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Originally Posted by P1et
I still don't get it. Why did he buy the fake version? Just to be able to post a review of how the fake one looks like the real one? Why on earth own both? Do I need to buy a real M3, and then have a 328i with M badges also?
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I can't speak for the author of the article you found. (I didn't look for it, much less read it.)
I can say that as a curatorial collector, I think it's important to have a deep knowledge of, among other things, what is available in the marketplace when it comes to watches. It's one thing to know that fakes exist and with that single piece of information, one can make all manners of conjecture. It's another thing to actually have first hand experience with the differences between the fake and the real thing.
Why? The answer is perspective and value. Of course there is going to be no equivalence between the movements of fine, high end watches and those of inexpensive fakes. Might there, however, be comparability in terms of construction? Depending on the attribute in question, there very well could be. For example, it's just not that difficult, expensive or time consuming to build a high quality, satin finish steel watch case. To a slightly lesser extent the same is true regarding bracelets.
Now if a case and bracelet can be somewhat comparable between, say, an $8K authentic watch and a $50 fake, how much comparability do you think there might be between a $50 fake "whatever" and a $400 authentic watch? The answer is substantially more. As the price of an authentic watch gets lower, the fact is that the differences between it and a fake "whatever" become less an less.
A great many consumers, not collectors, quite simply don't give a damn about watches in the first place, so for them, the name on the dial just doesn't matter, but the style itself probably does. (Everyone cares that their watch (assuming they buy one) look good to them in one way or another.) What matters is that the watch meet their expectations in terms of timekeeping performance and durability.
If, when seeking a watch, folks who don't care about watches anyway, but who know they need one, are presented with the opportunity to buy a $50 fake or a $150 authentic one, what economically sound reason have they for choosing the authentic one if they have no reason to believe or care if it performs any better than the $50 fake?
The points I noted in the prior paragraph are why watch collectors, at least the more serious ones, focus on buying vintage watches or very high end watches. Minimally, both will have aesthetic features that cannot or will not be readily and well replicated in a fake watch. Similar reasons explain in part why collectors care about traits such as pedigree, esoteric complications, complex complications, history/role in history, rare watches from rare watchmakers, movement finishing, "the watchmaker's art" and other "stuff" that don't really make a watch a better machine.
Any collector knows that above a certain sum, a watch rarely gets "better." Any collector worth his salt also has taken the time to discover just how much more one must pay to get something that is in fact a better machine and case/bracelet than an inexpensive fake. The best way to discover that is to buy what are ostensibly referred to in the PRC as "highest quality copies" and compare it to a run of the mill watch costing a few hundred dollars and to the watch it apes.
Note:
In the PRC, there are indeed high quality and low quality, and every quality in between, fakes. The quality refers to the construction methods used and the movement inside. The high quality ones often have Seagull movements inside, and Seagull make very decent low priced movements that are easily as good as an ETA Standard grade movement, Miyota 8000 series or 9000 series movement, or a basic Seiko movement. A good Western haggler should be able to get one of those "high quality" fakes for between $25 and $50.
That fakes come in varying qualities should come as no surprise. ETA movements come in varying grades: standard, elabore, top and chronometer. Even among high end makers, there are sometimes varying grades of movement. the only difference is that they start at high quality and move to "so ridiculously high quality nobody but a super wealthy collector would even see the point of paying for it."
All the best.