Counterfeit Goods Video

[tvt]

This was posted over on TRC but I did not see it here so here ys go:

http://culture.hautehorlogerie.org/en/haut...iting-1832.html

The article it basic but the video is pretty interesting. You see a lot of malls, like the one they show here, in China that sell 100% counterfeit goods. It is interesting to see if you have never seen them before. They also have a little video of some small time assembly operation and a photo of a bit largwe assembly line for watches.

Check it out.

[swdivad]

Thanks for that!

I would think that we should get what we can wien we can, because the closer we get to 2008 (Olympics in China), the more they're going to crack down to give the world the illusion that they're trying to do something.

We just may be in the golden age of reps after all.... But after '08... WOW, they'lll have the perfect rep (of what, who knows) out.

[dadog13]

cool link...for a minute-two i imagined being there...

[Pugwash]

I like how the video will shatter the illusion of a single factory, turning out reps. It's all little assemblies,with no QC.

[KB]

Very interesting indeed, thanks

Ken

[stac]

Did you catch the watch on the customs agent in the begining...looked like a silver president band...not bad for a customs agent

[Pugwash]

Did you catch the watch on the customs agent in the begining...looked like a silver president band...not bad for a customs agent

Customs agent or the Cartier employee?

[ubiquitous]

Wish I could have seen the rest of the program. Very intriguing.

[crystalcranium]

Thanks TeeVeeTee!!!!!!

That video sure shatters the myth of ISO 9000 factories churning out beautiful high fidelity replicas. It also suggests that while quality and availbility might suffer when the Chinese finally say "Enough", the "basement shop" nature of the business probably means it won't dry up.

[tvt]

We all knew that there was no QC and so forth but what I am curious about is where these little basement shops are getting the parts and designs from to begin with.

In other words I still think there are larger "factories" producing the parts and then outsourcing the assembly to whoever they can get to do it.

While in the watch markets (which Clive says are now GONE, which is just shocking) it would be quite common to see women sitting at little tables in the corner cranking out watches. I sort of thought that they were repairing them or something but in fact they were probably assembling them just like we see in the video.

I also saw this at some of the "fake malls" that sell counterfeit goods of all types. You would see vendors at these very small stores just sitting there and assembling jewelry or what have you. They must use down time when not helping customers to get some work on the side. The thing is it is pretty much imposible to stop that type of thing. This is probably why they do it that way. If one small shop gets closed down there are 100 more still doing it, makes more sense than one big central operation which is easy to find and close.

[Pugwash]

We all knew that there was no QC and so forth but what I am curious about is where these little basement shops are getting the parts and designs from to begin with.

This sort of thing explains the reps that are almost identical, with different movements or bezels ...

I suspect the people that make the components also make genuine parts for the cheap far-eastern companies.

[Devedander]

I think they covered some of how they get the parts by mentioning that companies that outsource to China end up having their goods ripped off by those same factories...

ie they contract for 2 8 hour shifts a day and pay for the product.

Factory then hires 1 more 8 hour shift (or just forces each of the 2 shifts to work 12 hours but be paid for 8 or whatever) and during that other 8 hours cranks out parts that they sell on the black market, albeit for less, it's still more $$$ than just letting the machiens go cold at night and I would be what they get paid by legit companies isn't much higher than what they make off black market watches... the companies are the ones who get the markup, not the factory.

And as racist as it sounds, I think Chinese people do excel at finding ways to efficiently and accurately do repetitive exactings tasks... being one I have always found that when I was given a task like "tri fold 2000 fliers" I actually liked it as I got to figure out how best to prefold so the folding went smoothly and I got a lot of satisfaction out of perfect stacks (I know sad) while most of my coworkers groaned and cranked out the most crooked ugly work you could imagine...