Fakes and Frankens
- A listing of Vintage Rolex Daytonas from hell at Antiquorum from perezcope. This is a great introduction to misrepresented watches that can appear at auction, and includes a Rolex 6265, Rolex 6263 (2 examples), Rolex 6240 (2), Rolex 6239 (2), Rolex 6264, and Rolex 5510 from July 16, 17, 19, 2018
- Antiquorum sold this fake Rolex Daytona 6262 for CHF 40,000 in June 2020 [@perezcope].
- Rolex Daytona 6239 with lots of wrong parts.
- Hilariously bad Photoshop of an El Primero
- Heuer 3646 airbrushing
- The Garibaldi ‘Ship of Fools’ (Panerai) that was pulled from sale
- A fake aluminium “prototype” GPF 2/56
- Antiquorum auction of a fake “Heuer”
- Antiquorum and the the Monaco Legend Group presented Rolexes with swapped dials and frankens
- Seamaster 2943
- A franken Omega Constellation with the commonly used 091919 case number for fakes.
- ‘Another fake from the Antiquorum Crew’
- A “Franken” Autavia for 62,000 Euro
- Heuer 1163v with wrong hands, pushers, crown, and bezel
- ‘Garbage Offered for Sale by Auctionata’
- ‘Last Chapter of “Pass the Trash”‘
- Skipperera photoshopping. Maybe it’s simply too tempting not to make that Skipperera blue pop…
- What’s up with this Heuer Jarama from Bonhams?
- Seamaster XVI
- This blatant Photoshopping of a Heuer Skipperera is unacceptable. Here’s hoping someone thought the gouges in the dial were dust marks on the glass they were trying to remove!
- A questionable Omega 2915-1
- Discussion of Speedmasters and an incorrect Omega Seamaster 300 from their Spring 2015 auction.
- A Heuer GH381 (and then to eBay via goldsmith55) with a service dial, and care to swap index markers from silver to gold, in the wrong case.
- Fake Rolex Solo 6239 (serial 1079777). The comments section of the above instagram link are a good introduction to this world of collecting.
- This Rolex Daytona 16520 with Beyer signature…well, the signature is not from Beyer (as confirmed by…Beyer!)
- A put-together Omega 2913 in their Geneva Watch Auction: SIX (2017). The auction text states, “The present example is preserved in most attractive and original condition.” Nothing wrong with improving a watch, you just have to let the prospective buyers know! For a good read on spotting correct 300 CK2913 bezels, check out jackwongyf’s tips on instagram.
- The $3.7M Rolex Oyster Paul Newman Daytona 6263 from Phillips Geneva Watch Auction: FIVE (2017), otherwise known as “The Legend“, which has a “non-original dial“, and whose “officious, dodgy provenance is well known to the vintage Rolex community“. See comments from poster Clavi at bottom of that page in the ‘Comments’ section.
- You would never have known that the “Unicorn” wasn’t all-original from reading Hodinkee’s fawning, Phillips’ press releases, or the Condition Report. But after news leaked about the Unicorn history (Goldberger earlier had deferred on any discussion of the background of the watch), Phillips was forced to post a last minute article, days in advance of the auction (however, only posted on their website, with no update on the Condition Report nor with no update on Hodinkee…and we don’t ever expect Hodinkee to write on something like this, though you can read quite a bit in the comment section). Goldberger says in the interview for that article, “there were several replaced parts that bothered me. I searched the world for the right components, sparing no expense, to restore it to its original glory.” So this Rolex, with an original case, but with replaced dial, hands, pushers, crown, crystal, bracelet and no provenance, sold for $5.9m. Please listen to the ‘Dialed In’ podcast, EP 34: What is The Cost of Truth?: King Flum starting at 6:30 minutes for a recap of the series of events. Oh well, at least some of the proceeds went to a children’s charity. If the watch actually sold, that is. Years later Perezcope wrote an article that recaps the sale of the frakenwatch.
