1. What is a replica watch?
Replica watches refer to watch styles that some Chinese investment watch accessories manufacturers predict the market and determine need to imitate,and then directly purchase genuine watches from counters and completely disassemble them. The different parts are sent to different manufacturers, such as movement manufacturers, shell manufacturers, watch bracelet manufacturers, dial manufacturers, and outer packaging manufacturers, and they are asked to make one-to-one molds. Finally, the assembly manufacturer gathers all these parts and delivers the finished replica watch for assembly.
At present, China’s replica watches are mainly shipped in the Guangzhou Zhanxi Watch Market.The Zhanxi Watch Market in Guangzhou refers to the area west of Guangzhou Railway Station, where there are several large watch and parts distribution centers such as Nanfang and Zhanxi. In addition, there are many other places in Yuexiu District, but most of them are scattered. Guangzhou Zhanxi Watch City was established in 1986. Since 1999, many manufacturers have been operating various watches and accessories. Replica watches were born in the early 1990s. In the area of Guangzhou Zhanxi and Nanfang Watch City, there are thousands of factories making watches and accessories, with watch cases, watch straps, movements, dials, watch hands, bottom cases, and needle handles.
In the Guangzhou Zhanxi watch production and trading market, there are all kinds of watch accessories, so the assembled watches have different qualities and prices to correspond to the different consumption levels of customers.
2. How are replica watches priced?
Those who know a little bit about replica watches may have such questions in their minds: Why does a replica watch cost more than 2,000 yuan when the genuine Longines is only a few thousand yuan? Many replica watches of Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph cost more than 4,000 yuan, while Rolex, which is also of the highest quality, only costs half the price? Isn’t it true that the more expensive the genuine product, the better? What is the pricing mechanism of the replica watch market? This question may be the biggest question in the minds of many friends who have just come into contact with replica watches.
The pricing of replica watches is determined by the following four factors:
1. Whether the model is monopolized:
The developer of replica watches is the most important in the entire replica watch industry. After getting the genuine product through various channels, the mold drawing is made, and then the mold maker (developer) will find various factories to customize the parts according to the parts, such as the shell, the movement, the dial, and the pointer. According to the requirements of different drawings, the same factory will also make parts of different grades. For example, the same pointer has different requirements for accuracy, so the things will be different. Most of these factories are regular watch factories. Because the parts do not involve brands, there is no risk in regular watch factories.
After the parts are ready, the developer will hire a group of masters to assemble them. The assembly location is actually in some underground factories in the west of the station. After-sales repaired watches are also repaired in these places. This process is the most risky place because the logo will be installed. If the developer has a model that others do not have, he can set a high price. This is a monopoly. For example, AP timing is a typical example. I believe that friends who have contacted with JF factory Audemars Piguet should understand it.
2. The cost of the movement and the case:
For the movement, let’s not talk about the Mingzhu and Guangdong cores used in the stalls, let’s just talk about the better Tianjin core, Hangzhou core, Seagull core, Miyota core, etc. There is generally a rule: the complex function is generally more expensive than the three-hand one, for example, the Shanghai 7750 multi-function chronograph movement is definitely more expensive than the Seagull 2824 movement, so the chronograph function watch is not cheap. Special materials are generally more expensive than 316L stainless steel. Here we don’t talk about gold plating, gold plating, 18k pure gold, just ceramics, forged carbon and other processes, so Audemars Piguet 15706 (forged carbon) is more expensive than 15703 (316L stainless steel), and Panerai 441 (ceramic) is more expensive than 312 (316 steel). Self-produced movements are generally more expensive than ready-made movements. Panerai’s p3000 movement is a replica of the original structure, and the cost is higher than pure movements such as Seagull 2824. Finally, there is the processing technology. For example, the sapphire outer ring of the Fifty-Five Watches is too difficult to process, and the yield rate is very low. It costs more than 800 to replace one, which accounts for 1/3 of the entire watch…
3. The cost of buying genuine products and making molds:
Take Audemars Piguet replica watches as an example. Currently, Audemars Piguet is basically monopolized by JF. JF buys so many genuine Audemars Piguet watches to make molds… Most genuine Audemars Piguet timepieces cost more than 150,000 yuan. If you buy one and disassemble it and then make a mold, the cost is still very high, especially for some niche models. These costs will directly enter the price of the watch. The Audemars Piguet watches made by JF are consistent with the genuine ones from the inside to the outside, and the workmanship and brushing are quite delicate. I believe everyone has a new understanding of the pricing of Audemars Piguet watches made by JF.
4. The factory’s labor costs, machine equipment costs, and other miscellaneous costs, etc. Because there are too many details, the most critical point among these details is that they are taking a very big risk!!!
3. Classification of replica watches
For any watch, good appearance and exquisite workmanship will attract consumers’ attention at the first time. Of course, the quality of workmanship is proportional to the price. Replica watches can be roughly divided into four levels according to their movement and the degree of closeness to the original: domestic, Japanese, small Swiss and large Swiss.
Below we will introduce these four levels of replica watches in detail.
