It’s a harsh reality that the Chinese are getting getting better at churning out fakes all the time. And sadly it seems the fakes just took another step forward.

For Omega and military watch collectors the perfidity of fakes is perhaps one of the most coach purses lamentable thing about the omega seamaster 300m quartz, which is otherwise a very desirable and collectible watch. They Royal Navy issued Seamaster 300 is perhaps one of the most faked military watches ever, and as the number of Seamster 300s issued by the British is generally believed to be less than 2000 or so the of fakes certainly outnumber the genuine article.

Unfortunately the fakes are so pervasive that would-be buyers are filled with trepidation, artificially depressing pricing. Once at get-together once filled with the collectors of high-end vintage sport Rolex models I saw one collector offer ray ban another $80k for a Rolex GMT Master, and then to my astonishment saw the other collector actually decline. And even in this environment every Rolex collector I spoke with expressed an admiration for the Omega Seamaster Watchesr and a desire to buy one, except that they were very wary of the fakes and everyone seemed to know someone who had been burned.

In perhaps one of the more famous instance of a fake being mistaken as an original, in its “Omegamania” thematic ray ban lens auction in April 2007 auctioneer Antiquorum actually sold a fake for over $30k despite collector outcry Omega Seamaster Gold leading up to the sale. And that example (lot 128) had apparently even been handled by Omega factory service prior to the sale, as it seemed to have been fitted with genuine hands.

Below are the photos. I apologize about the seller’s watermark on the images and there’s little I can ray ban glasses do about them. It does at least serve the purpose of warning would-be buyers away from the seller though.