Knock-Off Apple Watches Hit the Chinese Market Less Than 24 Hours After Launch

schwit1 writes Fake versions of the Apple Watch can be bought for as little as £25 — despite the fact the real thing will set you back more than 10 times that. The flagship new product was only launched in San Francisco yesterday but knock-offs are already available in China. According to CNN Money, they can be found at Huaqiangbei electronics market in the southern city of Shenzhen, and others are being sold nationwide via popular e-commerce websites. Right down to the digital crown, the fakes mimic the design and style of Apple's new offering.

Comments

Re:Why is this a surprise?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, since the design of the fakes doesn't match that of the real ones. They are just close copies.

Well... are we surprised?

[Dutch Gun]

This is one of the "hidden" costs of doing business in China. You can pretty much count on the theft and exploitation of your designs. How dare they exploit us back!

However, given the fact that this is a luxury good and status symbol, I don't think Apple is too worried about this, except if consumers are fooled into buying one. No one wants to show off a knock-off status symbol. It defeats the entire purpose.

Re:Well... are we surprised?

[Mr. Freeman]

Yep. Many companies have gone bankrupt because some new executive decides to outsource production to China. The new executive is naive enough to believe that a Chinese company will honor the non-disclosure agreement and won't sell critical trade secrets to everyone else. Manufacturing is moved overseas, stateside employees are laid off, the business suffers initial losses because the Chinese company hasn't figured out how to actually perform the process correctly yet, and then a few months later the company goes entirely bankrupt because their trade secrets are now suddenly common knowledge in the entire industry.

The executive then gets another bright idea: they'll sue the Chinese company to recover damages! If the Chinese company still exists by this point (unlikely), they'll win in court because, to no one's surprise, the Chinese government doesn't give a fuck about protecting American IP rights. Much money is burned, legal fees are collected, the executive staff gets a golden parachute, and all the hard working American employees are shit out of luck and scrambling to find jobs at another American company that will make the same fucking mistakes as their previous employer.

Re:Why is this a surprise?

[PolygamousRanchKid]

The joke is, most folks who are willing to spend $10,000 for watch won't be able to tell the fake ones from the real ones.

Re:Why is this a surprise?

[MightyYar]

They definitely do not. Apple is a huge customer. Just, startlingly huge. I once spoke to an Apple guy at a trade show. He wanted to know if our company could produce enough machines to assemble a part that they were musing about. We are the largest manufacturer in the world of the equipment that we make - something like 70% market share. I kind of laughed at first, since I figured there was no way they would tax our capacity. Then we started talking numbers, and it quickly became clear that we would have to resort to extraordinary measures to have any chance at meeting their demand. They are a massive operation, and if you are a vendor of theirs you don't need to share factory floor space with other customers - and certainly not knock offs of their products.

What will they think of next?

[Moridineas]

What will they think of next--fake Rolex watches? Fake Oakley sunglasses? I'm shocked--SHOCKED--by this most recent development.

Re: Why is this a surprise?

[nukenerd]

I can't tell the difference between a bar of gold, and a bar of gold hollowed out and filled with lead*.

Archimedes sorted that problem years ago.

Re:Why is this a surprise?

[AaronW]

I know someone who has bought a number of "Rolex" and other expensive watches in China. These aren't the really cheap knock-offs and they're actually of decent quality and keep excellent time. One of my cousins has a real Rolex watch. We put them side by side and it was impossible to tell them apart, right down to the hologram on the back. Of course they were different when you opened them up, but the works in these fake watches were often made in Switzerland or Germany just like the real watches. The writing on the inside of the back of the case also made it obvious that these were fake and this appears to be intentional. From the outside, however, everything seems to be the same, even the smooth movement of the second hand.

Now with the iWatch it should be fairly obvious since they run different operating systems, though I suppose it's possible for a cloned watch to also be able to run iOS just like the real one.