Looking for tips for street-shop shopping

[Hasaf]

I am preparing for another long trip in P.R. China. I sometimes enjoy hitting the little backroom shops and looking at, and sometimes purchasing watches. Most of them eventually get used as gifts of the white elephant variety.

I am looking for information that will help me to be better at identifying the best possible quality when I am on these little jaunts. I am also interested in recommended prices to pay at these street shops.

I do realize that some say, “Never buy at street shops, and use the recommended dealers instead.” However, they miss the point. Wandering about is fun. I enjoy looking at the watches. I even get a good laugh out of the really bad fakes (and wow, have I ever seen some bad ones). It gives me a good reason to get out of my hotel and go do something.

Further, all of the reasons that can be given for not buying street shop watches can be extrapolated to generalized advice that one should not purchase rep’s at all. Yet, we al do it. Sure, sometimes we get a dud, if we do it enough; but, it is fun.

Some people even enjoy receiving them as gifts and some have turned out to be good watches. I have one friend that has been wearing a Faux-Rolex Sub’, that I gave him about three years ago, on a daily basis. He tells me it still works well and looks good.

So, what are some of the signs of quality? In general I look for good casting (where casting looks appropriate), and good machining (I am much better at spotting good machining,), good crisp markings (this is one of the reasons I look for watches with less markings’; I figure less marking is less marking to get wrong), and good “sound” (I have listened to some watches that sound like stuff is rubbing inside). However, I would like guides to doing this better.

I have avoided chronographs (even though I insist on a chronograph on my daily wear watch, because I use it so often) due to concerns for the early 7750 clones. I have since read on these forums that the 7750s’ are probably fine of I get one with the seconds at 9. Of course, that eliminates a lot of clones because it is a replication flaw in many cases.

I have sketched a few watches that interest me, in order to avoid obvious replication errors. Is there an online book, some big PDF or something that has pictures of watches to help avoid obvious errors?

This is starting to get long. So, what tips can you give for finding better quality at the street shops? How much should I bid?

Edited July 19, 2011 by Hasaf

[MSK1974]

When you go perusing, do remember to take pictures of the really "interesting" ones please, we need something to make us smile.

[Hasaf]

When you go perusing, do remember to take pictures of the really "interesting" ones please, we need something to make us smile.

I'll try to. Sometimes it is hard because the vendors know why I want those pictures, and no one likes being mocked.

[subbiesrock]

I'll try to. Sometimes it is hard because the vendors know why I want those pictures, and no one likes being mocked.

Hahaha then they should sell better fakes

[dmacnz]

Hahaha then they should sell better fakes

I do alot of buying in China. for me the easiest tell no is watching the sweep of the movement, and on the rollies the pearl is a give away of a shitty one.

If you have a look at a low beat movement and then a high beat movement, its actually rather easy to spot in a 2 second look. I find the best way to see the higher quality stuff is to start by asking for a "automatic with chrono" this way they know your willing to spend some cash. Then can ask to see similar higher quality stuff.

With the chrono's watch for the movement sweep, as you mentioned you dont really want a low beat 7750, although ive had good luck with mine so far!

Good luck

[lhooq]

Bring lots of pictures with you--not of gens, but of the specific reps you want. (That assumes you've done the research beforehand.) Keep them on your phone if you want to travel light, but it's hard to beat printouts. Sometimes it's best to hand the paper over to the seller, who then dispatches a runner to retrieve the rep from God-knows-where.

As much as you may think know about reps and tells, the bounty of Guangzhou (i.e. millions of crap watches) quickly overwhelms the senses and taxes the memory. And do try to arrange a guided tour of the markets with one of the trusted sellers.

[pollux.cc]

Hey,

first of all, have a nice trip. I'd like to contribute a little of my experience in this field. If you happen to go to Guangzhou, it's the rep mekka nowadays. The watch wholesalecenters are just behind the central station. If you shop shops, keep a lookout for shady people with calatogues or pictures in their hands. Most likely though, they will approach you if you are a westener. It does help if you're wearing a nice gen or rep watch yourself. Also very helpful is to have pics with you since communication will be difficult. Chinese pronounciation for brands can be quite tricky. e. g. TAG HEUER is written 豪雅 (hao2 ya3) and only distinctly resemble "Heuer" in sound. If you want good reps, you will have to ask specifically.

Do's:

use photos to show and compare

if buying cheapos:

haggle hard! you can pretend to walk away if you're not interested

if buying quality reps:

ask them if they can get you the good stuff. quality reps are never on display, they'll have to fetch it for you or take you to another place

express sincere interest, have them fetch it for you, but say youre buying only if the price is right

ask for their business card if they seem resourceful

dont's:

show disrespect to the seller or his products

dont cause a scene

if they fetch the stuff for you and it isn't right, tell them polite but assertively

buy out of guilt for their time

waste your and their time

Here's a snippet from my write-up about the GZ watch market on a different forum:

Thankfully I travel to Guangzhou on a yearly basis and so it didn't take long until I was combing through the wholesale Watch centers next to the Guangzhou central station, armed only with my laptop and my iphone with detailed photos to show and to compare. I did have extra trouble to find suppliers for the real gems at first (you know, no one keeps the good stuff there in case there's a "raid" and they wouldn't even admit they had that stuff). Their customers are mostly chinese with a few asian and african buyers (Im ethnic chinese). I do not recall encountering a single "white devil" and I did frequent those places quite a bit.

The sellers in the centers buy from their distributor nearby. They do occasionally have some what we would call "beginner watches" behind the corner, but normally thats as good as it gets. If you want to have the gems, you will have to explicitly ask for the best they can get. They must be "borrowed" from the distributor since they can not afford to stock ceramic HBBs and theres usually little demand for good fakes and they for sure wouldn't risk storing them behind their counter, so unless you call them up beforehand chances are you will have to make the same tour again another day. If you don't speak chinese... well all sellers have catalogues with pictures, but it'd be better to bring a chinese friend.

edit: thread on buying in china