Your thoughts on fake watches
Discussion
t. Rolex is the pinnacle of watchmaking and all fake watches just fall a part.
Lord Marylebone said:
With the greatest of respect, the claim of 'all fake watches just fall apart' is just total nonsense.
Your absolutely right. the better fakes are so well made they fool most jewellers and so called experts. In some cases the only people who can tell the difference are the manufacturers themselves. Of course, you can't beat a really cheap fake. My friend owns a £5 submariner bought in Turkey. It weighs about an ounce, and has a cheap quartz movement in it. The funny thing is that 90% of people think it's real. makes you wonder, doesn't it. TiggerBits said:
Your absolutely right. the better fakes are so well made they fool most jewellers and so called experts. In some cases the only people who can tell the difference are the manufacturers themselves. Of course, you can't beat a really cheap fake. My friend owns a £5 submariner bought in Turkey. It weighs about an ounce, and has a cheap quartz movement in it. The funny thing is that 90% of people think it's real. makes you wonder, doesn't it.
"I have a fake twenty pound note. It fools 9 out of 10 people. Makes you think, doesn't it?"What it makes me think is your "friend" likes to pass off fake goods. That is just poor form.
EddieSteadyGo said:
TiggerBits said:
Your absolutely right. the better fakes are so well made they fool most jewellers and so called experts. In some cases the only people who can tell the difference are the manufacturers themselves. Of course, you can't beat a really cheap fake. My friend owns a £5 submariner bought in Turkey. It weighs about an ounce, and has a cheap quartz movement in it. The funny thing is that 90% of people think it's real. makes you wonder, doesn't it.
"I have a fake twenty pound note. It fools 9 out of 10 people. Makes you think, doesn't it?"What it makes me think is your "friend" likes to pass off fake goods. That is just poor form.
Oh... hang on - they're all fakes too!
EddieSteadyGo said:
"I have a fake twenty pound note. It fools 9 out of 10 people. Makes you think, doesn't it?"
What it makes me think is your "friend" likes to pass off fake goods. That is just poor form.
Is the person with a fake rolex using it to buy anything? What it makes me think is your "friend" likes to pass off fake goods. That is just poor form.
Probably a more apt comparison would be between 2 people waying around wads of £50 notes, the one waving genuine notes getting pee'd off at the one waving fake notes because the latter is creating the same image as the former.
That's what it boils down to, image, and the "unfairness" of somebody being able to tap into that image without having paid full market value. It's the definition of snobbery. If you buy a Rolex because you enjoy the quality/engineering/feel of the genuine item then a fake should have zero impact, just like having a burger at Byron compared to somebody having a Maccy's.
However, if it's image that you're bothered about then of course fakes are going to affect your enjoyment. If you have a genuine item, and 1000 other people have fakes then you're not special any more and there wasn't any point paying £5000 for a genuine item.
Countdown said:
EddieSteadyGo said:
"I have a fake twenty pound note. It fools 9 out of 10 people. Makes you think, doesn't it?"
What it makes me think is your "friend" likes to pass off fake goods. That is just poor form.
Is the person with a fake rolex using it to buy anything? What it makes me think is your "friend" likes to pass off fake goods. That is just poor form.
Probably a more apt comparison would be between 2 people waying around wads of £50 notes, the one waving genuine notes getting pee'd off at the one waving fake notes because the latter is creating the same image as the former.
That's what it boils down to, image, and the "unfairness" of somebody being able to tap into that image without having paid full market value. It's the definition of snobbery. If you buy a Rolex because you enjoy the quality/engineering/feel of the genuine item then a fake should have zero impact, just like having a burger at Byron compared to somebody having a Maccy's.
However, if it's image that you're bothered about then of course fakes are going to affect your enjoyment. If you have a genuine item, and 1000 other people have fakes then you're not special any more and there wasn't any point paying £5000 for a genuine item.
The arguments against fakes and pretty much all counterfeit goods have been well rehearsed here previously. If you think the main issue relates to some form of snobbery by the people who buy the genuine article, then we will have to agree to disagree.
The analogy to a fake twenty pound note was in relation to a specific point made by TiggerBits. The argument being because most people can't tell the difference, what's the value in the real item? If you apply that logic to the counterfeit money, it shows the flaw in the logical reasoning.
You've it arse about face. People buy fakes to give the impression they have spent a lot of money on a watch, they want the Rolex image at a fraction of the cost, clever them not spending all that money! The irony being that if people didn't stump up the dosh for a real one there'd be no Rolex to copy in the first place.
TiggerBits said:
Your absolutely right. the better fakes are so well made they fool most jewellers and so called experts. In some cases the only people who can tell the difference are the manufacturers themselves. Of course, you can't beat a really cheap fake. My friend owns a £5 submariner bought in Turkey. It weighs about an ounce, and has a cheap quartz movement in it. The funny thing is that 90% of people think it's real. makes you wonder, doesn't it.