- Blaming the McQueen family (c’mon, seriously?!), Phillips pulls the Loren James’ Submariner based upon detailed research into its history.
- On how an incredibly large number of pieces were withdrawn from a “Heuer Only” auction
You might expect that auction houses, under serious time pressure, would be where bad watches slip by. But we can’t leave dealers out. On the below, I am not implying that in all cases the dealer knew that they were selling fakes, of course. But good dealers (and this applies to really any online seller) have turned bad, some have sold known fakes, some have simply stolen goods.
Everyone: please do your homework before buying (Google dealers, find references, see if they have been banned from forums, search their past…)! Even better if the dealer has a permanent storefront you can visit. If there are alarm bells in your head going off, step away. Pay with a credit card. Always. No wires. Use an escrow service. Don’t send money using PayPal to “friends and family”. Buy safe!
- Always check the fine print and do your research. WatchRapport, with ads everywhere, looks like your standard watch dealer, but when you look closer you’ll see the disclaimer that “Products on [our] website may contain data from other online open sources. Watch Rapport makes no claims of product ownership unless otherwise specified.” So, what this means is, when you click ‘Buy’ (unless specified), you are giving WatchRapport an interest-free loan, at which point they go out and try to find the watch for you. Which they may or may not be able to do, as they most often don’t have the watch in their inventory. And that watch you saw on their site? Also consider that “Product photo(s) may not reflect the exact watch being sold. While the watch you will receive will be the exact same model, have the same specifications, and in the same condition as described, some photos are stock images or from our network of various suppliers and are subject to change.”
- The FBI opened an investigation into the ‘Timepiece Gentleman’ (TPG), Anthony Farrer, in 2023 and arrested him at the start of November 2023. The Central District of California press release, ‘Founder of Beverly Hills ‘Gentlemen Timepieces’ Consignment Store Charged with Conning Victims in Luxury Watch Ponzi-Type Scheme‘ details the charges.
The dealer, Anthony Farrer, unfortunately let his “demons get the best of him”, and has lost/misplaced/spent somewhere between $2m and $5m of customer timepieces. Previously named one of the “Top 100 Watch Influencers in the World” by WatchPro (oops), having previously disappeared from social media (2021), and previously with a history of racial epithets, 6 DUIs, 2+ domestic violence arrests, assaults, public intoxication, grand larceny, stolen credit cards and government IDs. Something is public results in a black eye to the industry, and now those dealers that staunchly supported Farrer and regularly were in contact with him, such as Roman Sharf from Luxury Bazaar, and his former coworkers Marco Nicolini (Grand Caliber) as well as Liz Taylor and Darby McVay (RebeLux LA) have to deal with those presuming guilt my association. In the lead up, there were those who were seemingly already onto him in advance of the train wreck, such as the individual asking him in a YouTube Q&A “on a scale of 1 to 10, how much of a scammer do you think you are?”. Looks for an update following Anthony’s court date in October 2024. - HQ Milton was selling a fake Rolex Daytona 6262 until the community was notified (it sounds like they blocked the outer, @perezcope, when he brought this up). HQ Milton subsequently pulled the watch from sale (better than Antiqorum, which went ahead with the sale in June 2020 although notified multiple times that the watch was a fraken) and issued an apology. This isn’t to say HQ Milton is a regular seller of bad watches, but I highlight to show that it does happen. HQ Milton is one of, if not the best known, Rolex dealer online. So just take this into consideration when purchasing. And yes, we all make mistakes. I’ll leave it others to debate whether dealers should be able to catch a franken when selling a $60k watch.
- Required reading on Rolex Forums about Horology House owner Chris Essery selling a fake Rolex (and a lot of runaround). Essery was a “trusted seller” with a YouTube account with nearly 70k followers that discussed how to tell the difference between fake and real Rolexes. You can listen to an interview of the buyer in Scottish Watches Podcast #116. And don’t make up your mind until you’ve read the WhatsApp transcript of the mess. Up to you to decide about any relation with Nick Glynatsis.
