Watch Authentication Course
Identifying Fake, Franken & Customised Watches

Watch Authentication
Identifying Fake, Franken & Customised Watches
A Two Day Course

Confirming the authenticity of a watch is vital in today’s market. Mistakes sadly can lead to a loss of money and a loss of professional reputation.

Counterfeit watches are becoming more accurate every year, with more brands being affected. Fake watches may come with matching box and paperwork, may be set with real diamonds, come with a fake retailer receipt, and even offer a view of the movement.

Frankenwatches, built from parts, are an increasing problem both in the contemporary and vintage watch markets. Watches with prestige brand names may be worth only the scrap value of their parts.

Customised watches have their own place in the market but need to be separated from factory-set examples, with the value, warranty and service implications clearly understood.

The Watch Authentication course will teach you a methodical approach to appraise any watch from any era. With hands-on experience with a wide range of fakes, ‘Super fakes’, boxes and warranty cards, this two-day course will open your eyes to the challenges of authentication, and give you practical skills to tackle them.

Benefits to you?

This is a real 'hands-on' course where you will learn the approach and methodology for authentication, and the resources available to assist you. Through the handling, inspecting and opening of fake watches, you will become confident in the feel of a fake and the key areas of difference.  You will discover what constitutes a Franken watch, the steps you need to take to identify them, and the limits to what can be detected. You will understand the techniques used to identify customised watches and be made aware of the impact that various forms of customisation have on the integrity of a watch and its future value.

Benefits to your organisation?

Buying, selling, or valuing a watch that is not authentic can be a major loss of revenue and reputation for your organisation. Every extra pair of eyes that knows what to look for in a watch could save you thousands of pounds each year. If you choose to handle customised watches, your staff will understand their implications and how to discuss them with customers.

Who is this course for?

This course is suitable for Valuers, Auction House Specialists, Pawnbrokers, Retailers, Insurers, Collectors, and anyone who needs to identify fake, Franken, or customised watches.

Location

Courses are held in London, Birmingham, and Manchester. If you require the content of any of these courses tailored to your organisation or have more than eight people to train, it may be better for you to host a private event. Please do not hesitate to get in touch to discuss this.

What will the course cover?

Fake Watches - How to identify them?

Fake watches are a problem as old as watchmaking itself. In this course, we will cover:

• The history of counterfeiting in the watch world
• An overview of the modern counterfeiting market, including standard fakes, super fakes, and high-end clone watches
• The importance of hands-on experience - you will be handling and inspecting, externally and internally, a huge variety of counterfeit watches
• How to approach an authentication without a physical comparable
• The external examination
• Movements
• Vintage fakes
• Boxes and papers
• Fake parts in otherwise authentic watches

Comprehensive awareness is the number one tool to spot fakes, so by the end of Day One, you will know what is possible for modern counterfeiters to achieve. You will also understand the approach and methodology for authentication and the resources available to assist you.

Franken Watches - What are they, and how to identify them?

Franken-watches or Frankenstein watches are becoming a high-profile issue in watch collecting. In this course, we will cover the following:

• The most helpful definition of a Franken-watch
• What does not qualify as a Franken-watch and why?
• The service-part conundrum
• Shared movements and counterfeit dials
• Re-cased movements
• High-value deceptions
• The value of numbers

Customised Watches - What are they, and how to identify them?

Watches that started life as wholly authentic and then were modified, either with or without the purchaser’s knowledge. In this course, we will cover the following:

• Restored, repainted, or replacement dials
• Replacement bezel inserts
• After-set dials and bezels
• After-set cases and bracelets
• Other case or bracelet treatments
• Sapphire crystal conversions