The CEO of the UK’s largest seller of second-hand timepieces has expressed his dismay over the increasing difficulty of identifying counterfeits.
According to Watchfinder’s Arjen van de Vall as many as one in 10 luxury watches are fakes, and it’s becoming harder and harder to spot them.
“We have a checklist when our watchmakers see a watch. In the old days, around 20 per cent of watches would require further inspection to understand it if they were fake,” he told Bloomberg.
“Today, around 80 per cent of watches need this thorough testing and inspection to see if they are genuine or not.”
Watchfinder is part of the Richemont conglomerate; however, he said that Rolex was the hardest hit by counterfeiters because of the brand’s market dominance. He estimated that 50 per cent of fake luxury watches are Rolex.
Watchfinder research has suggested that more than 40 million counterfeit watches are produced each year, double that of the genuine Swiss industry.
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