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Counterfeit Watchers Discussion Forum

A forum for identifying and avoiding wholly or partially non-authentic wristwatches -- including counterfeit, replica, Frankenwatches and other fake or bastardized pieces. Our objective here is to DISCOURAGE the sales and purchase of counterfeit wristwatch and jewelry products. It is also for helping people identify watches that are mostly authentic, but have been: altered for personal customization, repaired with inappropriate parts or modified to be passed off as more valuable pieces.

Including a photo of the piece you are talking about ALWAYS helps! You can learn how to post a photo here: How To Include Photos In Your Postings. 'For sale' postings, commercial solicitation and ads are not allowed. Links to Internet auctions are acceptable only if their purpose is to question the authenticity of a product or provide new clues for identifying counterfeit products. Links that appear to be 'shills' promoting the sale of counterfeit products will be deleted. Links to websites of sellers of counterfeit items are not permitted -- we know they are out there and do not need to be encouraging them by sending traffic to their sites. Privacy, additional policies and administrivia are covered in the Terms of Use.

Re: TAG watches bought from Authentic Watches.com

: HI, has anyone ever bought a TAG from Authentic Watches.com?
: Are they the real thing and is their service as good as they
: boast - especially after sales service?

Never buy a watch from AuthtenticWateches.com.
Here is a short story of my purchase of an Omega Seamaster Lady’s watch. Judge it for yourself if it is worth it to buy a watch from AutenticWatches.com.
I selected AutenticWatches because of their relatively lower price (approximately 20% less than the next similar seller) and the 3 year warranty they are advertising on their website.
After exactly 1 year of working fine, one day the watch completely stopped working.
After contacting AutenticWatches I was advised to complete the ‘Return Authorisation Form’, include $40 for the return shipping and handling charges and send the watch to the provided address.
After about 4 weeks of waiting I received an email from AuthenticWatches.com advising me that the watch has a damaged pinion and it would cost me $205 to have it repaired. Of course I was really mad because the watch was to be covered by a 3 year warranty and it stopped working within a year. One would expect the watch to be fixed for free! I called AuthenticWatches, who said: “yah the pinion is broken, it was just glued together and it must be replaced”. I was mad because I was certain there was no impact damage to the watch so I asked to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor still insisted that the pinion is damaged and it was probably damaged by over-winding and also if I don’t like it they will send it back, as is, without doing any repairs. As I had already paid $40, I decided to pay the additional $209 to fix the watch. It took about 6 additional weeks for the watch to arrive and picture this – the watch did not work at all. I took the watch to an Omega authorized watchmaker for an inspection and it turned out that some of the bearings are completely loose and must be replaced at a cost of approximately $200. Also the internal cleaning done by AuthtenticWateches was very poor and the watch must be re-cleaned. Of course AuthtenticWatches refused to take any responsibility and offered to take the watch back for extra “repairs”. I decided not to send the watch back but I bet you if I did the story would repeat itself with me being out of additional $200 and the watch still not working.
If you decide to buy an expensive watch from AuthenticWatches ask yourself a question where are they getting these watches from and will they honour the warranty they give you?
My answer is: the watches are from the so called “grey market”, some of the watches were most likely already returned to the original dealer because they already had issues. The 3 year warranty you get fromAuthtenticWatches.com is a joke. Honestly, if you buy a watch from them, whatever you saved on the purchase price you will spend on fixing it and all the grief you’ll get will come for free.

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