by Steve Cook
As a graduate of the level 1 Timezone Watch School (which by the way, I definitely recommend), and seeking to flex my new found tweezer skills I started the hunt for some cheap mechanical watches on which to practice. One of the benefits of living in Hong Kong is the ready availability of cheap Chinese made mechanical movements. While they allegedly aren't up to the standard of a base ETA movement, they are indeed mechanical, easy to come by, and a watch complete with steel case and band can be picked up for less than the price of a bare ETA movement. The downside of course is that the watches are actually copies of well known pieces, but in the spirit of educating the TZ masses I put any concerns behind me and headed off to my local purveyor of "faux horologie" in Mong Kok.
Two hours later, and after having been swindled out of a total of US$75 ($30 for the Rolex copy and $45 for the Patek copy), and after a detour to the local snack shop I settled down at my desk and admired my purchases.
Pic 1: 3 Fakes (Fake Patek Perpetual on leather band, Fake Rolex Submariner on steel band, Fake soup)
Actually, both the watches are fairly obvious fakes. The fake Patek is presumably a copy of the perpetual chronometer model, except that it doesn't have any chronometer function or buttons, and has four correctors (one each for day, date, month, year). The fake Rolex is a submariner copy but with a GMT dial. Both watches have obvious flaws when running - the Patek copy has month and year windows that don't line up, and the second hand on the fake Rolex skips round the face like an octogenarian on acid.
Pic 2: Close up of the fake dials
Of the two, the fake Rolex actually started to take a hold on my heart. Maybe it was that cranky sweep second, maybe the incongruous unidirectional two-tone dial, but I couldn't yet bring myself to operate on this little fellow. So the fake Patek, which really had nothing going for it at all would have to be the first for the dissecting table.
Continue to part 2