when patina is too good to be true

[moris]

My takeaway from this thread is that professional doctoring the dial or laser welding the case is pretty much impossible to prove.

So this leaves it to probability.

How probable is it that the national lottery is won by the same person repeatedly during a several year timespan? Not very probable.

How likely is the occurence of basically NOS looking vintage rolexes highly exceeding such occurence with other similarly specialised sellers?

For me thats sufficient for making a decision on buying or not..

[1675-David]

Laser welding is not impossible to prove, even if it has been done very well there will be traces that can be picked up with the naked eye or a loupe. In order to judge the quality of a weld you need to be able to observe it and there is a whole industry devoted solely to testing and ensuring weld quality so if it's been welded it can be observed end of story...
The issue that this thread raises is that original honest pieces are becoming increasingly hard to find in a market where a couple of hundred bucks can turn a perfectly nice honest sub into a near NOS piece with a beautifully faded insert and a gorgeous patina.

[themaninblack]

I don't agree with some of the conclusions being drawn here but if you are not confident or satisfied then certainly don't buy.

[jfmiii]

People should go over check out RWG and RWI. These arent Canal St specials. It is absolutely mind blowing the fake parts coming out Asia. It is equally mind blowing how good people are getting at artificially aging dials/hands/cases.

[humk]

Do you mean the watches with the perfect orange patina?