KARACHI, Oct 4: Are you sure that the wrist watch, you have purchased from the market, dominated by 95 per cent of smuggled, fake or imitated watches, is 100 per cent original. You may be happy to get this watch, but may be the seller has succeeded in playing a trick on you.

Pakistan’s annual watch consumption is estimated at five million pieces out of which estimated annual watch supply through illegal channels is 4.65 million pieces, while only 357,276 pieces arrive through legal imports.

Before 1988, more than four million pieces used to be officially imported each year in Pakistan. Watch smuggling has restricted the legal imports to approximately 350,000 pieces annually.

High taxes and duties can be blamed for flourishing the inflow of smuggled watches. Legal imports are subjected to five per cent import duty, 15-18 per cent sales for registered and unregistered importers and six per cent income tax, thus making a cumulative impact of 43 per cent as the landed cost of watch. Smugglers do not bear more than 15 per cent cost to smuggle watches mainly through international airports, he said.

The government is collecting only Rs50-60 million as revenues from the legal imports while losing half a billion rupees annually on account of smuggling, vice president Karachi Watch Importers Group (KWIG) G.M. Shahzada told Dawn.

Majority of consumers, who avoid to buy watches from the authorized dealers owing to an impression of higher price tags, usually prefer to purchase from various shops for the bargain option. Innocent buyers do not know that they are being cheated outrightly at the hands of unauthorized dealers who sell the fake and imitated wrist watches as “genuine and original” ones by surprisingly giving companies’ original guarantee cards and cash memos.

Various fake or imitation models of watches have engulfed the local markets, thus totally perplexing the buyers who are in search of genuine watches. To some extent the flood of low cost watches through illegal channels is a boon for the low income and middle income group people who cannot dream of having a quality watch at high prices but simultaneously, the influx of smuggled and fake watches are bane for the genuine dealers, whose market share are eroding in the market despite providing guarantees and original seals on the back.

A high quality Citizen watch is priced at Rs10,000-12,000. Its no.2 quality (imitation/fake) is available at Rs2,000-6,000 and being sold as genuine one by the shopkeepers by giving original warranty cards. The same quality is also available at Rs160-300 at road side stalls or at ordinary shops, thus depicting the original look.

The original Cartier is priced at over Rs150,000 but the same make is being sold here at Rs22,000, followed by another quality of Rs2,400 and the third quality for Rs300.

Swiss watch Longines is priced at Rs6,000 but its fake quality of same design can be purchased at Rs200-300.

A Rolex model, which is definitely beyond affordable price, can be purchased at Rs160 at road side stalls for personal satisfaction. Similarly Omega watches are being retailed at Rs160. These watches were previously priced at Rs300 few months back.

“I sell some times 3-8 a day or maximum over 15-20 watches a day at Rs160,” a road side stall owner said claiming that these watches are being retailed by shopkeepers at Rs400-500.

“Trust me. I give you my word and a verbal guarantee that it would run for over one year without any fault,” he said adding “in case a fault appears I am here to change it.” Many roadside retailers say that they do not know the country origin of these watches but many of them claimed that these watches are made in China, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong but movement (machinery is made in Japan). In some watches, (Japan movement) is written below the hour 6 number on the dial.

Authorized dealers, already mind-boggled over the heavy availability of fake watches, are also perturbed over the huge smuggling of even “original watches” which they used to bring through legal channels by paying heavy duties and taxes.

“The only way to check the originality of the watch is to look at the movement (machine) besides the movement number printed at the bottom of watch dial. These numbers should match with the numbers on steel back,” Shahzada said.

This is not the end of the story. Many watches are being sold without any brand names on the case and dial. He said brand names are being printed here locally after bringing huge lots of case and dials through illegal channels.

The only way to confirm the genuineness is to bring the watch to the authorized distributor or dealer who could confirm by checking its machinery number and original engraving on movement. Consumers should demand the original company’s receipt, cash memo and warranty cards on purchasing watches from an ordinary shop, he said the association is trying to create public awareness by asking them to recheck the originality of watches through legal distributors.

He said many people are still paying Rs2,000 for a fake watch which is actually priced at Rs250.

It seems a difficult task for the buyers to demand from the seller to prove the originality of the watch as innocent buyers do not have enough knowledge about the genuineness. Sellers have many ways to trick the consumers.

“However, the buyer can warn the seller of dire consequences like lodging FIR in case the watch proves fake after re-checking from the authorized dealer. This verbal warning to sellers could exert some pressure on the sellers to be careful,” he added.

He said that smuggling of watches is being done by air route and khepia menace is very active by bringing it in suit cases carrying at least 500 pieces per suit case of 10-12 kg mainly from Dubai and Hong Kong.

He urged the government to bring down the sales tax rate at 10 per cent so that genuine importers could give a tough time to the smuggled products.

Answering a query how the five per cent authorized distributors are surviving in adverse business environment, he said, “we have minimized the profit ratio besides cutting prices after cut in import duty to five from 10 per cent in the last budget,” Shahzada said.

Genuine distributors are actually relying on sales of watches on wedding season. People prefer to buy branded and original watches from us as gift items for the bride and bridegroom as they cannot afford humiliation in giving unbranded watches on such prestigious occasions, he said.