This fascinating article from Wired lifts the lid on the shadowy world of the Rep-Community and shows just how convincing modern counterfeit watches can be.

To be fair to the Rolex store staff mentioned in the article and accompanying video, they are not trained in authentication and are more likely to be trained to be polite and non-confrontational. Did they just assume the watch was fine, and not check, did they not know, or did they know, but choose not to say? We will never know.

What we do know is that under expert examination, the flaws in the counterfeit watches were immediately apparent, and once the watches were opened, all doubt as to their authenticity vanished.

My inspection of the watches mentioned in the article took place in September 2025 (Journalistic lead times…), and even since then, the counterfeit movements have got better and better, but they can still be spotted by a trained eye.

If you would like to train yourself or your staff to identify the latest generation of fakes, join us for our next Authenticating Watches courses at The Watch Scholar.