How to Spot a Fake IWC Watch

Dear Community,

Some of you might remember my
case where I bought a 2nd hand
IWC Pilots Chronograph (IW3777) and had the doubt that it could have been a
counterfeit. It was very annoying. Especially because I was not really able to
get good information on how to spot a replica.

This incident lead me to a new passion: Analyzing the details and beauty of
genuine watches and comparing them to replicas. I am providing different
segments on my Instagram account which
shall help people to spot fake watches. One of them compares them, the other
discusses a specific giveaway of a replica.

I'd like to post the IWC-related pictures and descriptions in this thread to
support people recognizing fakes. Feel free to contact me if you have
suggestions or hints. Fake watches can never have the beauty of a genuine
watch. Stay real!

Regards,

Marc

Edit 2016-01-08: Deleted prices, re-cropped images, blurred URLs

Edit 2018-12-07: Corrected listings

PART 1: COMPARISON

IWC Portugieser Chronograph (IW371446) vs. Replica with Swiss ETA (siwc25,
USD 600)

• Blue elements are brighter
• Blue minute marks are too big
• Hands and blue minute marks are brighter than numbers
• Minute hand too short
• Diameter of hand connectors too large
• Position of "Schaffhausen" too far down
• Position of hour numbers 4, 5, 7, and 8 misaligned
• Subdials too small and too close to the center
• Marks on subdials not sharp
• Number 30 on lower subdail misaligned
• Pusher heads diameter too small
• Crown head diameter too large
• Bezel width too broad
• Lugs too thin

www.iwc.com/en/collection/portugieser/IW3714/

IWC Portugieser Automatic (IW500701) vs. Replica Automatic (USD 150)

• Case too clumsy
• Lugs too broad
• Hour hand too short
• Hour numbers different font and not as 3 dimensional
• Subdails too close to the center (there appear to be new replicas which eliminated this issue)
• Details of subdials not as sharp
• Font on subdials different
• "DAYS" element on right subdail too thin[
• Date window too high (aligned to the numbers 7 and 5)
• Date window too small
• "AUTOMATIC" too high (aligned to the numbers 8 and 4)

www.iwc.com/en/collection/portugieser/IW5007/

IWC Mark XVI Automatic (IW325501) vs. Replica Automatic (USD 195)

• Top triangle too thin
• Misalignment of hour numbers (numbers 1, 7 and 11 are obvious)
• Hour markers are too short compared to the minute markers
• Different font for hour marker numbers
• Dial states "MARK XVII" instead of "MARK XVI" (watch would have another date window style)
• Strap width too small (~1mm)

www.iwc.com/en/collection/pilots/

IWC Pilot 's Watch Chronograph Top Gun (IW388007) vs. Replica Automatic (USD
125)

• Case is not ceramic/titanium
• "IWC" too small
• "Schaffhausen" too big and too low
• Hour marker are minute numbers
• Second hand is not entirely white on top and has red airplane on bottom
• Hands of subdials are too thick
• Font of date disk is different
• Color of pushers is different
• Texture of band is different

www.iwc.com/en/collection/pilots/IW388007/

IWC Pilot 's Chronograph Top Gun Miramar (IW388002) vs. Replica Automatic
(USD 95)

• Font of minute numbers is too bold
• Top subdial shows the numbers 4/8/12/16/20/24 instead of 10/20/30/40/50/60
• Bottom subdial shows the number 12 instead of 60 in top
• "Swiss Made" missing on the bottom

www.iwc.com/en/collection/pilots/IW388002/

IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar (IW502606) vs. Inexpensive Replica (USD
190)

• Steel case instead of ceramic (IW502902) or titanium (IW502606)
• Top triangle too big
• Hour marker without borders
• Hour and minute hand too thin and too pointy
• Second hand is existing on main stack
• Position of all hour numbers misaligned (number 7 is always a good indicator)
• Font of 0 in hour 10 is wrong
• Subdials too small and too narrow
• Top and bottom subdials smaller than left and right
• Months too close to each other
• Calendar number 31 white instead red
• Date disk background white instead black
• Date window too close to number 7

www.iwc.com/en/collection/pilots/IW502902/
(ceramic)

