I got the chance to walk down the streets of NY when I was done with all my activities for the day. You will not find any luxury high end reproduction watches out here. I browsed around the streets and haven't ever been asked if I was a police officer so much in my life! Even with the streets lined with police the sellers had their wares prepared for purchase on a mild bright Thursday. This one shot is within a corner store showing me their "Swiss imitations", which was really Eastern models. Even a trained eye could not distinguish an item. But read on for my thoughts.
The infamous Canal Street in the Big Apple is where you can find the biggest number of imitations of high end watches. Almost all of the bigger dealers and websites are based out of Big Apple, whether or not they are good or bad sites.
Mostly all the watches are setup in wooden carts or perhaps dealers sitting briefcases up on fire hydrants. As shown in the picture a male is showing his stuff at a junction. The streets is virtually boring as vans leap down on the sellers to get their imitations.
I had noticed right off the bat that the Asians were the players on the street. The Arabs have in stock low end quartz watches and fragrance. Yes, even fake scents filled up the streets. I wore Old spice and so I can't tell the different aromas. I barely think $5 for a bottle of MK could be real though.
I commenced scouting for the famous swiss imitation of Rolex watches from my new asian friends. When I uttered the watch's name the merchants drove me off. I was sufficiently lucky to find younger merchants who were raring to show me the watches. The Swiss imitations shown to me lacked numerous details. Most noticeably was the absence of true gold or the non-screw bands. The quartz models at $20 each that was shown to me were terribly plain and were light in weight.
This stand above was the most prepared to show me everything. Passing through a concealed wall of leather belts I went in a staircase. I told him I used to be a dealer wanting to get some samples. I got his name and his definite contact number. He allow me to take many footage and just browse around it his suitcase. I observed that most items were in bad forms with massive quantity of damage. His response was to shrug and say "they look genuine now".
What I am trying to point out is the streets of Canal are not what they seem to be. Canal Street is more of a huge flea market for replicas. Quality Swiss imitations haven't been sold there. If you're looking for quality duplicates check out www.timetraditions.com.
Leave a Comment