Bootleggers have been around a long time, and their products, if you can even call them that, have found new homes at sites like Amazon and eBay. If their sources are illegal, you can’t exactly trust what they’re selling you, and luxury watches are no exception.
Here’s how to spot a fake luxury timepiece when you see one.
1. Massive Discounts
Luxury watches never get reduced beyond 20% of their original price. Unless a seller offers a pre-owned item, they’d never give out an authentic luxury watch at a 25% or 50% discount.
Therefore, avoid and report any luxury watch you see that’s brand-new and sold at a significant discount because it’s most likely Clayton’s timepiece.
2. Literal Lightweights
Even the fanciest forgeries can’t hide imperfections, nor can they replicate the attention to detail paid by an expert watchmaker. Like any counterfeit, they’ll start by cutting corners on the material, trading stainless steel and premium leather for cheaper metal and some PVC leather. As a result, their product would feel much lighter than the real deal.
Additionally, knock offs would feel rough and irritable because they’d be manufactured with machines, not human hands. A lack of personal finishing means the metal edges would not be as smooth as when they’re brushed by hand.
3. No Certificates
Not checking for certificates? Genuine watch retailers and pre-owned sellers like to keep the proof authenticity close to the watch they’re selling because it reinforces their claim on price.
4. No Devil, No Detail
The devil is in the details with handcrafted watches, but it’s sadly missing from the knock offs. Counterfeiters sell you a façade, which is why it’s likely for the case back, crown, or sides to deviate from the original.
When you buy luxury watches online or in person, be sure to have their detailed photos on you so that you can compare and check for a potential forgery.
The most important piece of advice we can give you regarding luxury counterfeits, however, is that you purchase them right from the source, instead of a third-party retailer.
If your motivation for considering an alternative is the reduced price, just pop over to our shelves, and you’ll find that the original labels on our Belle collection far outdoes any discount, fake or otherwise, you may have been offered.
Buy luxury timepieces online by having a go at our Belle Noir, Belle Argent, Belle Or, and Belle Blanc watches.
