A real luxury watch is a status thing with a special charm and a very high price. Not every one of us can afford such an accessory. Anything expensive always attracts the attention of scammers. Swiss watches are no exception. There is a very interesting fact about this – about 5% of the owners of expensive Swiss watches wear fakes and are not even aware of it. If you don’t want to be one of them, you should be aware of the best ways to distinguish fake watches from the original.
Why is it so important to buy original watches?
A quality watch is a stylish accessory. There are many fakes of different quality on the market:
- Cheap Chinese knockoffs. These are products of the lowest quality, which crookedly repeat the style of a real luxury watch. They will be distinguished by any person, even those who have never dealt with real products. Poor processing of parts, non-working elements of mechanisms – all this is about cheap fakes.
- Fakes of average quality with the same price. These products are already closer to the original ones, but most often this proximity is achieved simply due to the high-quality repetition of the design. The functionality most often suffers in them. It is already more difficult to distinguish such fake watches from the original ones.
- Replicas with a price close to the original. This is a watch with a complete repetition of design and functionality. They are very similar to real luxury watches and only an experienced watchmaker can distinguish them from the original. It is these fakes that are worn by those few people who do not suspect that they have fallen into a trap.
No matter how good a fake is, it remains a fake. Even if the design is exactly repeated and it seems to have full functionality, these watches are unlikely to be able to compare with the original ones in terms of quality, precision, and durability. If you want to buy a truly high-quality watch that will serve you for decades, you need only the original.
How to distinguish a fake watch?
Several things will immediately show that you have a fake Swiss watch in your hands:
- Official store. The best way to avoid counterfeit watches is to buy them from a reputable shop for buying original Swiss-made watches. This is an expensive option but by far the safest. When buying a new watch, you will also receive all documents and serial numbers confirming its authenticity.
- Package. Swiss watches are expensive, they do not just count time, they bring pleasure from owning them. Unpacking such accessories is also a separate ritual, so they are delivered in packaging made of special materials with non-standard design. Saffiano and moire are often used as materials, and gold embossing is used to finish the case-packing.
- Labeling. If you come across a product marked “Made in Switzerland”, feel free to refuse to buy, it is a fake. The correct markings are “Swiss Made” and “Swiss quartz” – they indicate that the product is made in Switzerland and has passed the quality control. At the same time, be careful, such a mark can be on the bracelet, but not on the watch. In this case, the bracelet is made in Switzerland indeed, but this may not apply to the watch.
- Functional. In fake watches, some of the mechanisms may simply not work. For example, an imitation of additional dials or a date window; in cheap fakes, they can simply be glued or even painted on the main dial.
- Mechanism. Most Swiss watches are mechanical. Manufacturers of counterfeits often use quartz movements to save money. You can distinguish them from each other by the movement of the second hand. In mechanical watches, it moves smoothly, in quartz watches it moves jerkily from second to second.
- Clock face protection. The glass must fit perfectly against the body without any gaps. Look at the clock from the side, if at least one side of the glass protrudes, you have a fake in your hands. To check the quality of the glass itself, put a few drops of water on it. On a watch with sapphire glass, they will gather into one large drop.
If you do not want to think about how to distinguish a fake luxury watch from the original, and want to get a quality product, contact competent sellers. official stores are a great choice. they supply original products from the world’s best manufacturers and give a guarantee on all products.
Iskra Banović is our seasoned Editor-in-Chief at Blufashion. She has been steering the website’s content and editorial direction since 2018. With a rich background in fashion design, Iskra’s expertise spans across fashion, interior design, beauty, lifestyle, travel, and culture.