The burgeoning secondary market for watches faces a growing problem: counterfeiting. According to Arjen van de Vall, managing director of British pre-owned watch retailer Watchfinder, which has resale outlets in France, counterfeit watches accounted for up to 10% of watches received by retailers last year and half of they were Rolex.
A situation that has become complex to manage as counterfeit watches are made with increasingly sophisticated tools and therefore more difficult to detect. Watchfinder states in this regard that it was previously able to identify approximately 80% of counterfeits with the naked eye, compared to 20% today. From now on, the distributor belonging to the Richemont group will have to carry out more exhaustive inspections to detect counterfeit products.
Rolex launches its authentication program
To combat this phenomenon in an increasingly thriving secondary market (25 billion euros), Rolex launched an internal program at the end of 2022 for the resale of certified pre-owned watches. Specifically, the brand allows you to buy watches authenticated by it at an authorized dealer. But the Swiss brand is far from the only victim of counterfeiting.
In mid-June, Omega announced that three of its employees were being sued for their part in the manufacture of an Omega Speedmaster “Frankenstein” watch that was auctioned in 2021 for more than $3 million.
Source: BFM TV
