Since I have been a member here, I have done a lot of reading and learned a lot. Not just about Rolex in general, but other brands as well.
Unfortunately earlier this year before I joined the forum, I seem to have purchased a fake Breitling Navitimer 01. At the time, I thought I took the proper percautions by having the watch verified by an AD in Beverly Hills that amazingly enough serviced the watch and actually has a warranty on it. I was guaranteed by the certified watchmaker at the AD that it was 100% authentic and I had nothing to worry about because he serviced the watch himself. It wasn't until I put the watch up for sale on eBay that I was notified by a member that it wasn't authentic. I didn't believe it at first and I was directed to the Breitling source forum for further discussion. Even at that point I didn't believe them.
I then took the watch to the AD and had the watchmaker reverify the watch again. He opened the case and confirmed that it was the watch that he completed serviced less than a couple of months ago. I then mentioned the things that people on the forum had mentioned and he suggested that I send the watch to Breitling USA to have it verified. Once the watch returned to the store, Breitling said it was indeed a fake.
I then contacted Breitling and the owner of the AD and expressed my concerns on the mistakes they made. Breitling, nor the owner of the AD want to do anything for me. The AD says that the watchmaker just simply made a mistake and didn't realize be serviced a replica. That I still don't understand at all. I wrote an email to Breitling Switzerland with no response and Breitling USA says that AD's operate independently and there is nothing they can do. They weren't even willing to contact the AD to find out what happened.
I have no idea what to do at this point really.
Here is the thread of the full story if you're interested in reading it.
http://breitlingsource.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=58813