Not sure if this is unusual or par for the course but I bought a watch last week in the Friday sales. Seller said it would be delivered on the 29th fair enough. No receipt in the box they emailed me a photo of the “original receipt” but it’s dated the day after I purchased the watch at £50 cheaper.
It’s just a moonswatch so not an high price piece and I appreciate companies need to make money but is that usual feels like I’ve been charged £50 for them to go to the shop for me?
If you buy a Moonswatch other than in-person in the store, you run a high risk of getting a fake. There are multiple tells:
Texture of the plastic casing. The real thing looks slightly pebbly up close; most of the fakes have an oily-like appearance.
The top subdials should be at the “12” point at all times the chrono hand isn’t moving. If the top two dials are anywhere but that position and the chrono (counting) hand isn’t at the “12” position; fake.
Under careful light in the very center of the “glass”, you’ll see a teensy little Swatch “S” logo etched into the plastic. Most fakes have caught on to that and are doing it though so it’s not a guarantee.
There should be a very faint “series/date” number imprinted into the dial itself just above the 6 o’clock point.
There should be no, and I mean NO, flaws in the casing. You should not see any areas where it can be opened except for the battery hatch. There should not be flaws or snags in the plastic. The holes that receive the pins should be clean/smooth, not “chafed” looking.
No metal anywhere.
On fakes the battery hatch often doesn’t open. It’s supposed to open. If there’s anything but a Renata battery in there, it’s likely not real.
There are other tells such as with the documentation and the actual boxes/packaging, but I’ve given you enough to at least get a glance at. I’ve been through this; I was scammed early on because I live nowhere within 800 miles of a Swatch store so I bought online. I pled my case to Paypal/Syncrony and even after sending probably 20 pictures of comparisons and evidence, was never refunded. I even bought a couple of extra fakes on DHGate to make my point (because I do actually have a real one) and it did not work LOL :)
Don’t ever, and I mean EVER, buy anything from Stockx. NONE of their items is genuine, none of their sellers is genuine, even if they use services like Shop for order tracking.
Tough lessons learned.