Watches

Brands
The majority of all fine and valuable watch brands are made in Switzerland. You must be very careful when buying a branded watch overseas because it may be counterfeit. Be careful whom you are buying from because the vendor may say it is authentic just to make a sale. If the price on a watch is too good to be true, remember that it probably is!

Quality
The quality of the watch, bracelet, dial, and movement are the first giveaways as to whether the watch is authentic or an imitation. If green in color look for gold plating with the underlying color showing through, visible rough finish marks on the case, and imitation diamonds as signs indicating it may not be authentic.

Open Back
Many Swiss watch brands you will encounter overseas will have exhibition backs, or a glass window in the back allowing you to see the movement. Be suspect of any Swiss branded watch with a glass back, no matter how authentic it looks! The vast majority of them are imitations.

Movements
You can tell the difference between quartz and automatic movements by the choppiness of the second hand as it goes around the face of the watch. Quartz watches have second hands that jerk and automatic watches have second hands that move smoothly around the dial. Quartz watches are less expensive than automatic ones because they mostly consist of a battery and a small circuit board. Automatic watches use a rotor to wind the main spring and have many moving parts. The majority of high value Swiss watches have fine details and serial numbers etched into the movement and on the back, and now counterfeiters have managed to copy these numbers on their imitations. Don’t let the numbers fool you! Question any well known high end watch brand being sold for less than $200.