It is, frustratingly, a very common post on LinkedIn and other social platforms... two watches, side by side, shot from straight on, with a challenge to judge which is real or fake... Yes, we’ve all seen them, time and time again- nothing new!

My main issue with these challenges is that they reduce the practice of authentication only to what you can see from the front.

One of the watches may be ‘fake’, but what of the ‘real’ one?
Have we seen the bracelet, the case back, the clasp or the movement?

The best AI systems can only work in the negative.

They might tell you that a watch is fake (due to obvious discrepancies), but they cannot confirm that a watch is indeed authentic – the watch may be a fake with no obvious discrepancies from a frontal shot, or it may even be a Frankenwatch with a real bezel, dial and handset.

But AI can’t tell you any of that. It can only tell you what you probably already know, and whatever it did tell you, could you trust it anyway?

One of my favourite slides from The Watch Scholar Authentication course shows a ladies’ Audemars Piguet Royal Oak from 1990, complete with original receipt. I’m an expert authenticator, and I couldn’t see anything wrong.

What you wouldn’t know from the picture is that the owner took it for a non-manufacturer service. A look inside shows the damaged AP quartz calibre was swapped for an ETA. It fits perfectly, works perfectly, and the owner didn’t know the difference, but now that watch is inauthentic and cannot be sold via an honest dealer or valued above its gold weight without expensive restoration.

So, you can see, it is absolutely impossible to tell everything from the image – you can’t see inside, feel the finishing or fluidity of a bracelet, hear how the movement winds, or tell gold plate from solid... Watch authentication is so much more than a game of ‘Spot the Difference’.

There is a simple reason why any dealer's or pawnbroker’s offer is merely indicative until they have the watch in hand. Professional opinions should always, without fail, be based on the watch you have handled, not on a picture of what could be any old watch off the internet!

Note that all Registered Valuers are forbidden, under their terms of accreditation, from valuing sight-unseen – a practice that is sadly all too common amongst less scrupulous valuers!

In The Watch Scholar courses, we teach that watch authentication is a 360-degree process, not just a snapshot served up to an AI.