October 22, 2010
Be Careful With Cheap Watches
If you find a great deal on a luxury watch brand you haven’t heard of, should you worry that it is a counterfeit? It is possible that you might be looking at something that looks like an expensive watch, but is more likely a cheap copy. There are a lot of watches available that incorporate the same looks as a respected watchmakers products. But there is another category of wristwatch products that include many expensive ladies watches being sold on the Internet and through magazine ads that are not actually counterfeit, but they are sold using outrageous misrepresentations and should be equally avoided.
The fake watches are not nearly as fine quality a product as the real ones are but are advertised in a deceptive way. The names that these timepieces use will sound similar to the luxury watches, but they are obviously not the same. The difference is in the quality of materials and the quality of workmanship that is used in the famous brands compared to their cheaply made copies. The typical things that are done include a few things like are a combination of an impressive Swiss, German or European sounding name, or an impressive recommended retail price, or fancy verbiage that sounds like what a luxury watch brand such as Cartier Ballon Bleu would say, or impressive comparisons of features to those of other luxury timepieces, or a special price you can buy it for that is incredibly below the retail price.
Unfortunately a recommended price is just some number that is made up and has nothing to do with reality. Why do they charge so little for the watches? They are just not well made. Consumer protection agencies clearly label such exaggerated retail pricing as a misleading and deceptive sales tactic. A person can avoid falling for one of these fake watches and all of their claims if they take the time to learn what distinguishes a real timepiece from a fake one and use that knowledge when they are out shopping.
A couple of obvious clues will help someone determine if a watch is a cheap copy or not. No matter how good a bargain hunter you are, do not fall for anyone selling a good watch for less than two hundred and fifty dollars. If you see someone with a sign that says its watches are seventy percent off, it is probably not real. Avoid the store that is having a different kind of sale every week if you do not want a cheap copy. A real luxury brand will be well discussed on the Internet so do a search for the brand name and if you can’t find something like a Cartier Ballon Bleu review or collectors and owners discussing the merits of the brand, it is unlikely to be a true luxury brand. A real luxury brand will be sold through well known dealers. When using sites such as e bay, don’t believe that you can get a watch that is real at a price that is well below its actual value. Check out the Internet to see if the manufacturer of the watch you are looking at has a web page, something that many of the fakes will not have. It is getting easier and easier to have a presence on the internet, so even that is something that should be taken lightly before you invest your money.
Ultimately, any deal on a new luxury timepiece that looks too good to be true is assuredly a scam. High quality watches that are handcrafted and made with good materials do not have to be sold at one tenth of their stated value. If you think that you are saving a bunch of money because you got seventy five percent off, that is not true because it is a discount off of an inflated value. An excitement that causes them to overlook that they are really only purchasing low-end merchandise that is neither a luxury product nor worth anything more than the dime-store price they actually paid for it.
Filed under Interesting Gifts by artnet
August 29, 2010
What Makes A Watch Expensive
People spend a lot of money on some crazy things. One man’s idea of a great purchase is another man’s folly. A popular way for people to spend their cold, hard cash on is a watch. The world is full of expensive ladies watches and expensive men’s watches, but what is it that people do to them that make their watches cost more.
A person can choose from one of the many options available to adorn their watch in such a way as to make it more valuable. The first way to add value is through heritage, that is find a watch that cost a lot a century ago and receive it as part of your inheritance from several different generations. Although any watch that is obtained in this manner will probably have a decent amount of value, there are reasons why this will not be a successful method. The first problem is that old families that have the money to invest in valuable watches also tend to be flaky and there is no guarantee that the valuable assets will pass down to you easily. When the wills are read of the rich and famous, they often shock a lot of people. The second reason is easy to understand, unless you own some way to travel back in time, you cannot insure that any watch is bought that can eventually be handed down to you. Another way is to stick gems all over it. Just because you can stick some diamonds or the like on to a watch face, does not mean that it will enhance the beauty of a watch. A watch that is covered in diamonds is worth more money. There is no doubt that the jewels add value, but they are a hindrance to performance. Another way to add value is by adding as many functions as you can think of. The additional features that can be added will make a watch worth more money than something that just tells the time of day. A mechanical watch needs to be wound, so you wind up resetting it a lot unless you wind it religiously. The only time a person will run into trouble is when they have multiple timepieces that require this function to be done. Many people then invest in something that will do the work for them. Someone who lets the winding of the watches lapse will end up spending their mornings correcting the time on all of their collection. That is more than most people have. These watches are indeed something else, and a lot can be learned about them if a person checks out Cartier Ballon Bleu review to find out what others think abut these types of watches.
Watchmakers have realized this problem with the old watches and found ways to keep them running without human intervention. For two hundred dollars, you can find a nice-looking watch with three alarms, that keeps track of time, day, and date in a couple of dozen zones, lights up so you can read it in the dark, and keeps better time because of regular checking against a radio time signal than any mechanical watch and can be found by checking out Cartier Ballon Bleu. So display of wealth comes at a cost of what would appear to be the core function of a wristwatch.
Pity the rich, especially men. Even when the idea of accurate time display is put aside, they have no way to signal, in public, that they have lots of multi-thousand-dollar fairly accurate watches. You can only wear one at a time. Today’s society has so many things that tell us the time of day, that there is no need for a watch to do that. I think it’s time for a fashion breakthrough. Put the watches up your arm, over your shirt for the whole world to see. Television shows have lots of episodes, we drive around in several cars, and we can keep several watches on our person.
Filed under Clothing & Apparel by artnet