“Is the second hand ticking in a herky-jerky-type motion?” asks Paul Altieri, founder of Bob’s Watches, one of the largest online retailers of used luxury watches. A twitchy second hand probably means you’re looking at a quartz-movement watch powered by a battery. Altieri specializes in Rolexes, which almost always run on automatic movement, where the motion of a wearer’s wrist winds an intricate system of tiny gears and springs, resulting in a smoother, sweeping second hand. Altieri can make out a cheap quartz fake from five feet away, but recently he has seen more almost-perfect impostors, what he calls “superfakes.” To catch these, you need a 10x magnifying glass and lots of time. “It really helps if you have a real one right next to it to compare,” he says. Would-be sellers send Altieri and his team of five inspectors about 700 used Rolexes a month. Usually fewer than 10 are fakes.
Last fiscal year, agents from Customs and Border Protection seized counterfeit goods whose authentic counterparts would be worth $1.4 billion; watches and jewelry accounted for 44 percent of that. Most knockoffs mimic new watches, but Altieri does get fake vintage ones. “Those are really tricky,” he says. If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is. “If somebody tries to sell you a Rolex watch for $200, it’s not real,” he says.
On the watch’s face, inspect the magnifying lens over the date, which is often not as strong on counterfeits. Once you have the back open, look for sloppy or oddly proportioned engraved lettering. The stainless steel should be evenly polished. If a watch comes with its original box and warranty, examine those too. “Sometimes counterfeiters will skimp on the box or the paper,” Altieri says.
Get a watch’s story. “Be suspicious when someone tells you they found it or won it in a card game,” Altieri says. Still, things do move through the universe in strange ways. A Canadian woman recently found a Rolex between the cushions of a $25 used couch. It turned out to be a vintage Rolex Daytona model, favored by the actor Paul Newman. Altieri sold the watch for more than $200,000. “It changed her life,” he says. “She’s buying herself a house.”
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December 17, 2019 at 05:00PM
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How to Spot a Counterfeit Watch - The New York Times
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