Replica watches are a part of the reality of the watch industry today. If you are a collector of high-end watches I'm sure you've heard something about the influx of replica watches into the secondary market. While buying a watch from an authorized dealer is safe, many watch collectors also buy watches through online sites such as eBay or Timezone.com. It's through this channel that the threat of replica watches in unscrupulous hands is the greatest. Some shady sellers will misrepresent their counterfeit watches as genuine, and in so doing dupe some innocent buyer into spending thousands of dollars on a inexpensive copy.
The hobby of collecting replica watches probably started in the late 1990s. It was in 2000 or early 2001 that the first online replica watch community, Replica Watch Collector Club (RWCC), first began accepting members. The original purpose of the forum was to allow early replica sellers (really hobbyists with access to merchandise rather than any commercial enterprise) the ability to display their wares. Three or four watches would be available at one time, and the potential buyers would contact the seller if they were interested in purchasing the watch. Quantities were limited, unlike the replica watch market today, and prices were high. This community continued for over a year until it was finally shut down not by law enforcement or brand owners, but by a consortium of competing replica watch dealers who didn't like the competition.
The members of the RWCC moved on to another forum, The Replica Collector (TRC), which just recently shut down. The Replica Collector took the concept of the community and grew it to the stature of many other watch forums. Moderators and administrators ran the board and kept the members to a strict standard of behavior and posting. To TRC came the first crop of quality dedicated replica watch dealers.
Other replica watch forums have grown over the years, each catering to a particular style of community. Some are quite formal and reserved while others are much more free-form. All are hubs for information on replica watches and the dealers who sell them.
There is a subset of dealers who cater to the collectors of replica watches instead of the masses. These dealers have the rarest quality level of counterfeit watches, highly accurate and made of quality stainless steel. These dealers charge less than the "scam" sites, but still make a significant profit on their goods. Several of the best of these dealers have joined into a "Cartel" where they fix prices and product availability in order to corner the market.
Most of the replica watches that are made and sold in Europe and North America are made in the Far East, typically China or Thailand. While some dealers may claim their watches are "Swiss made" or "Italian replicas" in reality they too are made in China. The Swiss government would shut down almost immediately any activity to counterfeit watches in their borders.
The replica watch collector is typically not a threat to the average watch buyer, mainly because the community is quite closed. While they discuss genuine watches in depth, the replica community tends to only share their watches (and the sources from whence they came) amongst other aficionados.
If you're interested in learning more about replica watches visit the Replica Watch Report. It is a web site designed to provide detailed information on detecting counterfeit watches, and provides a photo galleries and analysis on the latest watches as they become available. The Replica Watch Report is also available as a printed color book with over 500 photographs and detailed analysis of dozens of watches.
The Growth of the Replica Watch Collector Community
While some people use replica watches as a way to illegally commit fraud there is a growing community of people who knowingly purchase replica watches for the purpose of collecting. These people love the thrill of ownership of luxury watches but may not have the means to spend thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars on the genuine thing. A variety of very active and thriving replica watch forums exist on the Internet, with their users trading watches amongst each other. Also, several specialty replica watch dealers that cater to this type of demanding buyer have cropped up, all selling the best of the best in the replica watch world.The hobby of collecting replica watches probably started in the late 1990s. It was in 2000 or early 2001 that the first online replica watch community, Replica Watch Collector Club (RWCC), first began accepting members. The original purpose of the forum was to allow early replica sellers (really hobbyists with access to merchandise rather than any commercial enterprise) the ability to display their wares. Three or four watches would be available at one time, and the potential buyers would contact the seller if they were interested in purchasing the watch. Quantities were limited, unlike the replica watch market today, and prices were high. This community continued for over a year until it was finally shut down not by law enforcement or brand owners, but by a consortium of competing replica watch dealers who didn't like the competition.
The members of the RWCC moved on to another forum, The Replica Collector (TRC), which just recently shut down. The Replica Collector took the concept of the community and grew it to the stature of many other watch forums. Moderators and administrators ran the board and kept the members to a strict standard of behavior and posting. To TRC came the first crop of quality dedicated replica watch dealers.
Other replica watch forums have grown over the years, each catering to a particular style of community. Some are quite formal and reserved while others are much more free-form. All are hubs for information on replica watches and the dealers who sell them.
The Replica Dealers
As replica watches became big business and big money the quantity of replica watch sites on the Internet increased. Most of these sites charge outrageous prices (many over $1,000 for a counterfeit watch that costs $25-$50 to produce) and have shoddy quality control, or worse, just scam the buyers out of their money. Other web sites claim to "Review" replica dealers, but in reality simply house organs for certain dealers that bad-mouth their opponents and praise their own stores.There is a subset of dealers who cater to the collectors of replica watches instead of the masses. These dealers have the rarest quality level of counterfeit watches, highly accurate and made of quality stainless steel. These dealers charge less than the "scam" sites, but still make a significant profit on their goods. Several of the best of these dealers have joined into a "Cartel" where they fix prices and product availability in order to corner the market.
Most of the replica watches that are made and sold in Europe and North America are made in the Far East, typically China or Thailand. While some dealers may claim their watches are "Swiss made" or "Italian replicas" in reality they too are made in China. The Swiss government would shut down almost immediately any activity to counterfeit watches in their borders.
The replica watch collector is typically not a threat to the average watch buyer, mainly because the community is quite closed. While they discuss genuine watches in depth, the replica community tends to only share their watches (and the sources from whence they came) amongst other aficionados.
If you're interested in learning more about replica watches visit the Replica Watch Report. It is a web site designed to provide detailed information on detecting counterfeit watches, and provides a photo galleries and analysis on the latest watches as they become available. The Replica Watch Report is also available as a printed color book with over 500 photographs and detailed analysis of dozens of watches.
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