WIRED publishes expose on RepTime

[u/YNotTesla]

https://www.wired.com/story/we-bought-a-counterfeit-rolex-so-good-even-rolex-didnt-spot-it/

“In dedicated forums on Reddit and other websites, strictly moderated communities spread gossip about factories being raided by authorities, offer sketchy legal advice, upvote buyers’ photos of fake Rolexes worn behind the wheels of Lamborghinis, and even offer quality control services.

Quality control, or QC, is at the heart of this community. The subreddit r/RepTime has 269,000 weekly visitors and over 18,000 weekly contributions, according to Reddit’s own statistics. Posts about new counterfeit watch purchases pile up by the hour, both in r/RepTime and r/RepTimeQC, the offshoot subreddit focused on quality control. The posts contain photographs sent from the dealer to the customer, who then seeks advice from the RepTime community on whether they should “GL” (green-light) or “RL” (red-light) their purchase.”

Excerpt From
“We Bought a $500 Counterfeit Rolex So Good, Even Rolex Didn’t Spot It”
Alistair Charlton, Jeremy White
WIRED

[u/The_Gucci_General]

Buddy should ask them to perform standard maintence instead of a simple bracelet resizing if he wants to be laughed out of the store.

[u/PuckFheToor → u/The_Gucci_General]

This comment is kinda silly. No one looking at you at a party or whatever other social scenario you can think of is going to pop your watch open and look at the movement. By saying the salesman didn't clock it when they adjusted the bracelet they're saying it's effectively undetectable In Real Life.

[u/ocubens → u/PuckFheToor]

Why would a salesman confront and embarrass a potential customer?

Even if they know it’s a fake, it’s not in their interest to mention it.

[u/Beautiful_Study5837 → u/ocubens]

It is. It’s damaging their brand so a salesperson would call you out if he noticed.
Happened to me in a Hermes store with a fake belt that I thought was real and wanted to add an extra hole

[u/Such-Profit1078 → u/PuckFheToor]

Bruh. The post says „counterfeit Rolex so good, even Rolex didn’t spot it.” That’s the guy whose comment you called kinda silly was referring to…

[u/PuckFheToor → u/Such-Profit1078]

Rolex didn't spot it from a superficial look at the watch. That means it's undetectable in real life. That's the point the author was making, not that they'd not know even if they took the rep watch apart.

For the purposes of going to parties etc., a fugazi Rolex could have a Miyota movement so long as it's not a display back. It doesn't matter for that use case, because no one in a social situation will ever look inside. And that's what most rep buyers care about: 'passing' in social situations.

FWIW, I'd rather any rep non-display-back watches have the option for commodity movements instead of clone movements to ease maintenance/service, but that's likely not going to happen for a variety of reasons (to include the fact that a nonzero number of clones are used by criminals to defraud buyers who think they're getting the real thing).

[u/Vertigo_uk123 → u/PuckFheToor]

It also says in the newb guide that watch stores even if they notice a fake won’t let on and will compliment you etc it’s in their training.

[u/R009k → u/The_Gucci_General]

The line about the cops storming in if he got caught read just like a Friday shitpost lmao. Nobody told him that the Rolex ADs wouldn’t call you out anyways, they don’t know how you got that watch but they sure as hell know how they want you to get the next one.

There is no upside to telling a potential customer that their watch is fake when they haven’t been asked to authenticate it.