Replica watches are not something we talk about too frequently ‘round these parts but there appears to be big news on that front this week. Reports online suggest that Chinese officials have raided the prominent ZF factory that’s perhaps best known for creating high quality Tudor and IWC replicas, or “reps” as they’re sometimes called.
We first noticed the news on RepTime, a popular Reddit subreddit dedicated to the discussion of replica watches.
Says the dealer:
Yesterday I got update that ZF got raided and today there is another one that Boss of ZF Factory also got caught in jail as well. For this urgent situation, we wish you can give us more understand and patience.
Similar reports have appeared in other replica watch message boards, including Replica-Watch.info.
While it’s somewhat difficult to figure out what, exactly, is going on, it’s well-known within the replica watch community that these sorts of raids do occasionally happen and that, eventually, things more or less return to normal after the dust settles a few weeks later. If there’s a demand for this stuff, people will figure out a way to supply it.
We have reached out to the Chinese Embassy and the China Horologe Association for comment, and will update this story if and when we hear back.
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