Thanks to you both amanico and ijl for clearing this one up for me! That's really good news and then there are absolutely no doubts about the authenticity of the watch.
So it seems the instruction manual is actually wrong then. I looked at the English, French and German texts and all said the same (counter-clockwise) - also downloaded the pdf-copy from JLC's club site and still gives the same instruction. So will send JLC an e-mail and let them know via the website.
Cheers