A real brand watch is a rather expensive and high-status thing. It is quite natural that especially popular models have an increasing number of copies every year, so when buying, you need to be extremely careful not to fall into the hands of scammers.
What are fakes?
Currently, copies of branded watches can be roughly divided into several categories:
1. Surface copies (their cost ranges from about 100 to 1000 rubles). In this case, the flaws are visible to the naked eye: flaws on the dial, inaccurate positioning of the numbers on the axis, uneven edges of the inscriptions, lack of engraving on the back, and much more. Sometimes the dial for such a watch is made of cardboard or ordinary plastic, and the strap is made of leatherette. The stitching of the strap is uneven, and protruding threads are often visible. One cannot even judge the work of such a model. The watch often lags or runs forward, and if water or steam gets on it, it will completely fail. It will not be difficult to distinguish such a fake from the original.
2. High-quality copies (cost from 700 to 3000 rubles). Such copies have many similarities with the original, and the main differences are in the quality of the product and in the watch movement itself. Most often, the inscriptions on such watches are located slightly lower or higher than those of the original, the shape of the hands is different, and on the bracelet you can notice a non-uniform imprint of the inscriptions. The case of such watches, as a rule, is made of brass, which in some cases is covered with gilding. The watch mechanism can be both Chinese and Japanese, and sometimes even Swiss. Usually this is a quartz movement (the hand moves in jumps from division to division).
3. Exact copies (cost from 3000 to 20,000 rubles). Such replica watches are commonly referred to as replicas. It is difficult to distinguish them from the original, since high-quality materials and precious metals are used for their manufacture, and low-quality diamonds are used for inlay instead of rhinestones or crystals. To recognize the replicas, you need to familiarize yourself with the original in detail or seek professional help.
Protection elements
Some companies leave special decals on their watches. For example, for Breguet, this is the cryptography of the dial, visible at a special angle of view, for Frederique Constant, it is marks that are visible only under ultraviolet radiation, for Heart Beat Day-Date and Heart Beat Retrograde, it is the series number. Details like these are unlikely to be seen with the naked eye. Companies keep them secret and constantly come up with new ways to protect them.
You can also distinguish the original watch by opening the lid and looking at the mechanism: in the original models, all parts are branded with brand names. It is important to purchase watches in the official stores of the company, where each model is accompanied by a product certificate with all the necessary seals and a warranty card.
