Quote:
Originally Posted by Belfaborac
Sorry, no.
I have. I own several genuine watches, some of which I service myself when needed (the manual ones; I am not confident enough to touch the automatics). I have also sat through several full services of my other watches. The watchmaker who services my automatics has a small selection of "high-end" fakes lying around his workshop, which for all intents and purposes are indistinguishable from the real thing. They are correct in all markings and measurements and for that reason do indeed accept the genuine parts without modification. Basically they cannot be told apart from the real thing without opening the case, at which time they are only distinguishable because the inside finishing is substandard. This according to my watchmaker, not me, since he's the guy with 30+ years of experience. They also have genuine ETA movements, or very competent copies, and are basically identical to their real siblings in all respects other than price and interior finishing.
So yes, such watches do exist regardless of the fact that you have not seen any.
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I do this for a living and the majority of these are very substandard, especially the movements. High end knockoffs are extremely rare in the watch business. Don't get me wrong I think most high end watches are over priced. But, most people are not willing to pay the extra dollars a high end knockoff costs.
Rolex and Movado are some of the worst. I have seen Movado refuse to work on one of their watches because the leather band was not theirs. To get warranty work done the owner had to buy a Movado Band.
Apache