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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: RE: Sorry, here's the link

To go back to the original question, if the members were to produce a definitive list, the next day the fakers would have read it and amended their "warez" and a new list would be required.

Short of opening the back, the only way to tell a fake from a genuine article is to have a photo of both to hand. Both photos should be taken at the same angle and, with the same lens.

Now move the photos to Photoshop (or similar) and raise the transparency of the the suspect watch to, say, 50%.

Move the transparency over the known genuine - spot the differences.

If you are good with Photoshop, you can get away with photos from slightly different angles and lenses.

Obviously there will be others that are easier to spot - fonts, spacing and style of minute markers, likewise the date window, sub-dials, batons, printing and texture on the face, number of teeth on the crown, hands, etc.

Usually, on eBay, the best guarantee is looking at the history of the seller - what's his %age rating? Does he usually sell high-end watches? How many has he sold? What's his returns policy? Does his sales pitch definitely say, without equivocation, "This is a genuine Omega/ Breitling /Tag/etc." or does it say something vague like "Wow! What a stunner! Looks good on the wrist!" or worse, "A fine example of Omega style" (note, not "of Omega" but "of Omega.

A bad photograph (too small or out of focus) is never a good start.

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