The Breitling Watch Source Forums

As far as I know they tend to ask people to register simply because in some countries fakes are totally illegal. The laws on this vary massively from country to country. Here in the UK for example, it's not a crime to buy or own a fake, but it's a crime to sell one. Hence fake peddlers in this country tend to be rather cautious when it comes to dealing with people they've not sold to before.

The whole fake market totally stinks IMO. Every single one I've ever seen (even the allegedly "Ultimate" replicas) are total junk. A mate of mine forked out around £300 for an Ultimate Planet Ocean fake, and at first glance it was OK..... but then I noticed the logo was wrong, as was the edge of the date window. Then he told me the screw-down crown actually only screwed down 1/4 of a turn......... within a month the thread was totally stripped and didn't screw-down at all. Plus the clasp barely closed and therefore rattled. And within 2 months, one of the bracelet pin-links broke and his watch was consigned to the bin.

When you look at the pros and cons of fake buying, you can see that you've got to be a total fool to even consider it : it's a total false economy. £300 for a fake that lasts 2 months, or maybe £1000 for a used SMP that will potentially last a lifetime. Plus with a fake you had the added "excitement" of knowing that at any moment, someone who knows a thing or two about watches will call you out on it, and make you look a total prat! Tough decision? I think not!

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Driver8

Site Moderator

I know it is different here in Canada, but we have what is called a Night Market. It's an event held during the summer where small vendors set up tables and sell various goods. It is held in a part of town with a high population of oriental immigrants and has been a BIG problem for city officials every year. There are always tons of replica/fake items being siezed, tons of people getting sick from buying food from the vendors etc, but every year it manages to attract tens of thousands of people to buy the cheap crap they are flogging.

I'll have to check my civil procedure, since international commerce law is not my specialty; but unless I'm misremembering, I think you're confusing jurisdiction with a practical ability to enforce judgments. My understanding is that if a foreign company is selling products in this country, that gives U.S. courts jurisdiction to adjudicate matters arising under those sales, against the company conducting those sales, pursuant to federal law. However, a U.S. court's ability to enforce its own judgments against a foreign company depends on how much said company wishes to continue to do legal business in this country, or whether or not the U.S. has any sort of agreement with the country where that company is located, or both. Companies who wish to continue doing legal business in this country have an incentive to comply with the courts. But of course, we're talking about outfits producing fake watches, whose source of commerce is the black market, and who couldn't give a crap what the courts have to say about it. Since they have no incentive to comply with the law, and since they operate in countries that won't move against them, there's scant little the courts or other legal authorities in the U.S. can, or likely will, do about it.

I'm a bottom line sort of guy. If the bottom line is the US has no means to enforce then it doesn't matter much to me how we get there. That's the difference between me at 5 years experience and 27. I've turned many folks away saying, "yeah we can get a judgment but all it will be is a warm feeling. I don't do warm feeling law. I do results law."

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SHARKMAN

I agree completely. It wouldn't do to tell a client, "Hey, don't you feel great? The court said you're right. Unfortunately, you only get nominal damages, but my bill is $15,000. Now pay me." I'm just one of those technical guys, is all. In the end, I think we both agree there's a limit on what the government can do to stop the influx of fakes into the market, which is too bad. I'm not sure how much incentive the government has to try anyway; evidently they have bigger fish to fry.


To me, the big danger of fakes is ending up with one accidentally. It makes the grey and aftermarkets potentially dangerous places. I'm glad the guys here are so dedicated to helping people spot fakes, and to know what to look for in a genuine watch. It's about the best thing we can do to help keep people from getting burned.