Originally Posted by
Itsguy
Without wanting to re-open the debate about value, to undercut Rolex hugely, they only have to be able to reproduce the movement and then not charge for Rolex's many other costs, such as R&D, design, marketing, dealer markup, service network, taxes, cost of running a business based in Switzerland etc.. The actual cost of the movement will be a fraction of the final price. This means there will always be a margin for the fakers to exploit, even if the original has a completely reasonable profit margin. This would apply even more to fakes of valuable vintage pieces, which would be easier to reverse engineer as the movements are simpler and use 40 year old technology. In a sense, a Sellita is already a reverse engineered ETA movement, which is not an issue as the patents ran out long ago. It should be possible to do the same with the JLC 920 caliber that's the basis of famous watches like the RO jumbo and Nautilus. Decorating it is another matter of course, but where there's a will (and a profit margin), there's probably a way. Considering that it's now possible to 3D print paintings with incredible levels of accuracy, down to the individual brush strokes, it's can't be long before a 'hand finished' decorated movement can be recreated too.