Collecting AAA replica watches is not for the faint of heart. Andy Freedman, a watch collector in New York, recalls a near miss he had once chasing discontinued watches. Such a mission is renowned for being particularly treacherous as these are a type of watch that unexpectedly become a rare breed when a brand decides to terminate their production, usually completely unannounced. On this occasion for Freedman, a platinum UK luxury fake Rolex Daytona ice blue dial watches with baguettes was the target.
“I got mine from an AD two weeks before Watches & Wonders 2023 when it was discontinued,” he said. “I thought I had hit the jackpot, only to find out Rolex launched a brand new platinum Daytona later that day with an open caseback.”
This pretty much sums up the best copy watches collecting rollercoaster. “Collectors, like myself, are always on the hunt for pieces we can’t easily have. We are drawn in by the exclusivity and cachet. When a certain desired reference is discontinued, it ups the ante. It becomes more scarce, it becomes harder to obtain, and it becomes even more coveted,” says Freedman.
But why would a brand discontinue its most popular reference? “We saw this in 2021 with the discontinuation of the stainless steel Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711,” says Freedman about the particularly sought-after top UK Patek Philippe replica watches that saw its value spike between 2018-2022. “It’s generally either due to manufacturing reasons, keeping novelties to a limited supply or to change things up within a line or collection. For Patek, it seems perhaps the 5711 had become too popular for its own good, and they wanted attention back to other references.”
So, is it just for dramatic effect and added hype? If say, Tudor, were to discontinue the Black Bay 58, would it make it more popular? “In general, all wholesale super clone watches models are destined to be discontinued, as the industry is based on constant product innovation,” says Pierre-Yves Donzé, a professor of business history at Osaka University’s Graduate School of Economics and specialist in the Swiss watch industry, who recently wrote a book about the history of Rolex (the English version comes out later this year). “The exception, therefore, is the continuous rather than discontinued 1:1 China fake watches.”
‘Discontinued’ can mean different things though. “A brand may decide to simply change an aesthetic aspect, such as the dial colour of certain Rolex Oyster Perpetual models, or discontinue an entire collection like the Patek Philippe Nautilus,” says Donzé.
Which makes them all the more desirable. “Even if the value of certain discontinued models on the second-hand market is an expression of scarcity management that increases the attraction of collectors and customers to these brands,” he warns, “keep in mind that only a few brands with great prestige benefit from this effect.” Here’s looking at you, Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Richard Mille. “This was also the case with Swatch in the ‘80s and ’90s, and perhaps again with the MoonSwatch.”
Still, the hunt for perfect replica watches that may soon be out of production is often the best part of collecting. “Predicting discontinuations has become a big part of the game for collectors and influencers. Rumours were flying earlier this year that Rolex would be discontinuing the Pepsi GMT due to sourcing and manufacturing issues with the colouring of the bezel,” says Freedman.
Of course, it wasn’t to be as instead, the Crown discontinued the white gold, open caseback Swiss movements replica Rolex Daytona Le Mans 100th anniversary watches. In production for just six months, it marks one of the shortest runs for any Rolex ever. That is quite the selling point for anyone who bought on, and fittingly shows how wonderfully unpredictable a game ‘discontinued watches’ can be.
