The Dark Side of the Watch Industry-Counterfeits:

August 12, 2025

The counterfeit watch industry is thriving with the help of e-commerce sites, who turn the other way when faced with reports from concerned buyers. Ebay had 10.1 billion in gross sales in 2023 and a net profit of 2.78 billion dollars. Looking at watches on Ebay, it's clear that a large part of Ebay profit is from pushing counterfeit products. I say pushing, because they are knowingly profiting millions of dollars per year from the sale of counterfeit watches alone.

With big e-commerce sites caving into greed and joining the counterfeit industry, the term buyer beware has never been as important as now. The seller on Ebay, "ChronosConnoisseur340" has sold over 15,000 counterfeits at an average of $150 per watch, totalling up to a jaw-dropping $2,250,000, . Ebay charges approximately 17% on products sold on its' site meaning that Ebay profited over $382,500 from just this ONE counterfeiter, making it publicly clear why they refuse to stop the illegal practice.

There is nothing we can do because as you will see below, Ebay finds nothing "wrong" with counterfeit items, despite their policy (below) stating they are firmly against it.

Yet when you report the counterfeits to Ebay, you get this:

They're not interested. Therefore, report directly to law enforcement at:

In the US

California Department of Consumer Affairs @ https://www.dca.ca.gov/consumers/complaints/selfhelp.shtml

US Federal Trade Commission @ https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/

In Canada

Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre @ https://antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/index-eng.htm

Here, I will show you how to spot a Fake-o (top photo), & a real Seiko (bottom photo)

These fakes are mass produced and come in many colors but you can easily recognize the cheap features such as glued on markers, missing serial number on case, missing date display & cheap bands that aren't even real leather. Everything about these fakes, is fake. Yet they sell thousands a month. Also, the serial numbers on the back from their counterfeit factory, manufacturers the replicas with the identical fake number.

All of the below watches are from a counterfeit factory in Delhi India, mass produced and then promoted by Ebay and other ecommerce sites such as Etsy, Poshmark

Here are some current mass counterfeiters enjoying their proceeds of crime partnership with Ebay

"Fashion Flooding"

https://www.ebay.ca/str/fashionflooding?_trksid=p4429486.m3561.l161211