- A previously trustworthy dealer Steve Mulholland (Mulholland Time) gets banned from forums and still scams people, years later.
- Good seller turned bad…a scam where a good known online collector, Jason Latif, sold his same collection over and over again…to 19 people.
- This “original” Rolex 1016 sold by Michael Morgan from Iconic Watch Company uses a case that was swapped from another 1016. Read more in the discussion on Hodinkee’s Bring-a-Loupe and see what seems to be the original watch on eBay. So yes, even when you read Hodinkee’s analysis that “…with an example [like] this, there’s little to not like..” Take this as just caution that well-educated writers can miss when watches are put-together as well. In the comments on the Hodinkee site, you can read questions around the dial text specifically.
- Here is a entertaining one. Perezcope contacts Monochrome to let them know about a fake Single Red Sea Dweller from one of their articles (that article has since been rewritten, though the original article can be found here). Monochrome doesn’t believe Perezcope, gets testy and says the subsequent article that Perescope publishes on the watch, ‘Fake Rolex Single Red Sea-Dweller‘ is vile and horse crap. Fast forward some more and the Monochrome article is up, still with negative things to say about Perezcope. Oh, and at the very end, as an aside, a note has now been added from the selling dealer saying they now have doubts about the watch. So to summarize, fake watch.
- Always a classic – a dealer (SWC Tampa) saying “I never said the dial was [authentic]” in response to a question on a purchased watch from the buyer. As always, buyer beware, right?
- A fake Breitling from Robert Maron
- Vesper selling redialed pieces as 100% original, and not listening to the customer pushback later then informed by the community that their purchases were redialed.
- A fabulous community discussion between members and a dealer regarding an Omega 2913 FAP at Davidoff – these conversations are great to see, and allow everyone to learn.
- A Universal Geneve with non-original parts from Matthew Bain
- Another great read…”unsavory activities” on VRF as a respected VRF member (“Mark Lerman = Comexfan ~ vintage1665 = Dave Rosenberg“) gets caught selling a watch that has magically picked up papers. There is also proof of purchased equipment here and here that can be used for fake dates and stamps. You can read the individual’s response to the accusations as well. From the first link in this bullet point I would recommend the quote from greekbum which nicely summarizes the state of affairs. These threads are all a great intro to who to trust! Side comment: some posters in these threads say, “thank goodness I purchased from well-respected Dealer X”… Sorry to burst anyone’s bubble, but you shouldn’t blindly trust dealers, either.
- The ‘Bring a Brain’ series on watchuseek, where poster mkws breaks down what he observes as the fleecing on Hodinkee (simply search for ‘watchuseek Bring a Brain’ for the assortment). Lately this has been more related to price points than dubious pieces.
- For a multitude of made-up Rolexes, you can check out “orchi_palar” on Instagram (as long as you can get past the reference to himself in the third person in every post, and use of the word “bro”). His main focus is on well-known dealers selling fake Rolex and Patek Philippe. Be aware that “O” has a tendency to assume guilty until proven innocent. There is one exception to that rule: he found the Phillips “Unicorn” to be correct, which is crazy (see the Phillips’ section on Auction house frankens and deception. Normally Orchi would rip a watch like that (replaced dial, hands, pushers, crown, and bracelet) to shreds.
- To follow-up on the above, Orchi also has manipulated Rolexes prior to sale.
- It is exceedingly rare to find anyone calling out watch dealers selling frankens and fakes. Wish there was more…
Amazing research comes from Jose Pereztroika. Read more on his Perezcope website; and also follow him on instagram @perezcope.
The below summarizes some of Jose’s key articles on fakes, with links to his site. Amazingly thoroughly researched work.
