Buying Fake Watches - A Cautionary Tale

AndyC555

Hello, recently bought an Omega Speedmaster Pro. Its a fake but I still paid €130 for it.

Yesterday I looked at the watch and the time was wrong. When the minute hand points at 12 the hour hand does not line up with the hour. Picture below to illustrate.
Is this a problem that is costly to fix? If it can be fixed where should I take it?

Thanks.

Blackpitts

AndyC555 wrote: »

Hello, recently bought an Omega Speedmaster Pro. Its a fake but I still paid €130 for it.

Yesterday I looked at the watch and the time was wrong. When the minute hand points at 12 the hour hand does not line up with the hour. Picture below to illustrate.
Is this a problem that is costly to fix? If it can be fixed where should I take it?

Thanks.

Buying fake watches is always a bad idea, they have poor quality and look cheap.
Since the movement in it must be very ...ehm...bad, I doubt someone can fix it and if I was you i would feel ashamed to bring it to a watch repairer, who can tell it's a fake at the first glance...
For 130 euro you could have bought a decent mechanical watch (ie Seiko), with a lot of style and very very reliable. IMHO, you have been ripped off too as these watches cost no more than 50 euro where I come from.

AndyC555

I got it from a website (not ebay) from China. The watch is very heavy and the second hand has a virtually fluid motion. There is a very slight pause when it moves.

So I should just chuck it to the bin?

AndyC555

Thanks Bedlam for the replay. I'll look into the possibility of getting it repaired.

I just emailed the seller a few minutes ago so I will await their response. If it is a case of having to return it by FedEX with tracking number and also paying a restocking/returns handling fee then I will just forget about it and put it down to a lesson learned.

Thank for the replies.

AndyC555

Update

Seller has agreed to send me a new watch after I post this broken one back.
So not an entire waste of €130.

Nolimits

AndyC555 wrote: »

Update

Seller has agreed to send me a new watch after I post this broken one back.
So not an entire waste of €130.

Your very trusting of someone who makes their living out of stealing other peoples ideas and trademarks.

AndyC555

Well this one is no use to me broken. So if he sends me another one then all well and good, if not then its a lesson learned.
My correspondence with him as been amicable and he seems very apologetic.
So I wait and see if I get a replacement.

AndyC555

Update to this,

I posted back the broken watch at a cost of €30
received a second watch of which I got stung for €30 customs fees.

I only had the second watch an hour on my wrist and it was reading 15 minutes slow after setting the time. :mad::mad::mad::mad:

So almost €170 wasted dealer with this seller. Lesson learned.

I sent a real stinker of an email thanking him for wasting my time and ripping me off to which I got a reply that I was "using the watch wrong".
:mad::mad::mad:

I would love to post the web address of this seller so that people would stay away from it :mad::mad::mad:

Cyrus

To be honest I don't think anyone here would be likely to be using that website anyway

buck65

I can understand the OPs position in buying the watch in the first place as obviously you are an Omega Speedy fan and probably couldn't afford/didn't want to shell out a couple of grand on a new one.
There are some decent 2nd hand sites like TZUK where you might pick up one for half that.
I have a friend who bought a Tag in the Canaries for a tenner and was dead happy with it being fake and working well. Some people are different I suppose.
I have sympathy for anyone who gets ripped off but you really are dealing with the black market here. Think of all the decent auto or quartz watches you could have got for your money.
Seiko as was mentioned have a dozen models you could choose from or citizen, Alpha, Steinhart preowned.
Plenty of advise around if you need it here!

John F Byrne

There are fakes and there are homages; ie, fakes without names on them, and believe it or not some of them have a genuine caché among serious watch collectors. One particular favourite of collectors is an MQJ Submariner homage which is solid and reliable with a Chinese automatic movement, and costs €22 delivered on ebay. Go to a watch collector forum if these appeal to you to clue yourself up.

John F Byrne

AndyC555 wrote: »

Hello, recently bought an Omega Speedmaster Pro. Its a fake but I still paid €130 for it.

Yesterday I looked at the watch and the time was wrong. When the minute hand points at 12 the hour hand does not line up with the hour. Picture below to illustrate.
Is this a problem that is costly to fix? If it can be fixed where should I take it?

Thanks.

Too late now I know but you could have taken the hour hand off and put it back on again.

Oh and I can point you to one for $86 (dollars) with free post if you want. I got a junk email today funnily enough.