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I know a very wealthy businessman in China, he's expected to wear expensive watches, dress the part, etc. But he just buys fakes all the time. It looks real e

I know a very wealthy businessman in China, he's expected to wear expensive watches, dress the part, etc. But he just buys fakes all the time. It looks real enough to impress, and he saves a lot of money.

goialoq 9y ago
This is reportedly quite common. Supposedly (but I have doubts), there's a similar market for cellphones with fake specs -- the consumers know the specs are fake, but they need the fake exterior to impress their business partners.
- grkvlt 9y ago
  > cellphones with fake specs but, don't you just need to show off any old cellphone, and then say something like 'this baby has twenty-three ARM IXXIX cores, running at one hundred point six gigahertz, with forty terabytes and a double AMDXOLCiD display!' to fake the specs?
dreamfactored 9y ago
The business guys who are into watches tend to have a good look at each others, talk watch collecting for a while, and can usually tell fakes.
- ASalazarMX 9y ago
  The business guys who are into watches tend to buy fakes that can fool people like them. FTFY
  - dreamfactored 9y ago
    I've had exactly that conversation with a few. You'd be surprised how many are serious collectors who invest in watches. That doesn't work with fakes. That whole Rolex culture is also a deliberate part of how they sniff out fake people. The examples in the article were terrible, I'm not a watch guy and could spot them a mile off. I can usually tell with bags, wallets, shoes. Very few fakes don't have clear tells if you know the originals, I sometimes wonder if it's deliberate.
- adamcccc 9y ago
  If they're poor fakes, yes. But if they're like the ones mentioned in this article, there would be no way of telling without bringing a microscope with you.
smn1234 9y ago
Well, you either buy "art" to appreciate it, to transfer value into an asset, or to show off. Can be all of the above. You're saying this guy just wants to show off. Shame to use watches for such. They're a marvel of form and function.

goialoq 9y ago

This is reportedly quite common. Supposedly (but I have doubts), there's a similar market for cellphones with fake specs -- the consumers know the specs are fake, but they need the fake exterior to impress their business partners.

grkvlt 9y ago
> cellphones with fake specs but, don't you just need to show off any old cellphone, and then say something like 'this baby has twenty-three ARM IXXIX cores, running at one hundred point six gigahertz, with forty terabytes and a double AMDXOLCiD display!' to fake the specs?

dreamfactored 9y ago

The business guys who are into watches tend to have a good look at each others, talk watch collecting for a while, and can usually tell fakes.

ASalazarMX 9y ago
The business guys who are into watches tend to buy fakes that can fool people like them. FTFY
- dreamfactored 9y ago
  I've had exactly that conversation with a few. You'd be surprised how many are serious collectors who invest in watches. That doesn't work with fakes. That whole Rolex culture is also a deliberate part of how they sniff out fake people. The examples in the article were terrible, I'm not a watch guy and could spot them a mile off. I can usually tell with bags, wallets, shoes. Very few fakes don't have clear tells if you know the originals, I sometimes wonder if it's deliberate.
adamcccc 9y ago
If they're poor fakes, yes. But if they're like the ones mentioned in this article, there would be no way of telling without bringing a microscope with you.

smn1234 9y ago

Well, you either buy "art" to appreciate it, to transfer value into an asset, or to show off. Can be all of the above. You're saying this guy just wants to show off. Shame to use watches for such. They're a marvel of form and function.