- Debunking the Fictitious History of the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms
- Incorrigible Antiquorum – A Rolex ‘Bull-Gauss’ And Other Shenanigans
- Phillips Caught Doctoring Engravings In Photoshop
- ‘Tropical’ Speedmaster 2915-1 – A Record Breaking OmeGaGa At Phillips
- Rolex Daytona Ref. 16520 With Fake ‘Beyer’ Print
- Rolex Daytona 6265 – The ‘Unicorn’ Frankenstein Plot
- Trash Cartier Crash London At Phillips New York
- Rolex Daytona 6240 Paul Newman ‘Neanderthal’ – A Myth Goes Extinct
- A Curious Rolex Daytona 6264 ‘Paul Newman’ At Antiquorum Geneva
- A Questionable Patek Philippe 2481 At Christie’s Hong Kong, Hidden Case Numbers And The Bigler Picture
- Franken/Fake Oyster “Sotto” Daytona (RCO) At Christie’s Hong Kong
- Revisiting Panerai’s PAM Of Worms
- Panerai In-House Movements – A PAM Of Worms
- Escape From The Planet Of The Fakes: The French Foreign Legion Explorer
- Return To The Planet Of The Fakes: “Albino” Daytona Made In Tuscany
- Planet Of The Fakes: A Rinaldi “Big Crown” 5510 At Antiquorum Hong Kong
- Rolex Daytona 16520 Or Converted 16523 Two Tone?
- Fake Rolex Stamps On Anonymous Rolex-Panerai Ref. 3646 Watches
- Monochrome Promoting A Fake Rolex Single Red Sea-Dweller
- Vintage Daytona Scandal in Monaco
- Secret French Marine Nationale Files about “Panerai” Watches
- Fake Rolex Panerai 3646 on Chrono24
- Caution! More fake and made-up stuff from Antiquorum
- Fake Rolex Daytona 6263 YG, 3300740
- The Garibaldi Chronicles – Part one
- Fake Panerai GPF 2/56 at Antiquorum
- Vintage Rolex Daytonas from hell at Antiquorum
- Caution! Fake Pre Vendôme galore at Sotheby’s
- The mysterious case of a Vintage Panerai 6154 sold at Sotheby’s in 2013
- Caution! 5218-207/A Slytech at Sotheby’s
How to tell if a Rolex is fake? Good question… First off: I could probably never tell.
If you already own the Rolex (modern), the easiest way is to have it serviced by Rolex, which essentially provides a seal of approval. Also review articles and videos (see bottom) on the best clones and how to identify – for me the key items are the finishing of the movement, and the use of a regulated balance instead of free sprung. Otherwise, if I didn’t have a legit and fake Rolex side-by-side…I’m not sure I could tell.
If you are talking about vintage Rolexes, then doubly beware. You should probably throw away the whole ‘Buy the Seller’ since there are so many fakes about with dealers selling them as well. Provenance is key. And anytime it passes through a dealers hands…even for a moment…well…it’s not an original owner piece, and presumably even more review is warranted.
Some examples of vintage Rolex fakes and frankens that have been for sale:
- Fake Rolex Daytona 6265
- A smorgasboard of Rolex fakes
- This fake Rolex Daytona 16520 with Beyer signature
- This Fake Rolex Is The Most Accurate Yet
- Fake Rolex Daytona from Jenni Elle (and also on a Fake Patek Philippe 5711 Super Clone)
And then, unfortunately, there are the very latest modern fakes. Please don’t purchase those, as good as they look. And apparently, they look very, very good. Go buy from an AD. Or even the Rolex Certified Pre-Owned with authenticity guaranteed – you can’t beat that!
Some interesting videos about clones and how to identify (or at least try to identify…) are:
This section links to reporting of frankenwatches (watches that are made up of pieces from different watches, but presented as otherwise). I try to limit links below to those to articles and information that contain enough supporting evidence that I believe the community would accept the accusations as credible.
The below articles, to start from @perezcope (Jose Pereztroika), are the most detailed articles on frankenwatches that we see available. It is unfortunately rare for frankens to be called out – both unfortunate in that people simply don’t do it although they may know of these bad watches, and of course also as there are the bad actors that make these often so hard to detect. Props to those that put in the time and are willing to provide the information to the community.
Perezcope