It certainly makes me wonder about the sort of people you / your friend deal with - 90% of them must be idiots.Countdown said:
Is the person with a fake rolex using it to buy anything?
Probably a more apt comparison would be between 2 people waying around wads of £50 notes, the one waving genuine notes getting pee'd off at the one waving fake notes because the latter is creating the same image as the former.
That's what it boils down to, image, and the "unfairness" of somebody being able to tap into that image without having paid full market value. It's the definition of snobbery. If you buy a Rolex because you enjoy the quality/engineering/feel of the genuine item then a fake should have zero impact, just like having a burger at Byron compared to somebody having a Maccy's.
However, if it's image that you're bothered about then of course fakes are going to affect your enjoyment. If you have a genuine item, and 1000 other people have fakes then you're not special any more and there wasn't any point paying £5000 for a genuine item.
Totally agree.Probably a more apt comparison would be between 2 people waying around wads of £50 notes, the one waving genuine notes getting pee'd off at the one waving fake notes because the latter is creating the same image as the former.
That's what it boils down to, image, and the "unfairness" of somebody being able to tap into that image without having paid full market value. It's the definition of snobbery. If you buy a Rolex because you enjoy the quality/engineering/feel of the genuine item then a fake should have zero impact, just like having a burger at Byron compared to somebody having a Maccy's.
However, if it's image that you're bothered about then of course fakes are going to affect your enjoyment. If you have a genuine item, and 1000 other people have fakes then you're not special any more and there wasn't any point paying £5000 for a genuine item.
If the person buying the copy does so knowingly and doesn't try to profit from it by selling it on as something its not then what harm are they doing?
I'm guessing a lot of people with the real things get up in arms about the fact its a copy because they feel their exclusivity is threatened and suddenly because Joe Bloggs (who would never have bought the real thing anyway but liked the style so bought a copy) has one they feel all emasculated. Sad.
I enjoy my watches for what they are not for how they make me look to others. On the very rare occasions I dress to impress (job interview for example) then I might wear an expensive one if it feels appropriate but frankly I'm just as likely to wear a Bulova if the style fits better.
Most of the time I just wear what fits my mood.
I really don't get why people are so hung up about it all as long as no harm is being done.
lostkiwi said:
I'm guessing a lot of people with the real things get up in arms about the fact its a copy because they feel their exclusivity is threatened and suddenly because Joe Bloggs (who would never have bought the real thing anyway but liked the style so bought a copy) has one they feel all emasculated. Sad.
Talk about creating a strawman argument in order to fit your pre-existing view. Who has advocated anything remotely similar to this viewpoint? lostkiwi said:
I'm guessing a lot of people with the real things get up in arms about the fact its a copy because they feel their exclusivity is threatened and suddenly because Joe Bloggs (who would never have bought the real thing anyway but liked the style so bought a copy) has one they feel all emasculated. Sad.
Rolex aren't exclusive anyway. We've already had the used car dealer cliche bandied about during this discussion.If the faker only appreciated the style of a watch they'd buy a cheaper, similar one from another brand. They haven't though. They want the expensive brand name stamped on the front. It's no different to all those fake LV bags you see on every woman's arm in an airpot.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld said:
Rolex aren't exclusive anyway. We've already had the used car dealer cliche bandied about during this discussion.
If the faker only appreciated the style of a watch they'd buy a cheaper, similar one from another brand. They haven't though. They want the expansive brand stamped on the front. It's no different to all those fake LV bags you see on every woman's arm in an airpot.
True. I wonder how many Rolex owners actually know the first thing about watches ?If the faker only appreciated the style of a watch they'd buy a cheaper, similar one from another brand. They haven't though. They want the expansive brand stamped on the front. It's no different to all those fake LV bags you see on every woman's arm in an airpot.
lostkiwi said:
I really don't get why people are so hung up about it all as long as no harm is being done.
I don't want to be rude, but just because you can't see the harm being done doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Have a read of some of these links from the United Nations and Europol relating to the serious issues caused by counterfeit goods (including fake watches).
https://www.unodc.org/documents/counterfeit/FocusS...
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/fake-d...
https://www.europol.europa.eu/crime-areas-and-tren...
Francois de La Rochefoucauld said:
If the faker only appreciated the style of a watch they'd buy a cheaper, similar one from another brand. They haven't though. They want the expensive brand name stamped on the front. It's no different to all those fake LV bags you see on every woman's arm in an airpot.
I don't disagree with that. However why should that upset the owner of a genuine Rolex or in any way reduce their enjoyment of their own genuine article?Say you own a genuine painting by Da Vinci, or Constable, or Turner. Would your enjoyment be lessened by the fact that there are a million repro prints in circulation? What about if you had a Faberge egg and somebody else had the cadbury's creme version? How would that impact on how you take enjoyment from your genuine article?
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