I offered 500 RMB to one of the watch touts in front of Plaza 66 for 5 Rolexes and he turned me down. He thought the 500 RMB note that I was giving him was a fake because it had a picture of Yao Ming on it.

Rezitator wrote:You get what you pay for, also in China.
I did not believe in the A and B quality story etc, until my dealer put 3 same watches in front of me. I believe now and I understand now why one watch is 100 the other 1000.

Please explain. I don't understand the differences you saw between the three watches.

Well, some are better fakes than others, but in the end, still fakes, so no quality guarantee. But paying 1000 kuai, if it works for a few months, i don't think it will hurt too much when it breaks.

Defintely some fakes are better than others. You can see difference in the face hardness, the bracelet details, I think some movements are also different

Please explain. I don't understand the differences you saw between the three watches.[/quote]
I can explain you the difference
there is inside the difference, from outside all the watch can look same, but inside change the mechanism, the same watch for sample a Cartier Santos
you can get from 150 rmb ( Chinese mechanism ), 450 rmb ( Japanese mechanism ) and 1000 rmb ( for Swiss mechanism ) from outside all look same ,you must to know that there are one factory who make almost all the mechanism for the important watches in the world , mechanism ETA, and there are different levels depending the quality, after each company, Cartier or Rolex or else, they make some change
from 2 years ago a factory is set up in Shenzen so the mechanisms easy can disappeared from the factory to go to black market ......China........
the only think to have a good quality or you know well the seller or you must know well about watches, is not easy on the road to find the good, sure have, but ............. you know the business!!!
with my friend we find a good supplier in Guangzhou and at the time we do well job, all the watches was guarantee, because we buy at the time 3/400 each time, the return for bad quality was 6/7 pieces maximum on 3/400 pieces, and was change immediately
now i have for myself one Santos and one Panerai that they works well for almost 4 years, next time I will go to Guangzhou I will buy a new Panerai Ferrari ( only for myself ), but I ready get the best price from my supplier..........1600 rmb, but he work and I know the quality, so I will buy.the same but cheap Panerai Ferrari can buy for 140 rmb, but is not safe ........................

Swiss-James wrote:[I still reckon there are grades above that where they walk you blindfolded into a cave filled with dry ice and armed guards, but I guess my Chinese needs to improve before I get there.

Actually those caves are pretty comfortable, better insulated in winter than a standard Shanghai apartment. Pretty good place to call home while the cyber/space war rages overhead. Yes, they do make knock-off watches, but that's really just a sideshow.