first post - Guangzhou Watch Market

[jsorber]

Hi Guys,

I have been a member for some time now and have been coming to this forum to learn from fellow watch fanatics.

 

Okay this is my technically my 2nd post here, but my first propper one. Ssorry about the length.

 

Short background:

I travel a lot to China as it is part of my job and bought many fakes in Hong Kong, on the night market, and some in China. At some point my brother suggested I save up and buy a real watch. Knowing that the quality of my reps are far below par, I used to check the time on my phone instead of watch, I saved up and bought a gen Omega PO 42mm.

The process of choosing my gen was a lengthy one as there are so many beautiful watches out there but unfortunately my budget allowed me to only choose one.

 

When searching the web for watches I found that there are many sites offering replica’s. Very tempting but I did not trust this and after digging a bit deeper I found this pearl of a community.

 

I am still very surprised on the level of knowledge that many members have and the details of a watch that are being discussed here. I honestly think that the people here know more about the watches they own than many of the people that own the gen versions.

 

Of course after absorbing so much knowledge here, I can no longer wear my cheap fakes

and I can no longer buy the fakes from the watch market as they are really very bad reps.

 

So, the company I work for has moved their office to Dongguan, which as you may know is close to Guangzhou, and after reading some reports on the watch market there I just had to go there. Usually I would not be allowed to take a day off when in China, tight schedules, but since I was traveling alone, I asked my Chinese colleague to arrange a car for me to go to Guangzhou in the afternoon.

 

The number of items available is simply mind boggling! I thought I knew what to expect but still I was overwhelmed. You can buy, buckles, straps, watches, watch tools, movements, dials, bezels, cases etc etc. I unfortunately did not see replica parts. All the parts I saw were brandless.

 

There are watch malls with small stands in them. Every stand is a different company (probably not really, but they make it seem that way) offering watches and they all offer replica’s. They may have some on display but they all have catalogues with watch models of the most famous brands, Rolex IWC, Montblanc, etc etc. They all have the same catalogues as well.

As soon as they saw me, a western man, they were offering their replica’s and they all offered me to visit their ‘showroom’. All stand owners have an apartment nearby, where they have all their fakes on display.

 

Prices are high but can be negotiated. Example

Watches are offered from 400 to 900 RMB (around $65 to $145)

When asking for Swiss quality one guy said it started from 1850 to 2700 RMB (around $297 to $434)

 

In my head I wanted to look for a IWC Big Pilot and a Rolex Explorer II so I went to a ‘showroom’ with one guy. In the elevator I asked what kind of movement was in the watches. But he clearly not understood what I tried to ask him. Even after my Chinese colleague translated he could only answer that it was automatic.

 

Upstairs he opened a door to a small apartment where the main room was used as a showroom. It was probably 3x2,5 meters where he had display tables full with replica’s.

Unfortunately he did not have a Big Pilot and the Explorer II was not good.

The bezel wasn’t correct and the triangle at the 12 position was tilted quite badly.

Almost no AR, the lume was the wrong colour and very, very weak.

 

I started to get a bit disappointed as I figured that the Hong Kong night market sellers probably got their watches here as well. Probably, the better products are available somewhere but I had no way of knowing where these could be found.

Even if they had swiss quality it was still very bad.

 

I assumed it would be like the report of Teeveetee or Offshore.

You know fixed prices (around 900RMB for a high quality watch like Teeveetee) good quality watches come out from beneath the counter. But it was nothing like that.

 

I remember that Pollux.cc said in his Do’s and Don’ts post:

 

haggling is more prominent in typical tourist stalls. At the wholesale-market, haggling is not so common, but still possible

 

Maybe I was at the wrong place, but still I visited like 4 mayor malls. Or is the Wholesale-market at a completely different place?

 

At the end I found a nice Big Pilot IW5004-02, asking price 780 RMB ($125). it wasn’t the one I was looking for, an IW5004-01 but I made him an offer of 400 RMB. We settled at 450.

To give you an idea of the level of knowledge of this salesman I can tell you this.

I asked him if the power reserve worked. He didn’t understand what I meant. After translating several times and showing him what I meant he said that it did and then started to explain to me that the numbers 1 to 7 meant the actual days of the week. Monday, Tuesday etc. After again trying to explain what a power reserve is I decided to give up and check myself. The power reserve works, but of course not for 7 days. 1 at the most.

