Watch Stories
The world of watches is fascinating, from the beginning of their thought creation and develepment to the massive industries that followed. Besides the watch being high technology for science and innovation, watches became jewelry with the invention of the wristwatch, pendants and rings. Watches are given as gifts to loved ones, to record milestones; anniversaries, graduations, birthdays, retirements. Wearing a fascinating, ticking, series of motors, gears, jewels and metals on your body is indeed the ultimate jewelry. One tiny 12mm x 12mm watch case can have 23 rubies, diamonds and sapphires inside it, which help the busy micro parts last longer. Timex, however has an all metal movement that almost never stops working, even after 70 years. Long before diamonds and gold plating, watches were used for timing trains and later planes, to make sure there were no accidents, making watches the first train traffic control & air traffic control systems in the world.
"Better three hours too soon than a minute too late-William Shakespeare"
Watches as Gifts:
Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis Missiouri, Retirement Gift To Brewer Carl Dacksel, 1955. "Lager Cellars":
I buy auction lots and personal lots from all over the world, many coming from the USA. I was restoring an old Gruen Swiss watch and noticed an engraving on the back that says "To Carl Dacksel, from the Lager Cellars 1955". Normally I grind off engravings and carry on with the restoration. Most times, families throw these items away because they don't work or they just don't want them so I don't feel bad about it and am happy to restore for new owners who will appreciate them. However, all 3 times that I prepped my tool to grind off his name, I couldn't do it. I decided to research him instead. He got this watch as a retirement gift from what was then "Lager Cellars" and died the next year. In 1955, this watch would have been very expensive so I'm assuming he was a good brewer and employee. His occupation is also noted on his death certificate. I contacted Anheuser Busch and to see if they are interested but they are not, despite having a museum with items as new as 1980 that they deem "historical". Perhaps they don't want their current employees to know that the company once rewarded employees with fine American 10k gold watches with 21 jewel movements that were sourced in the alps of Switzerland.
He married
Lillian Dacksel
Birth- 1 Jun 1894
Death-24 Jan 1981 (aged 86) and had at least one child:
Lester Dacksel
Birth-10 Mar 1923
Death-19 Jan 1994 (aged 70)
Carl, Lillian and Lester are buried at Sunset Memorial Park and Mausoleum
10180 Gravois Road Affton, Missouri 63123 United States
Watches as The Dark Side of the Watch Industry-Counterfeits:
The Counterfeit industry and the E-commerce sites that partner with them.
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 13,000 counterfeits at an average of $150 per watch, totalling a jaw-dropping $1,950,000, soon to be 2 million dollars. Ebay charges approximately 12.35% on products sold on its' site meaning that Ebay profited over $240,000 from just this one counterfeiter.
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.
All you can do is educate yourself so you don't lose your money to Ebay & the counterfeiters they promote.
Here, I will show you how to spot a counterfeit Seiko, aka Fake-o.
EBAY policy on counterfeit items
EBAY Fake-o's
The counterfeit store, operating as "ChronosConnoisseur340" has made 2 million dollars from counterfeit watches. Ebay profits 2.35% of all their sales.
It's difficult to see in a photo, but the markers are glued on plastic pieces. The dial is a copy of a Cartier watch style with upside down roman numerals, which Seiko does not use. See the genuine Seiko below. The differences are easy to spot when you know what to look for.
Fake-o vs Seiko
The sought after Cartier dial that fraudsters are earning billions from in the counterfeit watch industry, thanks to e-commerce sites like Ebay, who knowingly profit from counterfeit sales.
Beware when even daring to report a counterfeit to Ebay; they don't just dismiss counterfeit reports, they threaten you for reporting them as seen below. Counterfeiters are legally selling on ecommerce platforms with no federal, state or international concern or law and there is nothing anyone can do about it except to identify counterfeits and avoid them so you don't get swindled like so many hundreds of thousands of victims.