PART 2: CASE STUDIES

IWC Pilots Chronograph Subdial Spacing

Popular chronographs with an automatic movement have usually a pretty wide
spacing between their subdials. Cheap replicas, especially quartz based, have
problems reproducing this layout. This leads to very narrow and down-sized
subdials which can be spotted very easily even from distance and unusual
angles. In this example we see an IWC Pilots Chronograph 3717 replica with
this kind of misaligned subdial layout. It looks too centered and too
„compressed". Besides that the hour marker numbers are misaligned too. The
numbers 1, 4, 7, 10 and 11 give that away very quickly if you know the right
positioning.

IWC Pilots Chronograph Number Position

Replicas usually concentrate on providing the same layout as the legitimate
watch. This would be quite easy if there were no limitations enforced by the
established movement. The used calibers usually have different sizes, element
positioning or even features. As discussed before, this concludes in a
misaligned subdial layout (positioning too centered, subdials too small). But
this leads to another mismatch: Some other elements must be re-positioned too,
to re-gain an even dial layout. The IWC Pilots Chronograph series is a good
example for dependencies towards the hour numbers. These are misaligned on
most replicas. The easiest way to spot this is to take a look at the numbers
1, 4, 7, 10 and 11. In this example we focus on the classic: The number 7. The
bottom line of the 7 should be in the middle of the hour marker. But it is
slightly misaligned to the lower-right. IWC Pilots watches without subdials
might be able to circumvent this mistake.

IWC Pilots Chronograph Datedisk Color

Datedisks are an important element of modern IWC Pilots Chronographs. They
show the date and in some cases even the day of the week. These date disks
have specific colors, pattern and font. In this example we see a white
datedisk where it should be black. The positioning of the numbers on the disk
is wrong and even the font has nothing to do with the original. Fake
datedisks, especially when it comes to colors, are easy to spot on distance
and unusual angles. In the picture we can also see a mismatch regarding lugs
width and strap. IWC watches usually have an uneven strap width (e.g. 21mm)
and inofficial straps are often 1mm smaller than the original.

What a special passion! I'm afraid I cannot share it, fakes don't interest me one bit, I think it is a waste of time, where I rather spend my time on the real watches. The point is: one real watch can lead to an endless set of fakes, and what is the fun in that?

There may be people that need to be educated about fakes, because they like to buy second hand, and then anything is possible. I rather buy at the AD, pay the price, have an excellent service, and am the proud owner of a real, fantastic watch!

Kind regards,
Paul

Great work! I have been looking for this kind of information on IWC for a long time.

Appreciate your work on this and I enjoyed your IG account.
I will PM you with more goodies/baddies that we had with our Toronto Collectors Group.

Wonderful, detailed information and photos Marc R. Thank you for posting this.

We all love to talk watches.
Does that exclude second hand watches?
Is nobody of us interested in older IWC you can't get anymore from your AD?
If we answer the above questions with no, then it leads us straight away to the secondary watch market and now you might face automatically the fake market.
Does a real passionate watch lover buy fakes? I think, no need to answer this!
So, what do we have here now?
We have Marc who did a great job of analyzing this.
If this prevents only one person of buying a fake, the work payed off already.
If it prevents a lot of people to buy fakes it can be considered as a little contribution to kill this horrible fake market.

It is just my way to look at it.
Thank you Marc for your effort and I look forward seeing more of your analysis to come.
Cheers Chris

Great write up Marc and really useful info, Thanks.

