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The Ironic Claim by the Watch Industry about Replicas

goldman555

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4/8/16
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I learned an interest in fact the other day from somebody...

Apparently, in most countries in Europe 10 years ago the easiest way to launder money was to buy and sell cars for cash. Because most car dealerships no longer accept even modest amounts of cash as payment for cars plus the new ways of digitally cross-referencing them criminals have moved on to a new way of laundering cash.

I was told that the number one way to launder money nowadays is through high-end watches. In fact, it is probably one of the reasons the secondary market is so liquid when it comes to certain watches. It got me thinking how much of the secondary market is down to marketing and price manipulation by the premier manufacturers (steel Daytona's et cetera).

And how much of the secondary market is held up by money laundering? I was looking at an AP the other day it was brand-new with stickers and everything. But I have seen this watch at three different dealers over the past two years. So it must have been bought and sold many times but never ever used. It was also the sort of watch that is a grail and in demand so I doubt it was just being shuttled between dealers because they couldn't offload it.

Also, secondary/grey dealers are more than happy to accept large chunks of cash for watches.

So, in fact, you could make the assumption that the manufacturer's cartel control of supply and demand is creating the perfect marketplace to launder large amounts of money. Thus, supporting organised crime.

Whereas with replicas, without a doubt, I'm sure there is organised crime in there somewhere but I doubt it's as bad as the organised crime in New York and London...
 
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nalomb

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I've had these same suspicions, but have never spoken to someone with an inside track -- I also probably could not make the connection as succinctly haha. I can't think of anything other than diamonds that are as transportable, compact and valuable as watches. I think there is also a large contingency of high-end collectors (cars, art, firearms, guitars, signs, etc) that add watches into the fold at some point and those entrants distort pricing very quickly ...
 

erekose

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Watches were another common vehicle for corruption common amongst Chinese officals when cash payoffs we're too visible.
 

rolexwatchfan

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Nah, old news. One word now - cryptocurrency. Where your IPhone X can hold millions...
 

leo6929

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Jewelry in general


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 

nalomb

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Nah, old news. One word now - cryptocurrency. Where your IPhone X can hold millions...

Very true, yet one of the chief reasons for having cryptocurrency (lack of government or central bank control/oversight) is its biggest downside -- volatility and conversion risk. This is the latest 21st Century argument within Austrian economics and one which a case of scotch and a box of cigars probably won't solve any time soon haha.
 

Ams55557

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In the US, jewelry, watches and clothes are exempt from civil forfeiture laws.
Crypto coin is good but it needs to show up in a bank at some point.
 

Revolper

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While I agree with you that high end watches (like all jewelry, mentioned before) are predestined to launder money with, IMO your conclusion that the watch industry supports organized crime by creating a certain environment ist faux. You wouldn’t try to load that off to the car industry either, would you.


regards
 

Ams55557

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New cars in the US generally need to be registered and cash transactions over 10k must be documented (most of the time). Jewelry does. It have these requirements.

There are entire swaths of “used” car transactions that are used for laundering.
 
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