Be aware: High quality FAKE vintage Rolex dials!!
As I reported you “several times in last decade, the fakers are getting better “and we all have to be very careful in what we buy for our collection. In my “Buyers Guide I recently posted“ you can read about the little details that are so important for the originality of a true vintage Rolex. Since some while now we, the inner circle of hardcore vintage Rolex dealers & collectors, have noticed that fake Submariner dials are being sold as genuine. It seems most pop up in Europa, at the moment, the source might come from Germany and the UK but quickly they are also offered in the US and Asia. These new generation fakes have become very very good in quality and one needs to be an expert to see the difference, specially when you’re looking at a picture only. The text is almost 100% copied due to the use of modern techniques a dial design is blown up 100x the normal size and then corrections are made into detail.
Above I pointed out in below picture with a red dot some small imperfections of the cliche the fakers made, The print is generally a bit to thick and in detail it’s very close to the original but just not perfect, not Rolex, not vintage, not original! Once you handle these dials, you will notice that the glossy print act differently in the sunlight.
Left is original Rolex there where on the right is the fake counterfeited one..
As with all fake dials, and as with every determination of a rolex in general, you start to focus on the coronet or Rolex crown thats been printed on the dial. Each reference and even within every different version of each reference we see different crowns been printed on the dial. There hides the real secret, below I made a cart of many different original coronets the several dial makers printed for Rolex… 
What do you need to know, the 10 golden rules to determine a vintage Rolex!
- Buy yourself a geiger counter. It’s a must have to determine the radiation of tritium and radium!
- Examine the graphics up close, focus on the Rolex coronet and the R from Rolex.
- Check out the luminous, the Rolex dial makers always add them perfectly on the dial.
- Look from the side into the dial, you will notice that the patina is not natural.
- If possible, examine the back of the dial, the dial makers stamp is engraved by etching and not stamped as originals.
- Check the volumes of the luminous up close, you’ll notice that the structure is more closed then when naturally aged.
- Check the provenance, where did it come from? If a deal is to good to be true, walk away!
- Buy yourself a loupe that at least magnifies 10 times. Examine pictures on big screen and zoom in.
- Compare always with known originals, like you find in Goldbergers 100 superlative Rolex book / App.
- If non of the above helps you, post a picture of the Vintage Rolex Forum or send it to me by email.
-> Do yourself a favor when you take vintage Rolex serious and read my “Buyers Guide I recently posted“!
Before I show you the fake counterfeited ones, here’s a all original rare 3-6-9 Submariner dial. It’s the last one out of the batch we know off, with “Swiss – T <25”
Official Rolex advertisement of the 3-6-9 ExplorerSub…
For your information, here are the earlier ORIGINAL versions of the 3-6-9 Explorer dialed Submariners…
Up close, the typical 1962 explorer sub with dot minute track instead of dashes, found with and without the typical 1962 exclamation mark.
My buddy Eric Ku just posted the pictures of the fake Submariners on his Vintage Rolex Forum. I wouldn’t be surprised there are also GMT, Explorer, Milgauss and Daytona dials around. Now study all the below pictures carefully, focus on the coronet and on the print because each and every one is FAKE!! UNORIGINAL! NOT Rolex!! Most obviously the “R” from Rolex is with each version different. You see below that the scammers are becoming close but not close enough to fool us!!
Go to VRF for the full “Public service announcement: High quality Fake 3-6-9-and gilt dials.
This below one, with the damages below 6 o’clock where the ‘swiss’ is printed, I came across Instagram recently, the guy thinks it’s real ;-( What we want is that those that are involved in this scam, stop offering these fake dials. I really hope that everybody gets their money back as most certainly some good trusted buyers will be involved. I hate to see that the passion of somebody dies just because he trusted a wannabe dealer without knowledge of these rarities. “Buy the dealer” is what many used to say. I believe that a serious collector should almost be as knowledgable as a top dealer once he’s willing to step into the world of these extreme rare examples. Therefor I try to share as much as relevant information with you all so you can learn to see the differences…
All the following pictures are of FAKE – COUNTERFEIT submariners, newly made and all unoriginal! Besides the 3-6-9 dials that have come to discussion recently, we also see 6538 2 line and 4 line’s, Qaboos, double red and Comex Seadweller dials…
Besides the fact that the graphics are off, the aging process is not natural. The luminous is not radium therefor the use of a geiger has become a must! You’ll also notice that the luminous isn’t perfectly placed on the white marks of the dial. It’s more grained then placed at once…
Then next issue is that the Rolex dial makers like Stern, Singer, Beyeler, Lemrich and ZJ added a specific mark on the backside of the dial. What we see with the counterfeit baseplates is that in most times the logo has been engraved instead of punched. With the new generation fake dials they now often use a correct dial then cleaned the front totally and reprinted the it so when you inspect the backside a correct makers mark is no 100% proof the dial is original Rolex!
Here are 2 pictures of counterfeit dials before the surface got finished and the fake luminous got added…
Even the fake tropical brownish effect has been added by hand before to make it look original..
Don’t think these counterfeit / fake dials only made to fool rare references or versions, a regular 5512 minute track has been faked as well as you see below. I partly help you with red dots I added on some parts of the dial where you see the difference between fake and original details of the print which i copied in there.
After the earlier glossy gilt which where made by galvanic printing process originally, the next step to matte dials was much more easy for the fakers as we see below. Still the white print is off, the luminous is wrong, the minute track is off and off course the added Qaboos sign is fake, these are much more easy to spot!
The same goes for this fake double red sea dweller dial which we see been offered a lot recently in Germany and Switzerland..
The surface got altered. Note the grained imperfect luminous, which is off course no radium!
As we see with original dials as well, the fakers do their best to fool collectors, thus the silver depth rate was added on top of the lacquer..
FAKE Submariner dials posted for you to see from different angles..
Summarizing, without seeing a vintage Rolex up close, it has become very difficult to notice the differences in print. What is real and what is fake is for most hard to tell. Once you handle the counterfeit dials in your hand, you will immediately see they’re not alife. Vintage Rolex with a known provenance & history will become even more in demand then now. Rumor says that the fakers are signing the back of the dial with mark so it’s always recognizable being a fake. Once put in a watch an brought to auction with a made up story, lot’s of collectors still think they found a bargain. You as a vintage Rolex collector have to understand that it’s become IMPOSSIBLE to find a bargain. Nobody is selling a rare Rolex below market value if they can easily get more for it offering to a trusted dealer like we support on ww.RolexPassionMarket.com If you are serious you might want to check out the trusted offers we’ve for sale online now!
Be aware, when you doubt or don’t have the knowledge to judge, stay away and don’t get tempted by the story thats made up to fool you! Credits for showing these fake Submariner pictures to the public and warning everybody is the VRF; www.VintageRolexForum where Eric Ku just posted them. Follow this link here and you will come directly to the discussion. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact me on: info@RolexPassionReport.com.
To end this report, here’s an example that entered the market earlier the the examples we see above. It’s made with the same technique of which I warned you all in this report I wrote about the danger of the upcoming fake vintage Rolex dials…..
Same dial as above, different angle, different light, same counterfeit!
We see the red 200/660 is print on top of the finished dial…
If you have any questions or doubts, feel free to contact me for a second opinion. Use the RPR Contact button to reach out to me.