I agree with Manoracs.
This is great research and extremely useful for collectors and very scaring for serious collectors at the same time.
I am a member of this Forum from the start and I have seen here and in the metal thousands of IWC watches, among them monstrous fakes and marriages.
But the ones shown here are so perfectly copied that I dare to confess that I would buy them one by one IF I did not have the real watch aside as is shown by Marc. Only a meticulous comparison shows the differences. For me it means that I would not dare to buy a recent or new IWC watch, unless it came from an AD or a trusted collector and with IWC issued documentation in my hand.
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc)

So Marc, this is useful information. It's always best to compare with original quality photos. Best is to see it in the flesh before buying.

You mentioned your struggle with the 3777 you wanted to buy. What was the result of your research?
My opinion I set in your previous post about the 3777 was, that from the pictures it looked 100% original. Am I right or wrong?

Hello,

It's all about the originals

I have to agree with Paul that there should be all the focus on genuine watches. And indeed: I'm doing this because I like originals and not because I like replicas ;)

Since I am doing these comparisons and case studies I have learned a lot about watch design, materials and even movements (e.g. the Rolex Day-Date replicas often use the Chinese automatic movement DG2812 which is unable to emulate the correct switching of the day disk).

Exposing fakes helps the good guys

As usual I need a goal to think about things. And in my case thinking about the beauty of a watch is also fueled by the idea to expose replicas and fake watch wearers. Exposing those helps the whole watch industry:

[ol]
[li]People can't be fooled into buying a cheap replica.[/li]
[li]Fake people can't act like they know something about genuine watches.[/li]
[/ol]

Chris sums this up very good:

Case studies shall help to understand repeating differences

Indeed, there are usually different replicas available for a single genuine watch model. In my studies I try to find the most popular, the best qualitywise or the worst. Still most fakes for a specific model have the very same issues like the too narrow subdials on large chronographs like the IW3777.

But this lead me to making the "case studies" where I grab one specific issue and illustrate that one in detail. It shall be applicable for other fakes and models as well. I think that works great because the narrow subdials are also obvious on most Rolex Daytona fakes.

I appreciate it very much that some connoisseurs like my little hobby: Thank you for your kind words. And I hope that we all get entertained and educated in the best way possible :)

Regards,

Marc

PS: My initial story with the IW3777 was not that happy. IWC was unable to authenticate the watch in time. I tried it myself and came to the conclusion that it's a genuine watch with a wrong datedisk. I should service the piece to regain full status ;)

Perhaps it was just poorly serviced before. Good luck and thanks for your insight.

Fonts used on case back on portuguese chronographs are now more modern...
Does anyone know if this is authentic? Or if its authentic..., what circa...

As I was researching information online today about a few specific IWCs I came across this excellent article by the esteemed gents Mr. Adrian van der Meijden and Mr. Hans Goerter.
I thought it belonged in this thread and hope they don't mind me providing a link to the article here:
Collecting IWC watches - How to recognize vintage from fakes

Great finding Skule!

/Anders

Excellent post (!)
Helped me to convince a friend to identify a FAKE(!)and not bid on it.
Thx
Yours sincerely

Thank you very much for your time, effort and commitment. Noobs like me need any/all the help I can get to avoid potentially painful/expensive mistakes. Scary how so-called super reps or 1:1 copies can easily fool beginners like me.

P.S. While doing my own research on fake vs real, I stumbled upon a few fora dedicated to "replicas" which ironically also helped educate me about tells, frankens/marriages, etc. Hate to admit this but some replica owners are very knowledgeable and skilled (even a bonafide WIS???) ...too bad they are NOT putting those talents to good use.

Very revealing images and wonderful to share here. There are several nice stories where even experts weren't able to notice the difference in a 3714 here in the forum. It was inly until they opened the case back to examine the movement and even then it was immediately obvious.

Thanks Skule also for the former legacy post. I have a print out of that in my library.

Buy only from IWC Boutiques and Authorised Dealers is the best way I guess avoid the "very good fakes". Most fakes are so easy to identify.

This is a pending purchase....am I missing anything?

Bob