Watchfinder and its parent company Richemont are ramping-up their mission to reduce the number of fake luxury watches being sold and circulated by criminals through secondary market dealers.
The illegal trade in counterfeit goods is estimated to be worth more than £8 billion in the UK, alone, and fake Rolexes are consistently top of the league for both supply of illegal replica watches and for demand.
A recent study by Uswitch into Google searches for fake luxury goods put Rolex top of the rogue league for both 2021 and 2022.
No other watch brand made the top 20, which explains why so much criminal finance is pouring into manufacturing Rolex watches, and movements. Criminals in far-flung parts of the world are investing in advanced equipment that helps them to make watches that are virtually indistinguishable from the real thing.
“For two years in a row the Swiss watchmaker, Rolex, tops the list as the most in-demand counterfeit luxury brand. Annually, there are 312,000 searches around the globe for ‘fake Rolex’, as so many people want a lookalike of one of the world’s most famous watch labels,” a Uswitch spokesperson says.
Research by black market intelligence specialist Havoscope estimates that 40 million counterfeit watches are sold globally each year, generating a net profit of roughly $1 billion.
That means the illegal trade in counterfeit watches is equivalent to around 6% of the Swiss watch industry’s annual export value.
When it comes to units, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry recorded production of around 30 million genuine watches last year, so there is a worse than 50/50 chance a luxury watch bought through an illegitimate channel could be fake. “The extent of the problem is alarming,” a spokesperson for Watchfinder tells WatchPro.
If you think that, because multi-billion-dollar businesses likes of Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet have deep pockets, the sale of fakes is akin to a victimless crime, think again.
The UK’s entire counterfeit industry is worth more than £8 billion, according to an ITV News report in 2023, and is proven to have strong links to human trafficking and terrorist organisations.
The problem is growing, with law enforcement struggling to keep up. Advances in manufacturing knock-offs coupled with rising demand for luxury goods like watches and handbags, which can have lengthy waiting lists, is both growing the counterfeit industry and making it harder to detect.
Watchfinder & Co. estimates that just five years ago, around 80% of fake watches could be identified just by looking at the outer case. Today, just 20% can be discovered this way and 80% require an in-depth inspection to be identified as fake.
This inspection process required constant and rising investment, which is why Watchfinder & Co is considered one of the most trusted companies for buying and selling pre-owned timepieces.
As many as 10% of all branded goods sold globally may be counterfeit and it is estimated that 80% of us have handled fake or falsified goods (whether wittingly or not).
Sales of luxury goods have soared in recent decades, but fakes have grown even faster. A study by Alice Sherwood in 2022 titled Authenticity: Reclaiming Reality in a Counterfeit Culture suggests that counterfeits have increased by 10,000% in two decades.
The bigger the brand, the greater the problem. Rolex has by far the largest market share of all replica watches. As such, it’s not surprising that there are a plethora of clone movements available for the popular Rolex models.
Watchfinder & Co. has been filtering genuine watches from fakes for over 20 years and takes pride in its experience and expertise at protecting customers from the agony of innocently buying a counterfeit.
“Purchasing a luxury watch is a really special moment and something that often involves a significant amount of consideration and investment, so you can imagine the devastation people feel, if they discover the watch they’ve purchased turns out to be a fake. Sadly, it comes as no surprise to see how many people are being tricked into purchasing fake goods, especially as spotting them isn’t as easy as you would think. What’s equally concerning is how the rise of counterfeit goods is casting a shadow over the pre-owned sector,” says Arjen van de Vall, CEO of Watchfinder & Co.
“This is why we are encouraging all pre-owned watch traders, retailers and marketplaces to publish their authentication policies, processes and credentials, as we do, so consumers gain faith in our sector. I am proud that I can say we have the most rigorous authentication process and policy in the industry and I encourage other legitimate pre-owned retailers to take positive action to keep building confidence in our industry,” he adds.
Every watch bought and sold by Watchfinder is meticulously inspected and prepared by highly trained, manufacturer-accredited watchmakers in a 60-step process that has been refined and perfected over two decades.
This starts with a check of each watch against international database to confirm its provenance and authenticity. During the servicing and any refurbishment, serial numbers on movements and case components can also be checked.
Consumer research conducted by Watchfinder has found that customers are suffering from unwittingly buying fake goods.
A survey of 2,000 adults across the UK by Watchfinder found that, in the last 12 months, 33% of Brits were scammed with a counterfeit item, having believed the article they were purchasing was in fact a genuine product.
The same study found that over a third (36%) who unintentionally bought a fake item mentioned they bought the item pre-owned, yet only 5% of pre-owned purchases have been made through a specialist retailer.
Uncovering fake watches may be an expensive and painstaking process at Watchfinder, but disposing of the counterfeits can be fun. The company recently shot a video that shows the company’s YouTube team destroy five fake watches with a British Army tank. Head over to the Watchfinder YouTube channel to see the results.
Another online feature helps the public identify fake watches by following a series of useful tips and testing their knowledge with a fun to try quiz.
