In the old days, counterfeit Rolexes were so poorly made that not even a blind chimp would mistake one for the real thing. They conferred upon the wearer an aura of tacky desperation, not cool. Nowadays, it’s a different story. The old tell-tale giveaways – sloppy printing, soft metal and cheap quartz movements that made the second hand clunk its way round the dial – have been eradicated.
Good fakes feel substantial, keep decent time and have the patina of high quality. Some are so convincing that the only way to tell they’re fake is to take the back off. The following pictures are fake Rolex Submariner Vs Genuine Rolex Submariner. Needless to say, they are strikingly similar. To untrained eyes, they’re just like the real thing.
But still here are some tell-tale signs to help you spot the genuine one.
1. Rolex watches are fitted with a sapphire crystal (the glass face
of the watch) that can only be scratched with a diamond.
2. The ‘cyclops’ date window in a real version is dead centred above the number.
3. The quality of the printing on the dial should be perfect, with indicators and type evenly spaced and no fuzzy edges.
4. The genuine Rolex movement sweeps smoothly round at about 28,800 revs per hour – each second is broken down into eight steps. Even when a fake uses a Swiss-made movement, the second hand’s ticking is usually visibly jerky.
5. Over where ‘Swiss made’ appears, the brand’s logo is
laser-etched into the crystal. In a genuine Rolex, this is made
up of hundreds of dots set at different heights throughout the crystal
(so it doesn’t create a weakness in the glass) and as such is barely visible – to see it clearly you have to look through a loupe (the small magnifying glass used by jewellers and watchmakers).
6. If you remove a Rolex bracelet you should find the watch’s case number and model number engraved on the side at six o’clock and 12 o’clock .
