Blancpain 50 fathoms fakes

[nocavat]

saw this on ebxy, asked the seller if its authentic or redialed precista, what do you guys think?

*EDIT to show auction photos in lieu of an eBay link*

[briandumais]

Fake!

[romeo-1]

Fake!

Please, educate the ignorant...like me.

[TakesALickin]

Here's a link to a site dedicated to vintage FF designs.

Welcome

There used to be a better one, but it shut down earlier in the year, IIRC. The watch in the Ebay auction has a case that's too thick, and has pierced lugs. It looks identical to Eddie's PRS50 case (I had one up until recently). My guess is this watch has an after market dial (also with incorrect markings) and a replacement case back. The AS movement was available in Eddie's LE first run of the PRS50. It looks like someone's trying to pass off a $600 watch as a $3000 watch. Here's a pic of my recently departed PRS50 for reference:

[nocavat]

i sent ebay 2 emails and they allowed the auction to continue, sold for almost $3000

[mike120]

Thats a total shame. I feel bad for whoever paid 2900 for it.

[Nalu]

Fake as! I sent the seller a message and his reply:

"You must read the discription....the backside is new, because the old one was defekt. That`s no fake...I was with the watch by Blancpain!"

I reported it to eBay as a fake, but apparently not enough people did. Note that the laser-engraved back (see #1) on his fake will not fit a genuine case

In addition to the above notes about the case:
1. Caseback opener recesses do not go all the way to the edge of the case, as they should in the real thing. Moreover, the Polish Navy do not use laser engravings to mark their watches. Or at least they didn't in the 70s and 80s. Real case back:


Fake BP50 back:


2. Dial font is wrong. The "F" is not ornate/curvy enough and the "s" is not tall enough. The "Blancpain" text is subtly wrong also. These photos are small and I need to make bigger ones. When I do, I will forward them to the new owner of the Watch Deco site.

Real:


Fake:

[briandumais]

TakesALickin touched on one thing that i always look for is the thickness of the case. If you look at my small stack the watch on the top is a No rad Bund and you can see the correct profile. And Nalu also touche on something that i have not noticed but i will check out. He mention that the case back open recessions are not complete to the edge of the case on the fakes. I have enclosed a photo of the No rad Bund case back so you could compare. Brian

[Malyel]

Here are two more pictures of a previously sold counterfeit Blancpain for future reference.

[Nalu]

Thanks for the contributions to this thread. I am going to move it to the reference material section so that it can be used as a "Rogue's Guide" in the future, much as I've done with the Fake Ploprof thread and as Clay (Scubawatch) has done for the SM300 on his site.

It's clear to me that the fake BP50 models being discussed here use the same case as was used by Eddie Platts' PRS-50. Note that these style fakes appeared on the interweb about 6-7 years ago, before the advent of the PRS-50 from Precista. As everyone who knows me and my collection knows, I'm a big fan of the PRS-50 (LE, A and B) and think it's a great VFM modern dive watch.





As such, the fake BP50s are a good 600-700USD watch. Unfortunately, they are marked with the Blancpain name and as such are fakes (i.e. they are being passed off as made by Blancpain, which they are not). They are also marked with fake Polish Navy markings on the back. I've frequently seen these fake BP50s with "letters of authenticity" from Blancpain also, which of course is not real either.

There are several other types of fake BP50s being sold out there and I will add more photos to this thread as I find them. Suffice to say that, much like Omega SM300s, the majority of vintage BP50s being sold on ePrey are fakes or frankens