The Real Problem of Fake Watches

Tens of millions of fake Swiss watches are offered for sale every year, while the Swiss watch industry produces around 30 million original watches. Switzerland’s FH estimates that fakes watches make up 11% of customs seizures. There is nothing novel — the practice is virtually as old as the existence of watches themselves. The competence of counterfeiters is progressing rapidly these days. The new generation of counterfeits is superior in quality, has a very similar appearance to the original, and even an imitation of mechanisms and parts from the inside. This poses a threat to two major groups: the watch manufacturers and watches buyers.

A Strong Black Market

Premium watches are so appealing, that their popularity has resulted in an expansion of the black market for stolen watches. Stolen directly off a wrist or taken in a smash-and-grab attack, timepieces, which are easily transportable and often untraceable, could be turned into cash within a couple of days or even hours. The biggest issue for future owners is the impossibility to know whether the offered watch is stolen. Watch counterfeiting is a very effective way of laundering money obtained from other unlawful activities, and for this reason, is a very popular sector of activity for unscrupulous entrepreneurs.

Glamour Boost

Luxury goods are usually expensive, so people often look for alternative purchase options, whether it is knowingly or unknowingly fake. The pursuit of glamour attracts those looking to buy a fake watch that looks like a $50,000 watch for $300.

The “Power” of the Internet

The reasons for this dubious success are numerous but first is the Internet. The Internet has revolutionized the distribution of counterfeit watches and generated significant sales growth — no physical intermediaries and cover for anonymity. People are now getting access to counterfeit sellers like never before.

So What Can You Do to Protect Yourself?

Each element of the watch mechanism is custom-built. All timepieces have unique identification numbers, which authenticate product genuineness. These numbers are stored in the manufacturer’s internal databases. Regretfully, there is no single database for watches of different manufacturers, while the watch ownership history is not recorded. This is where ChronoBase comes in.

ChronoBase Solution

A deep understanding of blockchain technology allowed ChronoBase experts to create a product which overcomes safety and storage problems on the luxury watch market.

ChronoBase platform generates an Ethereum-based digital certificate to register the watch, confirm its origin as well as check ownership and service history instantly. Blockchain makes any manipulations with the data impossible — information recorded into the system remains safely guarded. Moreover, the platform can check whether the watch was stolen and find out it is already owned to avoid fraud. All the user needs is to enter the brand name, model/reference, and serial number.

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