First off, let’s be honest, APs are like, seriously expensive. If you got a “screaming deal” that seemed too good to be true… well, you know the saying. Red flags should be waving like crazy. I mean, unless your great-aunt Millie just randomly decided to give you her deceased husband’s watch and she’s totally clueless about its value (and it’s been sitting in a dusty box for 50 years), you gotta be sus.
So, where do we even start? Okay, feel the thing. Seriously. Real APs are *heavy*. They use solid gold, platinum, or like, super high-grade stainless steel. It shouldn’t feel like some flimsy piece of plastic you picked up at a gumball machine, ya know? If it feels light as a feather, that’s a HUGE problem. Like, bigger than forgetting your anniversary kind of problem.
Then there’s the… everything else. Look at the details! Are the screws all lined up perfectly on the bezel of a Royal Oak? They *should* be. Is the stamp on the back crisp and clear, or does it look like it was stamped with a potato? Real APs have insane attention to detail. Replicas? Not so much. They tend to skimp on the small stuff, and that’s where they mess up.
And the movement! Uhg, I’m not gonna pretend I’m some watch expert and can instantly identify a real movement just by looking at it. But honestly, even *I* can usually tell if something’s off. Does the second hand tick instead of sweep smoothly? That’s a bad sign. A *really* bad sign. And if you can see the movement (through a display caseback, for instance), look for inconsistencies. Does it look cheap? Does it look like they glued some random gears in there for show? Yeah, run. Run far, far away.
Honestly, there’s a ton of little things. The quality of the materials, the finish, the weight, the sound… the list goes on. And sometimes, even with all that, it’s still hard to tell! I’ve seen some *really* good fakes out there.
So, what’s the bottom line? If you’re even *questioning* whether it’s real, you probably already suspect something’s up. My advice? Take it to a reputable watchmaker. Pay them to authenticate it. It’ll cost you some money, sure, but it’s worth it for the peace of mind (or to avoid being totally ripped off).