Whilst the prices of Rolex remain ridiculous, the fakes will continue to thrive. Personally, I see few, if any examples of fakes trying to be sold as genuine. Rolex is happy to drive its prices up and up for what is little more than an over-hyped mass produced watch with amazing brand management. Anyone paying 1000s for a watch from a dodgy retailer only has themselves to blame whereas £400 to ‘try before you buy’ is fine by me – if more than a little sad…I’d also love to see proof of the “links to terrorism and slave labour”…much easier ways to fund extremism I would have thought…
There’s a massive difference between a fake and a Replica watch. Like the photo showing what to look out for works for a £50-100 fake, a £600 Replica will be virtually indistinguishable. Even the movements are cloned and will require a watchsmith or dealer to know the difference. That means 99.9% of the population won’t know. The high-end replica industry is far more sophisticated and organised then people might believe and could easily lead to a similar ‘Quartz’ crisis for the swiss watchmakers. If the replica factories wanted to make a £2k clone of a Sub using the same materials and quality – they easily could. The only reason they don’t is that there hasn’t been a market for that. However, people buy clones and spend thousands on replacing parts to create Frankenclones. And with people dropping £15-20k on custom solid gold Patek rep pieces it’s becoming a reality. Watchmakers need to re-think their strategies because the people who buy £80 fakes, do so to show off. If those same people had money, they would be the exact same people buy £80k watches to still show off. However the people who spend £600 on a replica are the same people who would have happily spent £6k because they like and collect watches. You get a lot of the same feeling of owning a collectable version of the rep watch. A £800 Daytona Rep from the right factory is highly converted time piece in the rep world. That’s why the swiss need to wake up. Make and sell watches that people can walk into a shop and buy, and trust me, they will buy. All this waiting list nonsense just pushes people towards reps and never look back at buying Gen.
As soon as you look deeper into the so called link between clones and terrorism it kind of falls flat. It is true some terrorists ,let’s take the Charlie hebdo gunmen, funded there guns by selling knock off CDs from there house that they made at home . And there is this sort of link to fakes with a surprising amount of terrorist acts . So yes a lot of terrorists have funded parts of there operations from selling some sort of fake item . But I have not seen anyone link in anyway fake watches to this behaviour or any of the people that actually make the items , Iam sure it’s happened but this is certainly not the norm
As with a lot of Chinese clones most watches are made from very small factories ran from people’s house/factory combination they are very small family operations .
China is built on clone or near clones . From the smallest items like pencils to the highest procurement by government like aircraft carriers and stealth aircraft. It is encouraged by the state and I don’t see any change of this anytime soon .
The other thing that is always quoted is that it costs the brands ( in this case Rolex ) millions or billions each year . But again this is just not true . The person who buys a cheap replica watch is not in anyway in the market now or in the near future for a real watch . With the so called super clones it is not as clear cut . These are usually watch people . Who add them to there collection for several reasons . because either they cannot or will not spend that amount of money on a watch of any type , or they already have a genuine version and want one to wear and scratch up while keeping the value of there gen. The small market that may effect the brand is people who buy to try and see if they like it before buying a genuine watch and then decide to keep the clone or people who have the money and just decide they want the watch but like there money more so buy the clone as then know that no one would doubt they had that watch. These are a small amount of people . And I would argue the hype , the free advertisment , and the perceived popularity that a clone helps bolster is worth far more to the brands than the small amount of people that the clones offer a valid alternative to . Most people who have the money and interest in a Rolex will buy genuine Rolex in a boutique . Not by going though forums and unheard of dealers to try and get a clone through customs with all the danger that involves remembering it is illegal in most countries.
The main concern I have and I think we as a watch community need to work on is the small but still significant amounts of people who buy the superclone to try and pass off as a real watch . especially for monetary gain at someone else’s expense . I have witnessed it is highly condemed in the clone watch communities and the vast majority of people in those communities are actually very proud to have the best a certain maker can produce and see them as works of art ,and will proudly proclaim when asked about there watch ,” it’s a clone from ***factory.
Clones are not going away we need to work now to accept this reality but at the same time . Make it very frowned upon anyone that is caught purporting to present a clone as something it is not should be shunned from the community .
Of course this is all just my prospective feel free to disagree but if you believe that the statements in the article are true . Can you please provide the evidence ( specifically that the manufacturer of clone watches are linked to terrorism) and that the brands , in this case Rolex aree losing this amount of money where it actually takes into account the likelihood of each person who bought a clone to have actually bought a genuine watch if the clone wars not available and the offset of free promotion to the final amount
Maybe Rolex should stop playing games and actually have their catalogue of watches available to buy – not on 5 year waiting lists. Then I would have some sympathy for them.
I have no knowledge of watches nor do I wear one. This story popped up on my news feed but it did make me wonder….
Considering the prices of said watches, would a registry of each not be prudent similar to how vehicles are registered.
The logistics of how it would be done will need some work obviously but every time it’s sold the registration would need to be transferred.
This is actually a watch register..can’t think of the name tho…talking about clones I bought one many years ago..it was a gold rolex from Italy…it was actually gold but 9ct I instead of 18 ct…2 look at it u would never no I think most of it was genuine parts that was then…nowadays the superclass must be 100pc better
If superclone watches can use Swiss movement, gold etc etc that are 99.99% 1:1 watches for hundreds, it’s no wonder people are buying them and passing them off (to the fleeting eye) as genuine, normally, people will look and comment, “wow, a rolex, patek Phillip etc etc, without the owner having to say otherwise so, if the clone makers can make a 1:1 for hundreds, why are the big brands still asking for tens of thousands!!!??
Its not true that only someone who cant afford the real thing is buying the clone, people are also buying clones of the real watch they already own. And no wonder London is a hotspot for the clones. And the argument about terrorist and people trafficking is utter b*ll*cks. These chinese clone makers are small enterprises who are constantly perfecting their trades. Hats off them. Rolex can shove itself.
I’ve been to 3 watch factories in guangzhou where they were making watches for your run of the mill fashion brands and Chinese brand watches like San Martin and Pagani
And strangely enough, on a production line for bracelets, I infact seen clasps being polished with that famous coronet.
They weren’t no back street factory, there were 50/60 workers in this factory and immaculate conditions. “Terrorism”… my a**
I buy fake watches because I can’t afford the real deal. I have a franck muller and a breitling rep. They cost me less than £300 and the franck muller is about 15 years old and still going strong. I’m getting an omega seamaster 300m next.