(I) Domestic products (small workshop products). The movement uses a small workshop copycat movement, which is completely a street stall product. Many styles are just affixed with an authentic LOGO, and the authentic product may not have this style at all. It is recommended that friends who plan to buy a replica watch pay attention to it and go to the official website or TimeVip to see if there is such a style. The workmanship is relatively poor in terms of appearance and dial details, and there is a big gap in appearance, movement and function. The case is made of ordinary stainless steel, and some are even made of aluminum. The leather belt is made of artificial leather, and the mirror is made of ordinary non-scratch-resistant mineral glass! Sellers often tell you that it is a Mingzhu or Seagull movement, but it is not! Although the movements of Mingzhu and Seagull are domestic movements, the quality is still relatively reliable, and the price is not that cheap! This kind of watch is generally two or three hundred yuan. If you are lucky, it can be used, but if you are unlucky, it will break down in a few days (either the movement is stuck, or the needle falls off, or the error is a few minutes or days).
(ii) Japanese products (small workshop products). The movement is made by domestic brands such as Mingzhu and Seagull. This level of replica watches is the most common. The appearance and dial details are just imitations of the general appearance of the original! Its case, strap, and mirror are all made of relatively common materials, such as stainless steel or aluminum alloy for the case, stainless steel or artificial leather for the strap, and ordinary non-scratch-resistant mineral glass for the mirror. Whether in terms of appearance, workmanship or internal movement, it is not good, and it is considered an ordinary replica watch. The price is generally around four or five hundred, and the case with good workmanship may cost seven or eight hundred.
(iii) Small factory Swiss movement (large workshop products). The movement is generally Seagull or Shanghai-produced replica Swiss movement, mainly replicas of Swiss ETA 2821 2836 2892 7750 6497 and other movements. Generally, for watches of this level, you can basically find the same style as the original. The materials are still mainly stainless steel, sapphire crystal glass and genuine leather strap. Its quality and workmanship are still quite reliable, but is it really 1:1? Still not! The price is more than 1,000.
The above three types can only be regarded as workshop goods, which is what Guangzhou people call “stall goods”.
(IV) Large factory Swiss movement (formal factory mold goods). The movement is mainly Seagull and Shanghai replica Swiss movement, and there are also a small number of imported Swiss movements, but they are limited to ETA2824 2836 and SW basic movements. The more mature domestic watch factories use genuine products for molds, and the products they make are more refined in appearance. Basically, they are strictly produced in accordance with the genuine style 1:1, and the materials are relatively good, mostly imported steel and mirrors. The main brands are Omega, Breitling, Panerai, IWC Tag Heuer and other mid-to-high-end brands. The prices are not cheap anymore, most of them are over 300 USD, better ones are even 400 or 600 USD, and tourbillon ones are even 700 or 900 USD.
4. Where do replica watches come from?
The first is OEM, which involves finding factories to OEM and produce accessories, and then assemble them into watches. The replica watch developer first buys the original genuine product, then disassembles all the parts. If there is no genuine product, he will copy the various data of the genuine product and draw the picture. The case is produced by the case factory, the strap is produced by the strap factory, the needle factory, the dial factory, the glass factory… Most of these accessory factories are factories that do genuine orders, mainly distributed in Dongguan and Shenzhen. After the accessories arrive, the movement is purchased in batches. After all the accessories are in place, the assembly master will assemble them in the studio.
The second is underwriting. In order to avoid the risk of overstocking and being checked, some replica watch developers directly hand over the goods to one person at a very low price after assembling the watch. The person who takes over can give himself a replica watch factory name, and then set the price for this style. He can do whatever he wants, and he becomes the owner of the replica watch factory name.
5. Use of replica watches
1. How to distinguish between quartz watches and mechanical watches Look at the movement of the second hand on the dial: If both have a second hand, the one that jumps one second at a time is a quartz watch, while the second hand of a mechanical watch jumps continuously, and it seems to be slowly sliding across the dial.
2. How to wind an automatic mechanical watch Manually winding an automatic watch will not have any effect on it, after all, the automatic winding part itself is an additional mechanism. The wearer decides whether to wind it manually first when using it according to the intensity of his own activities, and then fully store the power through automatic winding. For an automatic winding watch that has stopped, it must be manually wound for a few turns before using it, until the indicator starts to move. This is to allow the spring to quickly enter a state of evenly releasing power. After all, the watch stops because it has no power, and automatic winding alone may not be able to quickly achieve the effect of use.
3. Manual winding watch winding method Generally speaking, for a watch with a power reserve of 48 hours, the number of winding turns is in the range of 20 to 30 turns. The power reserve of other watches can basically be calculated according to this ratio, but it is not absolute. When the crown is turned to a number close to the upper limit, pay attention to the feeling in your hand. If you feel a little tight and the rotation of the crown is not as smooth as before, you can stop. In short, for the sake of the life of the watch, it is better not to wind it to 100% each time, leaving some room.
4. Fine steel of replica watches. The so-called “fine steel” is a common name for specially smelted high-precision steel. There is no such word in academia or engineering. The “fine steel” used in replica watch cases, bracelets, and crowns generally refers to 316L steel, which is ordinary austenitic stainless steel. It is very corrosion-resistant and has a very good texture. It will not cause adverse effects on human skin. 904L steel is a super heat-resistant stainless steel alloy containing chromium, nickel, etc. Its corrosion resistance is almost comparable to that of precious metal materials, and its manufacturing cost is much higher than that of 316L steel.
5. The reason why the replica watches with luminous function turn yellow over time. The luminous material used in the replica watches with luminous function is generally “tritium”. The luminous intensity of this material is much better than that of traditional luminous materials, and the radiation is small, so it has become the most popular material for luminous watches. However, tritium can only maintain brightness for about ten years, and after ten years it will slowly age and turn yellow.