I think it's pretty amazing how far replicas have come. This topic got me thinking and I started browsing youtube and I found this video comparing an authentic Rolex to several replicas. I'll be honest, all of those replicas except for the first one look immaculate to me, especially the one with the same color scheme as the authentic.
Personally I don't care about watches so I'd never buy a watch like this real or fake. But it's interesting nonetheless.
Looking from the outside in, I'm struggling to rationalize why the authentic costs $10,000 while these replicas cost maybe $100 or $200 (or even less). I don't understand where all of that $10,000 is in materials and labor. It appears, at first glance, that $9000 of that is just profit margin and brand inflation. But again this really isn't my field of expertise so I'll defer to those who collect watches regularly.
It almost seemed like the reviewer was struggling to come up with sensible reasons for why the authentic rolex costs so much more than the replicas.
Look at the replica at 4:44 and compare it to the authentic watch at the end.
Edit (merged posts):
The one at 6:14 is even better.
He keeps talking about how the "crown guards overlap the bottom of the crown" on the fake @ 6:14 compared to the real one shown at the end. What's he talking about?
He also claims the magnification of the date is the highest on the authentic. I don't see that at all. They all look similar (at least from the video).
The replica at 6:14 uses an "eta movement" which, from my cursory google search, appears to be a movement that's used in some respectable (albeit not necessarily high end) watch brands like breitling.
I will say though as a casual observer, the very first replica shown in the video looks absolutely awful. I'm really focusing on the replica shown at 6:14.
Just to be clear, I'm not at all criticizing anyone who spends $10,000 on an authentic submariner. In the past, I used to question people spending money on what I deemed to be a waste, but I realized how arrogant that point of view was (thanks to many useful posts from people like tony20009 and others!) because placing value on luxury non-essentials is necessarily arbitrary.