Rolex, LVMH and other luxury brands are investing a lot of money to protect their trademarks and fight replicas - for Rolex the budget is 20 millions a year.
That's the BS number out there, much like the BS about the 904L steel requiring special tooling.
Rolex love to spread this type of info, but it's only done for public relationship
Most if not all luxury watch groups & brand are doing very little in regards of trademarks infringement, the proof is in the "homage" market itself, in any other category of product, "homage" is called plagiarism and is pursued by the brands.
This is no different in the watch industry they just don't feel like pursuing it, but all the patents, designs and elements to shut that down are here.
Fashion on the other hand (and here LVMH is a prime example) is another story and they chase down those market as much as they can.
You are unlikely to turn someone who is buying a rep of a $150k watch into a regular customer, however, if you can't buy a $3000 bag rep, it's very possible that you'll save money to buy it, that's how they think.