The manufacture and sale of counterfeit products is a massive global problem, particularly for the big Swiss horological institutions. Across the world, fake goods are being sold to tourists and members of the public who perhaps can’t afford an original but want the status of wearing the brand name. This roaring trade in counterfeit products has become particularly damaging to the luxury watch industry, with watches being the second most commonly reproduced item in the murky world of counterfeiting, after textiles.
The Swiss Watch Industry Federation stated recently that the number of worldwide seizures of counterfeit watches last year reached a staggering one million. However, this is just a drop in the ocean when you consider that 40 million fake watches appear on the market each year — this is 10 million more than the number of genuine watches. These counterfeit watches have had a serious impact on the Swiss watch industry, costing approximately 800 million Swiss francs per year and leading to numerous job losses.
Along with these worrying problems, there are also the penalties incurred by the people who purchase these watches. Buying a counterfeit watch is illegal, and as well as breaching Customs regulations it also means you could end up in court on civil or criminal charges.
However, the threat of prison doesn’t seem to deter the counterfeiters, who continue to produce their products, often using child labour and sweatshops to manufacture their fake goods. China and Thailand are particularly notorious for their output of fake watches and other items, and many seizures of counterfeit watches have taken place in these countries. Counterfeit Swiss watches are also being churned out in Italy, Turkey and several South American countries.
Identifying the Distribution
Many of these fake items are sold through websites and auctions. In a recent interview, the Organisation Chief of the FHS, Jean-Daniel Pasche, stated that in 2013 approximately 280,000 auctions attempting to sell fake Swiss watches were shut down, as were a plethora of websites. The Federation works closely with various national and international organizations to try to prevent as many sales of counterfeit watches as possible. So serious is the nature of the situation that America’s FBI has become involved and has trained a number of special agents specifically to deal with this pressing global issue.
Unfortunately, the problem is unlikely to lessen in severity any time soon, as the counterfeiters have numerous channels through which to hawk their fake products, including street stalls and online. Besides this, the sheer scale of the problem makes it difficult to tackle. In Thailand and China particularly, the practice of making and selling counterfeit goods is so common that you can almost find a counterfeit store on every street corner. But the quest to wipe out the sale of fake Swiss watches will continue apace, as the annual cost to the industry is too great to be borne. The additional loss of up to 200,000 jobs a year is a grave issue which the Federation will do everything it can to resolve.