Utter garbage!
I try and explain to them that while I guess it's 'okay' for them (it isn't, but bear with me) to buy these watches if they wish, what really bothers me is that I've seen crappy copies ending up on eBay and selling for £600 or more and that bothers me somewhat. It bothers me because I can't honestly believe that anyone would willingly pay £600 for something which they know is fake, so clearly they are buying in the belief that what they are purchasing is the genuine article - and that isn't good for anybody, least of all the brand.
It's frustrating that youtube do not offer a clear 'Report' button so that we, the watch fans, can try and do our bit to stamp out this disgraceful practice. And as for eBay, well yes they do have a report button, sort of... if you know where to look. It's a small piece of text hidden half way down the page, but rarely does it bring any sort of action. I reported a clearly fake Monaco 24 which was selling for hundreds of pounds, but nothing happened. I reported it about three times, but it ran its course and some poor schmuck ended up paying out for a piece of complete junk.
My wife used to work with a woman who couldn't understand why she would spend £1000 on a watch, when she could 'get the same thing for £50 on holiday'. Well, clearly it's not the same thing, as countless tales of watches bought on holiday lasting barely the journey home can attest. But regardless, I don't understand the mentality of someone who is happy to wear a fake watch (or a fake handbag, coat, whatever), I mean what is the point? Some people will know and may or may not tell you to your face, some people won't know and will think you have a nice expensive watch... but you will know, and these people often tell other people for fear of being 'outed' as a faker - but even if they don't, I don't get what they are getting out of the experience. If you own a luxury watch it's a thing to be proud of and admire every time you put it on, how hollow must that experience be if you know that what you are wearing is actually garbage that has almost no intrinsic value.
So what on Earth is the point? If you only feel comfortable spending £200 on a watch, get a £200 watch from Seiko or Citizen and be proud of it. Don't waste your money on a fake watch that's probably worth £25. I mean there's a lot of decent watches available at £200, and even more if you look at the pre-owned market. I'd love an Audemars Piguet Offshore, but I'm never going to have £20,000 to spend on a watch and I'm not going to spend £900 buying a fake, no matter how good it may be.
What amazes me is that fakes like the one at the top of this page still pop-up. This isn't even a copy of anything, TAG have never made anything that looks like this, it's just a bullshit watch with a TAG logo stuck on it. I realise that not everyone has the knowledge to keep themselves safe when buying pre-owned, but you can always ask for help in the Calibre 11 forum by following this link.
https://forums.calibre11.com/threads/is-my-tag-heuer-authentic-all-questions-here-please.33008/
It's getting harder to spot the fakes these days, when there are companies like Pagani (seriously) making straight copies of modern Aquaracers and putting their own name on the dial, you can't tell me that some of that production isn't destined to be 'diverted' somewhere to have a TAG Heuer logo stuck on and sold as genuine, it's just too obvious. And some of the latest fakes are frighteningly good, some high end fakes even coming with ETA movements now... in fact this video is well worth a watch if you're interested.
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