Luxury Watches
Some reputations take centuries of work to build and perfect. Consider, for example, the storied history of the elegant Swiss watch industry — a history that led to esteemed brands such as Breguet, Patek Philippe, Tag Heuer, Audemars Piguet, Omega, Rolex, Tissot and Longines, to name a few. Yet sadly, it only takes a few counterfeit factories to threaten this priceless image and history. “Counterfeiting is a huge problem,” stated Yves Bugmann, head of the legal division at the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. “It’s a question of the loss of reputation to the brand.”
But the Swiss Watch Federation is fighting back. In 2008, with the help of allies, they seized some 2 million fakes. However, the murky elements of the Internet and the current economic recession make counterfeits increasingly difficult to monitor. The Internet allows counterfeiters to pose as the real thing, and sell, behind the privacy of a computer screen, fakes to unknowing customers. Meanwhile, the current economic recession might have consumers choosing the cheaper fakes over the genuine products.
Astonishingly, some 40 million fake Swiss watches are produced every year — nearly double the amount of genuine Swiss watches produced every year. Perhaps not surprisingly, nearly 40% of these counterfeit watches originate in China.
