FAKES - Fake Magazines are for Fake People

A creative photo editorial published by Plaza Watch is hijacked by a Greek watch magazine and disfigured. Plaza Watch editor-in-chief Anders Modig speaks out.

Plaza Watch - 17 May 2010

Anders Modig

As you probably know, fake watches turn over an estimated 300 billion U.S. dollars per year and do irreparable damage to the Swiss watch industry. In an attempt to fight this, we see police actions as well as preventative measures like the “Fake Watches are for Fake People” campaign launched by the Swiss Watch Federation (FH) and the Fondation de Haute Horlogerie (FHH). I know: old news. But did you know that there are watch magazines, or at least one, that is just as fake as a three-bob note? Did you know that creativity of Greek magazine Chronos Oro is just as laughable as its home country’s national economy?

In 2008 Plaza Watch published “Le Manufacture,” a ten-page photo editorial by photographer Daniel Lindh. The creativity of skeletonized watches on a skeletonized robot was much appreciated by readers and industry alike, and some of the photos were also part of the Plaza Watch photo exhibition at the SIHH in January 2010. The Greek watch magazine Chronos Oro liked it so much, that its editors decided to reuse it—without asking for permission. In an unethical act breaking all codes of the media industry when it comes to law, moral, and creativity the magazine not only scanned the ten pages, but did so with an appalling quality. Before printing it in the Greek publication’s December 2009 issue, the editors also copy-pasted stock images of twelve different watches into the story—of brands that—surprise, surprise—advertise with Chronos Oro.

The fake, byChronos Oro. DR

The original, by Plaza Watch. DR

“I have never heard of anything like this before; Chronos Oro has made an incredibly clear copyright infringement. The case is now being examined by Plaza Watch’s legal representatives in Greece,” says Plaza’s international copyright attorney.

This is probably the first time the phenomenon of piracy and counterfeiting has ever occurred among watch magazines. But nothing is new under the sun: according to an article by Bert de Muynck in the much-acclaimed Dutch architectural magazine Mark, there is a huge counterfeit industry in China for architectural books and magazines. At a smidgeon of the original price, you can get just about any international book or magazine ever published in the genre. But at least these Chinese counterfeiters are reproducing the original. If the title Chronos Architecture existed, it would probably copy-paste some extra buildings into the images.

Let’s start a new campaign: “Fake magazines are for fake people.”

Anders Modig is the editor-in-chief of Plaza Watch