[LRK]

Hi, my husband has been given a watch by his Father that claims to be a Vacheron Constantin Chronograph, although as we do not know how to tell the difference and it was a gift to his Father several years ago, we would appreciate an experienced take on things. I have attached some photos - please ignore the strap, that has been changed for preference, the original one is still around. The calender runs out at the end of 2015.

Any thoughts would be appreciated, I hope I have posted in the right forum. :blush:

 

[Watchbreath]

Looks like a nasty fake.

 

[LRK]

Looks like a nasty fake.

Thanks for your consideration. As we don't know what we would be looking for, please can you let us know the key indicators that show you it is fake? Not doubting at all, just nice to know what shows it as fake.

 

[~tc~]

Cheesy printing, subdials used for date instead of chrono, wrong style hands for VC, poorly finished movement, poor "painting" on the inner cover, and it appears to be more modeled after a Patek model instead of VC.

Do the chronograph pushers work to start/stop/reset the second hand?

 

[Grumpyguy]

Here's a picture of a Timex I own with a Chinese movement in it.

Note the similarity of the layout and the sun/moon disc is a classic Chinese accessory.

How does the year and month advance? Automatically or do you have advance them manually?

For all I know, it could be real, but the year, month, sun/moon displays all scream Chinese fake.

I just can't ever image VC putting a sun/moon/day/night dial in any of their watches.

Sorry.

 

[CometHunter]

There are three things I noted before I even clicked on the thumbnails.
The first is that a genuine Vacheron calendar would not "stop" after 2015. The calendar would continue on into the next century. Also, I know of no watch (by ANY make) that has 3 push-pieces on the right-hand side along with a crown (winding knob). It would make it too easy to push the wrong piece by accident. That smaller "third" pushbutton would normally be found on the other side of the case, located in the 10 o'clock position, and only on models that do not have those two regular push-pieces at the 2 and 4. And the rotor (that triangular thing on the back of the watch that swings back-and-forth) is shaped all wrong. It is the style of rotor we see on very inexpensive Asian movements.

Sorry!

 

[ulackfocus]

It's a really bad fake. The case is a copy of the style used in the Malte series, and the movement is a Chinese clone of a Valjoux 7750. There's a lot more tells, but the previous posters have told you enough to know it's counterfeit.