Watchmaking: Expert advice to avoid buying a counterfeit

It's a real scourge. Counterfeit watches are sold in the tens of millions of units each year. How can you be sure you're not buying a counterfeit piece? Since the early 2000s, Fabrice Guéroux has been using his watchmaking expertise to "bring ethics back into the past and fight against traffickers." Author of True and False Watches: A Reference Manual on Counterfeit Watches, an expanded edition of which includes more than 300 photos and illustrations was recently published, and also a vintage watch enthusiast, he is alarmed by the growing phenomenon. He carries out 50 to 60 appraisals each week and shares his advice, supported by photos, on his Instagram account, and is constantly confronted with these countless fraudulent copies, often sold on the internet.

These more or less well-made copies leave China, Hong Kong, Turkey, or Singapore and cross borders with almost complete impunity. A profitable market estimated at 3.35...