How to spot a fake Rolex

Why Rolex gets faked

Rolex is the most counterfeited watch on earth, and modern superfakes are good enough to fool casual buyers. They are not good enough to fool the checks below, which is how dealers clear a Rolex in minutes.

Rolex tells the professionals check

• The cyclops lens should magnify the date about 2.5 times so it fills the window — weak magnification is the classic tell.
• Since the mid-2000s the inner rim (rehaut) is engraved ROLEX repeatedly with the serial at 6 o'clock, in perfectly regular laser engraving.
• A tiny crown is laser-etched into the crystal at 6 o'clock on models from roughly 2002 — visible at an angle under bright light.
• The seconds hand should sweep smoothly; ticking means quartz, and Rolex doesn't make a ticking Submariner.
• Case backs are plain and solid on almost every model — an exhibition case back on a 'Submariner' is a giveaway.
• The definitive test is always the movement: no counterfeit survives a case-back opening in front of someone who knows the calibre.

The seller's trap

There's a scam aimed at sellers too: the buyer who declares your genuine watch 'probably fake' to slash their offer, counting on your uncertainty. The defence is competition — when multiple registered dealers inspect the same listing, no one can talk the watch down unilaterally. If it's genuine, the other bids will say so.

Not sure about yours?

Submit it anyway — it costs nothing. Registered dealers assess the photos, and if they want your Rolex, their bids answer the authenticity question in the most concrete way possible: with money. And if it turns out to be a replica, you've lost nothing and you know the truth.