerned from a fake by the fluid movement of the sweep hand. This is because many counterfeited watches use inexpensive crystal quartz movements which produces the start/stop once per second sweep. Observed closely, one will see that even a true Rolex movement is not a perfectly smooth sweep, but is actually eight movements per second (or 28,800 per hour) in some models or around 21,000 vph. in other models. The only mechanical watches that have a second hand that moves across the dial in a truly uninterrupted sweep are the Bulova

Bulova

Bulova is a corporation making luxury watches and clocks. It has its headquarters in Woodside, Queens, New York City.Bulova was founded and incorporated as the J. Bulova Company in 1875 by Joseph Bulova , an immigrant from Bohemia...

tuning fork movement and the Seiko

Seiko

, more commonly known simply as Seiko , is a Japanese watch company.-History and ongoing developments:The company was founded in 1881, when Kintarō Hattori opened a watch and jewelry shop called in the Ginza area of Tokyo, Japan. Eleven years later, in 1892, he began to produce clocks under the...

Spring Drive

The Spring Drive is a novel watch movement that was developed by Seiko Epson through collaboration with Seiko Instruments and Seiko Holdings.It uses a mainspring, barrel, automatic winder and stem winding like in a mechanical watch to store the watch energy...

. Nonetheless, some of the counterfeits have automatic movements, and Rolex has produced a few models with quartz movements, such as the OysterQuartz which produces the distinct quartz movement ticks.
The modern high-end replica watch industry now produces watches which can rival many high street "designer" brands for quality, workmanship and accuracy (timekeeping), utilising genuine (and also imitation) Swiss mechanical movements.
Another facet of the replica watch industry is that, via collectors and amateur horologists: such watches of a certain esteem are modified with genuine parts where physically possible. Such as movements, dials, hands, bracelets. These creations are known as Frankenwatches, or simply Franken.

Hallmarks

According to the Swiss Customs Service, counterfeit watches can be made in such a manner as to require special equipment to confirm near authenticity. A high price is not a guarantee of authenticity. Indications of fineness do not necessarily indicate authenticity. Hallmarks can be forged, and may induce a buyer to believe a piece is made of real gold when it may only be made of a cheap metal plated in gold. However, a gold watch may not be solid gold and still be authentic. Gold plated and gold capped watches are legitimately produced. Golden colored counterfeits use a much thinner gold plate, which over time would begin to rub off.

External links

http://www.fhs.ch/en/swissm.php Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH Definition of Swiss Made
Swiss Made
Swiss Made is a label used to indicate that a product was made in Switzerland.-Overview:The wording was formally adopted in the late 19th century and is unique in that most other countries use the phrase "Made in ". The most obvious place where the label is found is on Swiss watches...
http://www.stop-piracy.ch/en/candp/cap60.shtm#a04 Is a fake watch a joke?
http://www.ejpd.admin.ch/ejpd/en/home/dokumentation/red/archiv/reden_christoph_blocher/2007/2007-01-16.html Federal Department of Justice and Police: Counterfeiting and Piracy - A major problem for the Swiss Economy

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