"You will not recognize that it is coffee": What will stop the counterfeit watch market?

The watch is fake, the money is real: Rolex for NIS 2,500, Michael Kors for a few hundred - and you will not feel the difference.

The counterfeit luxury watch market has crossed the NIS 100 million mark a year.

The battle with the legal system is far from over, and meanwhile the hand of the merchants is on top

David Rosenthal

14/04/2022

Thursday, 14 April 2022, 16:47

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"There is no situation where you recognize that it is a coffee watch and not a real Rolex watch. The quality of the forgery is so good that even professional watchmakers will have a hard time differentiating. Now, tell me why pay 20,000 shekels for a Rolex watch, if I bring you the same watch one by one, only for the price Of 2,500 shekels - and no one in the world except you knows that it is a forgery. "

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Only when openers realize that this is not true.

Forging of very high quality gilded Rolex (Photo: PR)

The words of Avner, one of the largest counterfeit watch dealers in Israel, accurately reflect the change that has taken place in this market: if in the past, the relatively poor quality of watches made it easy to identify counterfeit, then in recent years there has been a significant jump in counterfeiters' ability .

The public loves this change.

According to estimates by sources, the volume of sales of the counterfeit luxury watch market in Israel has jumped by tens of percent in recent years and crossed the NIS 100 million mark a year, despite the considerable efforts of the watch manufacturers to cope with the trend.

"The volume of imports of counterfeit watches in the State of Israel has reached a level that exceeds the volume of original watches," said

.

Hollander called on the Israeli public to purchase watches and jewelry only in authorized places, but the problem is that a significant number of buyers are aware that it is a counterfeit, but prefer to pay a relatively cheap price and get a high quality product, rather than pay full price.

Not only is Hollander troubled by the problem, "there are such good fakes, there have been cases where tag watches have arrived at labs for repair and only when we opened the watch did we discover it was a fake," said

, in an interview with Globes.

He said, "The group is leading the war on counterfeiting. We are waging war within each country and it is a team of lawyers who are fighting them."

Fake Phillip Philip Watch.

Many prefer to save money and feel like millionaires (Photo: PR)

The rise in the price of fake watches does not only occur in Israel.

A report released by the EU in conjunction with Europol (European Law Enforcement Agency) showed that 10% of all luxury goods sales were counterfeit.

The value of these deals has reached 26 billion euros, and experts predict that the domino effect could also affect many complementary industries and cause the loss of more than half a million jobs in Europe in the next decade.

The companies, for their part, are trying their best to stop the flow of counterfeit watch imports, but the huge demand for these products, along with increasing the number of players in the industry, creates a very significant challenge for them, which they find difficult to meet.

"There are many dozens in Israel, maybe hundreds of small merchants who sell fake watches, but most of the time, when we are hired to conduct an investigation, we focus on decapitating the importer. We go for the snake's head," says private investigator Or Cohen, CEO of Ari Investigations and Intelligence Business,

According to Cohen, a war is being waged beneath the surface against importers of counterfeit watches: "This is a daily activity, in which we use various tactics to establish a heavy evidence file that will be used to file a lawsuit against the same parties." The trademarks of Hugo Boss and Michael Kors watches and in a raid conducted by the Tel Aviv District Intellectual Property Unit, hundreds of counterfeit watches were seized

. Cohen partially agrees: "Indeed, there is no vacuum in the field and as soon as we take down a large trader of counterfeit products, another one enters in its place, yet still, any course of investigation that ends in filing a statement of claim shocks the market in some way."

In another case, investigators from the Southern District Fraud Unit in the police opened an undercover investigation and when the police arrived at the home of a couple living in Ashdod, they found glass cabinets with no less than 1,900 luxury watches imported from China and their value was estimated at NIS 1 million.

In that case, the level of finish of the forgery was almost perfect and for the purpose of determining that it was a forgery, a world-renowned professional watchmaker was recruited for the task who was able to identify the differences.

The platform where, as always, everything happens (Photo: ShutterStock)

Another development that makes it difficult for official importers to combat the phenomenon of counterfeiting is the significant increase in the volume of telegram trading, which is an anonymous digital platform, "which poses an investigative challenge for private investigators and importers," explains researcher Cohen.

Indeed, a brief glance at the telegram reveals that there are quite a few groups selling counterfeit watches.

For example, the 'Luxury and Quality Luxury Watches' group offers every Dikpin the purchase of the highest quality fake Rolex watches.

Prices are not cheap: Rolex Ski Delivery in silver, sold for NIS 3,100.

So is the Rolex Pepsi Ghibli / Oyster, which is priced at NIS 3,500.

Expensive for you?

For NIS 2,300, you can get a Rolex DateJust 'Hard Coffee'.

"It's definitely a challenge, but we have the tools to deal with it," says Cohen. "Even if we have come to the conclusion that it is a small fish, it can be used to reach a more senior function in the hierarchy.

The intense activity and enormous resources invested by the official importers are certainly noticeable, however the problem is far from being solved.

On the contrary, the rise in the quality of counterfeits is playing well into the hands of the public who today do not hesitate to walk around with counterfeit watches.

"I have clients from all over the country, some of them definitely well-established people, who have realized that for NIS 3,000 they buy the look of heavy millionaires.

Even the logo is in a perfect finish.

Fake RADO watch (Photo: PR)

Find the differences - why is it so difficult?

And how is the change in the appearance of the watches reflected?

Why is it so difficult today to identify if it is a fake Rolex?

"We'll start with the serial numbers engraved deep inside the metal, while in cheap fakes, if any, the number is 'etched' in acid," a veteran watchmaker explains.

According to him, even the inscription printed on watches is now made without stains, smears or lack of uniformity.

The Cyclops, the same eyepiece that magnifies the date, has been used for years as an indication of forgery however today, counterfeiters manage to place it in exactly the right place.

In addition, if in the past counterfeit watches were significantly lighter than an original Rolex watch, today the level of forgery is extremely high, down to the level of accuracy on the gram.

Beyond all this, until a few years ago, counterfeiters found it difficult to forge the tiny crown logo engraved in the area where the number six is ​​located, however today, the high-quality forgeries include the logo, which can be clearly seen using a magnifying glass.

The sheer volume of the market selling counterfeit luxury watches is not only troubling to importers but also to the country, which is losing a great deal of black money rolling in the industry.

Although the 'Trapis' agreement signed by Israel obliges it to increase the enforcement of intellectual property laws, in practice, the smugglers perfect the methods and create a considerable challenge for the authorities.

"Out of 10 smugglings, maybe one is frustrated for me. Everything is fine, take that into account," concludes one of the importers.

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• Rolex

• Watches