Some news from The Watch Register on the issue of fake luxury wristwatches. This is an ongoing risk for jewellers, watch shops and pawnbrokers, all of whom are targeted by pro thieves looking to acquire genuine Swiss watches, and those wishing to palm off a convincing fake for cash. Here’s the word;
Analysis of The Watch Register’s database, which holds £1.5 billion worth of lost and stolen watches, reveals over the last three years there has been a 116% increase in the number of counterfeit watches identified as a result of checks against the database.
The Watch Register team uses serial number checks to identify fakes which are being offered on the open market by collecting known counterfeit serial numbers from international police forces, insurers, members of the pre-owned watch trade, auction houses and from other proprietary sources. Genuine luxury watches each have a unique serial number but this would be a costly process to replicate on fakes, so it is common for the same serial number to be seen repeated on many different counterfeit watches.
DIGITAL TRACKING OF ASSETS
IE Note: Recently some Swiss brands have been introducing digital passports for watches, so the ownership and service history can be tracked online. The market in watches that retail above £3000 will probably see more of this, plus cashless sale only in the EU, UK, USA and other key markets, so that owners – and sellers – can be tracked as regards asset disposal or cash spending vs claimed income.
While members of the public may see buying a knock-off watch at a fraction of the cost of the genuine article as a bit of harmless fun this is most definitely not the case, as there are many dark and criminal elements interwoven in the trade in counterfeit luxury watches.
The intricate networks involved in the production, distribution and sale of fake luxury watches operate across international borders and are deeply entwined with international crime networks, fuelling a vast underworld economy, exploiting forced and child labour as well as providing funding for other criminal activities ranging from drug smuggling to human trafficking.
Although these fake products are produced to closely mimic the appearance of genuine luxury watches they also come with serious health risks attached due to the use of unregulated, toxic and harmful materials used to produce them. Over the last few years sophisticated counterfeiters have mastered the art of visually replicating brand logos, serial numbers and packaging.
ONLINE SALES RISK
Unfortunately, many of these counterfeit products will eventually find their way into the second-hand watch market. The Watch Register team routinely discovers them being passed off to unwitting buyers as legitimate luxury time pieces. Increasingly these watches are also being offered with faked documents, boxes and guarantee cards all designed to further mislead and deceive consumers and making it increasingly
challenging for authorities to distinguish between real and fake watches.
Last year alone 10% of The Watch Register database’s alerts to its customers were to flag that the watch they were checking was a known fake, rather than a lost or stolen genuine luxury watch. Ten per cent of the 40 million fake watches estimated to be produced each year are
now deemed almost undetectable as counterfeits, unless inspected by a professional authenticator or the manufacturer for servicing.
Research from The Watch Register reveals that owners of fake watches have purchased their counterfeit timepiece from a range of sources, including the most popular source of street markets (38%). The next most popular source was online marketplaces (35%), followed by jewellers (27%) and friends (25%).