This is being done for all the fancy watch brands, so the thing to do is to get a fake Audemars or Blancpain, so no-one will have seen any “weird thing to tell its fake” videos.
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In a way it is happening, but at lower ends of the market, in particular Seiko watches. The SKX007 is hugely popular for modding, with a massive variety of dials, hands, bezels, bezel inserts, even movements, but Seiko has now discontinued it. The significance of this watch is that it’s a proper diving watch, with decent water resistance, it’s replacement is a lower spec 5-Series.
What’s happening is that small companies are now making copies of modded Seiko models like the Tuna and the SKX007 and the standards are very high, especially as they’re using Seiko movements.
I have two by a company called Heimdallr, one an SKX007 with the face and hands of the Seiko MarineMaster, and I love it, it even has a ceramic bezel insert, the original having anodised alloy.
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I also found the video rather unpersuasive. These watches aren’t being 3D printed and it not self evident what role, if any, rapid prototyping may have played in their production. It’s really unclear why these watches are so well made, and the video’s explanation lacks any detail or proof. It is largely a waste of 8 minutes time.
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I kept waiting for them to say anything specific about the differences. This seems to just be an extended ad for Rolex.
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For some reason I want to ask if he has any es
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The takeaway seems to be “Rolex watches are expensive because they spend a lot of money on advertising and are seen as status symbols, not because they’re higher quality than some much cheaper knock-offs”. Good to know. Not that I’d be paying a lot of money anyway for a mechanical watch…
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How does it take you 12 minutes to say that precision computerized manufacturing is so good, it’s possible to make near-identical clones easily?
Anyone have any suggestions for a watch that performs like a Rolex, but doesn’t have the ridiculous price tag, and nouveau-riche poser nonsense?
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This is the video I wanted to see. The great macro photography and actually showing the difference. Seeing the close ups, one after the other, the difference is obvious but seeing the fake in isolation? I doubt I’d notice the details.
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Of course everyone will be offended. Fieros are Fauxrarris.
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Well, there’s 8 minutes* I’ll never get back.
(At least I used the “Video Speed Controller” Chrome plugin to watch at 1.25x speed…)
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Probably some micro CNC? I think it would be pretty easy to reproduce the gearwork and maybe even the case. High quality automated micromills have gotten pretty affordable.
I agree it’s not additive manufacturing.
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there is a burgeoning scene of watch “microbrands” that make really nice stuff, usually with ETA movements or similar (a high-quality movement but sold to other brands rather than the in-house movements made by e.g. rolex). naturally, names of these microbrands escape me at the moment, but they’re out there in force. of course, most of them do a rolex submariner homage anyway, but every watch company in the world makes one, from casio on up. but the microbrands do original stuff, too.
the tone of the video’s narrator at the end is so lame: “I paid into the rolex club and now the fakers are dragging the name through the mud.” please. the company keeps the prices high through artificial scarcity. go into your local rolex shop with cash and say “I want a Daytona” (or explorer, or datejust etc). it’s probably not going to happen. what’s in the store is for preferred customers who are repeat buyers. for everyone else, it’s the waiting list.
but the real kicker is the “swiss made” writing on it, solidifying it’s luxury goods status and price tag. bet you didn’t know that swiss law allows for everything to be made elsewhere (i.e. china) and assembled in Switzerland to qualify. the other shoe dropping is that, if a foreign factory (in, say, china) can pass inspection by the swiss, then it can assemble the whole watch and still say “swiss made”.
may as well just buy a chinese watch and save the luxury tax. rolex artificially inflate the price, outsource as much as they can to china, and when china makes the same watch at a fair-market price, a dawdling, received-pronunciation voice on a YouTube video cries foul ?
boo fuckin hoo.
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Just turn up with a 914 with a scoobie engine. Or that glorious purple911 that was on jalopnik ages ago that has a Chevy 350.
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So…the only practical difference between a fake Rolex and a real one is price, which is determined by marketing and brand hype. Thanks, but I am familiar with the concept of capitalism.
Also…can I just say…that stretching your sentences…by putting large…pauses…between phrases…is very annoying…and doesn’t make your content…any more compelling. It does…the opposite of…that.
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Disclosure- AWCI affiliated trained watchmaker not working in the field currently. Actually someone working towards really making from scratch a handmade watch.
OK, if you know nothing actually of watches outside this video, and you’re gullible enough to buy into a 9 minute completely void of technical detail video for your entire generalized worldview of watchmaking, I can see how you come to this conclusion. I’m betting it’s just an offhand statement though.
At this point, I felt like I’d said enough on the subject, since you can just search bbs for my username and watch posts at this point, but I’ll point some stuff out, since my only grief is with this idiot video-
#1- this video is, yes- entirely 9 minutes of no actual explanation AT ALL of which or both of these are fake.
At no point are these watches ever even addressed. They are used for an incredibly dull English idiot making an over narration with generalized statements that don’t even make sense in technological terms in the way a senile 90 year old talks about computers as if they just read a 20 year old book on them.
#2- These are not in any way, nor can you in any way, “3D print” a mechanical watch. Even with SLS laser sintering technology, functionally accurate gears and hairsprings alone are impossible in actual wristwatch size.
You can 3d print casing rings right now- that’s about it.
#3- Any reputable watchmaker can still be fooled- but will not knowingly work on a fake from any brand- especially Rolex. You can’t even modify them aftermarket. There was a company in California trying to do this and rebrand them that was destroyed in court recently for trying. Rolex eviscerated them.
You lose your parts accounts with Rolex if caught knowingly doing that kind of stuff as an ROJ or otherwise. Meaning you can’t get official parts as a watchmaker or case repair tech. Career suicide and blackballing occurs.
#4- This entire video has some things correct about mod culture, and metrological 3D scanning for reverse engineering parts- but even at micro level, damn difficult to find accurate 3D scanners for this stuff- its a lot of screencaps and digital measurements done, not 3D scanning. And scores of cheap labor.
#5- anyone with any knowledge of actual watches would immediately suspect bullshittery at both of these- for the sheer level of microlint some fool left all over the crystal and dial. Its like a garbage heap to me. A sign of a fake or a horrible watchmaker.
#6- The only thing astute about this video is the assessment of why and how fakes proliferate
I have no desire to ever own a Rolex. Not my style at all- stoggy as hell.
But they are actually well made- metallurgically and mechanically speaking.
I don’t have time to even go into how- I’ve done it elsewhere. Use google-fu.
Whew. I’m done. So tired of bullshit.
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And furthermore it made my skin crawl. That breathy whisper gives me the creeps.
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The video from last year does a much better job of showing the minute differences between a real Rolex and a high end fake:
To the naked eye they’re identical, you need magnification, and a real one to compare the fake to.
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The company that made the video call themselves “The pre-owned watch specialist”. If you deliberately go out of your way to avoid making a second-hand watch joke, (adjusts tie, leans into mic) I just don’t have time for you.
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I recommend watching these types of videos at 1.5 or 2x speed. Life’s too short for slow narration.
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