 

I later found strap removing tool for only 5rmb and after buying that I decided I had had enough. I had spent 4 hours there and was completely overwhelmed. Like Teeveetee said it is impossible to comprehend the quantity of watches on offer:

 

Very soon you realize that it is IMPOSSIBLE to see it all, IMPOSSIBLE to understand what you are seeing. It is INSANE. This must be the epicentre of fake watches for the entire world.

How right he was.

 

I will definitely go back during a next trip, but the way I see it, if you want to be sure you are getting what you pay for stick to the trusted dealers. That is what I am going to do.

I will order something and then let it ship to my hotel in China.

The next time I am at the watch market I will spent an entire day there and take my time to just look at nice watches and only buy something when I find a gem.

 

Jsorber

Edited March 2, 2013 by jsorber

[paneristi_man]

I agree, been to similar places,e.g. mbk shopping mall in bangkok and was overwhelmed but not impressed. its hard to find good ones and even then you can't reallt know what movements they have in them.

btw thanks for sharing. enjoy your writeup

[Mike on a bike]

Nice detailed account of the outing, thank you   Guess we are not missing much.

[dropbear2008]

The market is a good place for picking up tools. But the watches are mostly low end and the gems are too hard to find for me to bother, especially since I can get them so easy from a TD for pretty much the same price.

[martijnp]

Well it's always nice when your on vacation/work trip to pick up a nice watch. It remembers you of a good vacation/work trip

[sgtguk]

Great insight into your experience mate, sounds like we are lucky to have the TD's looking after us     Thanks for sharing !  

[billyfras]

Cool story bro.

Wish I had to go to China for work!

[sputim]

When I recengly was in bali I found a lot of people selling watches but everywhere they were very bad reps for 50-100 usd. Nevertheless there was one guy in a shopping mal which was full of reps who had a couple of excellent reps with swiss eta and asian clone movements. I was surprised of the amazing quality!

[Archetypal]

As a side note, but on topic - if anyone ever anyone comes to Shanghai, drop me a PM as there are a few ways I can get forum grade reps, often over night. For those that don't know I live in Shanghai and yes it gets expensive on the watch wallet.

Cheers,

Arch.

[Archetypal]

Cool story by the way, a very accurate description of the type of experience you are bound to have at these places...eventually you will find several vendors with forum grade watches, they may well have rejects or old models from the same factories the TD use. But these guys are rare. Few vendors stock up on the higher grade reps as 1. they are too costly in purchase for the vendor and 2. the majority of punters won't ever spend the sort of dosh required. The average guy wants a 50 buck rep. And that's what they stock....cheap as chips. At least this is what I've learnt from the Shanghai markets. Stick to the TD's all the way. Although the markets are a lot of fun.

[best replica in usa]

I had a similar experience in the Philippines. Very cool!! Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[Tonyyammine]

It must be fun to look at all this stuff.

[the_rymeister]

Thanks for sharing buddy, was an interesting read

[correctime]

Very cool (and interesting) story.

Thanks for sharing.

wanna find the "really good stuff" that doesn't make it's way to the Malls of such....go look around in Vietnam and Taiwan

(you may or may not be able to find it...but it's there.....somewhere)

[jsorber]

Another interesting experience was the night market in Hangzhou. The last time i've been there was 4 years ago. Back then there was 1 guy selling like 15 replica's. Whenever some police were in sight he would pack up and leave. A colleague of mine said he bought some watches there recently and that i should visit it when i'm there. This trip i had a chance to visit Hangzhou for work and decided to visit the night market. Now, instead of just one guy selling a dozen or so watches, there were at least 20 stands which all offered fake watches out in the open. Police are ignoring them or even buying from them. Each stands shows like 50 watches but they all have like 10 cases with additional models. Saw a nice Monza but is was too small so i didn't buy it. However i was amazed how mich this place changed in these years. Quality wise it was similar to the watches at the watch market in Guangzhou. But a bit cheaper. The sell for around 300 RMB. One Chinese girl bought a watch and got the price down to 135 RMB! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited March 4, 2013 by jsorber