How to Spot a Fake Luxury Watch or Designer Watch?

The replica watch market isn’t here to play. Each year, over 40 million counterfeit watches are manufactured and sold across the globe, with fake Rolex watches alone making up half of the luxury replica market. As profit for the counterfeit designer watch market reaches a mind-boggling billion dollar yearly, the legitimate Swiss watch industry loses over 2 billion euros in annual revenue, and considering the increasing level of detail and quality of materials that go into these fake watches, it seems as though these numbers will only be getting higher.

Thankfully, there are still many ways to spot a counterfeit, whether it be a Cartier, a Patek Philippe, and of course, a Rolex. Our watch expert and WatchPilot co-director Tim Harrison shared with us his life-saving “how to spot a fake” tips, which hopefully should help you detect a replica in the blink of an eye, or shall we say, in the tick of a watch.

It never hurts to be 100% sure about the watch retailer you’re purchasing your desired watch from. So, just to be safe, check the "Official Retailers" and "Authorised Retailers" signs at the top of the retailer's website and read reviews on Trustpilot for extra peace of mind. If you’re looking at watches from Patek Philippe, Omega, Rolex, or any other luxury watch brand, make sure to go on their official website and review their list of authorised retailers across the country. 

Whether you decide to purchase your designer watch in-store or from an authorised online retailer, always make sure it comes with the necessary paperwork, including a letter of authenticity and the original box, if possible.

If minute details like the dial text, the logo, or the serial number seem misplaced or messy, then you’re probably dealing with a fake. To spot a counterfeit in a fraction of a second, know what details should appear on specific models. For a Rolex Datejust or a Day-Date, do you see the mention “Superlative Chronometer Officially Certified” at the bottom of the dial? Or for a Tissot watch, can you spot the correct founding year “1853” written at the top of the dial? These are the things you should always be looking out for, so do some research, and you’ll be able to spot the fake sometimes quite easily. 

Details like the colour of the text dial can help identify a counterfeit in the blink of an eye. Take the Rolex Daytona Chronograph for example. On a genuine model, the word “Daytona” should appear in a darker shade of red, while a replica will display it in a bright red. For Tissot’s T-Sport PRC model, the dial should come in a beautiful deep navy, not in a greenish turquoise, and for Breitling’s Endurance Pro watch, you should see subtle touches of yellow on both the dial and the top pusher. Apart from the right use of colour, the thickness of the text can also be a dead giveaway that the watch is a counterfeit. Thick black letters on a Rolex dial, such as on the Day-Date, are, again, usually a red flag.

Tim also shared more advice on what to look out for when buying particular brands, including hugely popular names such as Rolex, Cartier and Patek Philippe.

Always be wary of extremely reduced prices! When it comes to a Rolex, it is possible to buy an authentic watch for less than the official retail price but a saving of more than 10-25% of the current market value should come as a red flag.

Really, there’s a reason Rolex watches are and should be expensive; they only use high-quality materials, from platinum to gold, and many of their materials are created in-house, such as the signature Oystersteel or Rolesium. However, today’s best replicas will more often than not feature expensive materials, even gold and ceramic, so checking the weight of your luxury watch isn’t always enough.

If you can, I’d say check the movement of the watch as an additional step. Replicas may be getting better at fooling us, but they still struggle to recreate the perfect automatic movement. Usually, replicas will feature a quartz movement, but this is not a rule of thumb. Tag Heuer, Cartier or Breitling do create quartz watches, and Rolex also manufactured the Oysterquartz Datejust and the Oysterquartz Day-Date for 25 years until they stopped in the early 2000s. These models are now extremely rare, so if you do unearth a Rolex quartz watch by some miracle, just know there’s a good chance it could be a fake.

Also, when checking the authenticity of a Rolex, having a closer look at the serial number can help. A real Rolex will always have its serial number engraved deeply into the material, while a fake will most likely have its serial number acid-etched, and thus look faint on the watch.  

Every Patek Philippe watch should display multiple hallmarks that help certify the authenticity of the materials. First, it’s good to know that Patek Philippe serial numbers will never be visible on the watch’s case back, so if that’s the case, you’ve got yourself a fake. On the case back, you should however be able to see key hallmarks such as the number “750”, which means the watch is made of 18k white gold, “950” if the watch is 95% pure platinum, or a Patek Philippe seal (or a Geneva seal if the piece was crafted before 2009). Replicas aren’t great at recreating these necessary hallmarks, so do check them carefully.  

Again, the details matter when assessing the authenticity of a designer timepiece, and that is also true for Cartier watches. With Cartier, having a closer look at the type of screws on the watch’s case back can tell you everything you need in a heartbeat. On fake Cartier timepieces, you will most likely find “Phillips-head” or “x-shaped” screws, or worse, stamps meant to look like screws.

Cartier watches are also known for their signature blue details, which should be visible on several coveted pieces, such as the Cartier Tank, the Ballon Bleu, the Panthere and the Ronde. The sapphire cabochon located on the crown should always match the hands on the dial for a seamless look, and if the shade of blue seems more turquoise than ocean blue, then it probably is a counterfeit. 

Depending on the model, you should be able to spot Breitling’s iconic “B” which drops into an anchor shape on the second hand. The anchor should always look sharp and well-defined, and the “B” is designed to appear wider and thinner at certain points. 

Check the “T” on the crown: you can spot a counterfeit Tissot in the blink of an eye thanks to its signature “T” logo. Located on the winding handle, you should clearly see the letter “T” engraved. If it doesn’t look like an engraving, then it probably isn’t the real deal. 

Now that you know how to spot a counterfeit, can you spot the fake designer watch from the real?

How many did you get right?