Swiss watch industry confiscates millions of counterfeits
Published: Thursday, Jun 27th 2024, 12:40
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Counterfeiting is a major problem for the Swiss watch industry. Timepieces from well-known brands such as Rolex, Omega and Breitling are often counterfeited and offered on markets or online around the world. The Swiss watch industry has been fighting against the trade in counterfeit watches for many years.
"Together with our partners, we confiscate more than one million counterfeit Swiss watches worldwide every year," said the President of the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH), Yves Bugmann, in a video interview with AWP on Thursday. In Saudi Arabia alone, around 150,000 counterfeits were confiscated last year.
However, the industry is also actively taking action against counterfeiting gangs in China, Latin America and South East Asia. In Malaysia, for example, several raids were carried out last year together with the police at the Petaling Street Market in the capital Kuala Lumpur and at other markets, and several thousand counterfeit Swiss watches were seized.
The watch industry is also taking the fight against counterfeiters online. "We close around one million advertisements on the Internet every year that advertise fake Swiss watches," Bugmann continued on the fringes of the FH General Assembly. The association is increasingly relying on the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
Bugmann made it clear that it is impossible to eradicate the counterfeiting industry. "But you can drastically reduce the visibility of counterfeits." The aim is to give consumers the certainty that they are buying a genuine Swiss watch.
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