Audemars Piguet

..so I'm at a trade show and meeting with some potential new clients.

I'm getting a demo on a product and I notice the guy has  a AP TA on his wrist.

I'm  all excited to talk to him about it after the demo since it's pretty rare for me to run across another WIS in my line of business.....but then I notice something is off about the piece.

It's too shiny, the lug joints are all off and on closer inspection t buckle is totally different...

It's totally a fake.....so I left it all alone.

What kills me is that he had his sleeves all rolled up and he was really showing the piece off...

I actually kinda wanted to say something like "Is that a china special AP ?"...or something equally as cocky just to out him

What would you gents do?

-s

Hi, S,

If they are potential new clients, I'd tread on eggshells, unless you can afford to dismiss a client based on bad taste or poor ethics (both of which attach to knowingly wearing a fake and showing it off as real; or not knowing it's a fake and showing it off as if it's real. Notice the "showing off" part...)

Sometimes, I just can't help myself, so I ask to see it, and if it is indeed a fake, I hand it back without comment and maybe a smile and a thanks.

How they respond to that can open up a very interesting conversation, or at least give you further insight into the person.

Cheers,

TM

Hello evosam!

Hope everything went well at your trade show.  I guess I would just be polite and let it go but if he was being too annoying I would probably hint at it being a fake.  Hopefully that guy didn't pay big bucks for a real one and got a copy instead.

A few years back when we were shopping for medical computerized records systems this sales guy had the worst looking Panerai knockoff I've ever seen.  He was a stereotypical used-car sales type (no offense to anyone who is a used car dealer) and I was fixated on his fake watch that I didn't even pay attention to a word he said.  Didn't even think about buying from him.

Do you have to deal with this guy again?

-MW

...I think fortunately I don't have to deal with this particular guy directly.

He was just one of the guys on the booth that was doing the demo.....a sales guy.

The folks that I would be directly dealing with seem like just regular folks with very "un-interesting"  watches.

As I think back on it, I think the thing that just bothered me the most was the fact that he was really trying to "show off" the watch with his sleeves all rolled up as he was waving his arms back and forth.

Maybe he figured no-one had seen a real one so no-one would be the wiser....

-s

I have run into this situation far more than I care to, and I've yet to call someone out because I think it could only lead to something negative. Normally itsa fake breitlings with open dials showing off the balance wheel which is not even remotely close to what a real tourbillon would look like. Some times I wonder if they even have a clue what the watch is supposed to be a fake of.

I think AP's are so niche that maybe he did not even know what he was wearing. Maybe I just live in a fantasy would, but I would rather wear a real citizen or swatch than anything fake

sorry for poor spelling and grammer or just putting the wrong words in LOL. off to bed

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A Client wearing a fake watch is a fake client!



It is not your problem if he wears a fake watch , it may becme yours if you are in business with him.



Best,

Nicolas

i think you can tell alot about a person with what they wear  and agree with most here

I would have pretended that I didn't know much about watches and say something like: "Hey, interesting watch, what is it" and see what he says. Then you can see if he's pretending to wear a real ROO TA or honestly say that he bought a cheap knock off and is proud of the money he saved (believe it or not, I've heard that one before). Either way, you would know with what kind of person you're dealing with and decide what to do.

I would say that people at trade shows, comes from all over the world.

as an old Chinese saying, "one type of rice feeds hundred types of people"

there are thousands type of people, each with individual interest and Values.

I have met enough people with fake watches to know that you cannot really judge that person from what they put on their wrist,

it does tells "a little" about that person, but probably not even marginally representing that person.

i would also ask to take a look at the watch if that gentleman is so willingly "showing-off" his TA.

Its just interesting to see what people have on their wrist.

 

 

In my professional world, almost no one, except for me:  (1) has ever focused on what "Audemars Piguet" is, (2) would recognize an AP as a high-end watch, or (3) would be in a position to know the difference between and real and a fake AP.  And in my world, almost everyone thinks it is foolish to spend more than a few hundred dollars for a steel watch, or to pay any sort of premium for a mechanical watch that keeps worse time than their own quartz watches.  Essentially all of my friends and colleagues are completely watch-blind. (And these are not poor people, btw.) 

So if I had been in your position, and if I had recognized the watch as a fake (which I frankly might not have), I probably would have speculated the following:  this guy is as clueless about watches as everyone else, and he probably bought this watch on a street corner in NY for a few hundred dollars, not because he was trying to pass it off as a status symbol, but because he thought it was a cool-looking watch.  And beyond that I would have drawn no other conclusions about him or his character.

This is why discussions like this are fascinating to me, because I just don't live in a world where watches matter to anyone but me.
This message has been edited by Chromatic Fugue on 2010-02-26 16:45:19