Dubai: ReplicaCo, an online store which claims to have recently set up shop in Dubai, has announced "a new range of Swiss Rolex clone movements".
The company, which can be contacted only via gmail, promises to ship "perfect 1:1 replications of original 3131, 3135, 3156, 3186 Rolex-calibre movements which on inspection can even fool a professional jeweller".
ReplicaCo and many similar sites have been selling counterfeit items online and are now being targeted by Swiss watchmakers who vow to prosecute fake watchmakers and traders - both online and on the streets.
The firms are also appealing to customers' conscience. "Buy with your conscience, not with your wallet," urged Omar Chaoui, the Middle East head of Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH), a group that represents top Swiss watchmakers.
"The funds counterfeiters accumulate are transferred in cash in shadowy bank accounts that are also linked with other illegal activities," he said.
FHH members have put together a war chest to combat counterfeiters through a combination of legal enforcement and "conscientisation".
"Of course, we'll continue to take legal action. Authorities have taken action against traders in counterfeit products, but they also have bigger fish to fry," he said.
"Karama is where the ‘real fakes' are. The [Dubai] gold souqs offer something else, because that's where the ‘fake fakes' are [shops selling genuine items that have been modified but still sold as originals]," he said.
FHH recently launched an international campaign called "Fake watches are for fake people".
"If consumers start to realise and say ‘No, thank you' to fake products, it would put counterfeiters out of business," said Chaoui, who is also the regional brand manager for Roger Dubuis watches.
Counterfeits accounted for $1 of every $10 of global trade, or about $600 billion (Dh2.2 trillion) in 2009, up from $5.5 billion (Dh20.2 billion) in the early 1980s, he said.
"It's become a hydra-headed creature: if you shut one down, 10 more will sprout - because there's a demand for it."
"We've seen there's a direct link between counterfeit trade and illegal weapons trade, prostitution, human and drug trafficking, terrorism and child labour," he said.
"If people know their purchase of a fake product would end up hurting someone, they would not deliberately do it, in the same way they would not buy fake medicine or milk because it would hurt a loved one," said Chaoui.
