Welcome to the Gilt Trips podcast. I'm your host, Kendra Lockhart. As a goldsmith and
gemologist, I'll be speaking 24 carat on all things jewelry, metals, and gems. Join
me plus a few friends to demystify both materials and designs as your private jeweler. Let's
tune in on these topics and get golden. There are many motivations to pretend versus be
genuine. It saves the resources of money, handles scarcity or rarity, and an effort
to attain or achieve elite markers of status or accomplishment. In the world of gold, forgery
bars are becoming a crisis. In recent years, bars worth at least $50 million, stamped with
Swiss refinery logos, but not actually produced by those facilities, have been identified by
all four of Switzerland's leading gold refiners, as well as found in the vaults of JPMorgan
Chase. The lab-grown diamond industry was $24 billion in 2022. While this is a real
creation presenting itself as man-made, the complication of being passed off as natural
is causing problems. In January of this year, the International Gemological Institute, or
IGI, reported that a six carat lab-grown pear shape had been submitted with a fake GIA
inscription, identifying itself as a natural diamond. Counterfeit timepieces are a multi-billion
dollar industry as well, with shaky estimates indicating between 30 and 50 million fake
watches entering the market every year. Rolex alone makes only 1 million. Imagine that ratio
of authentic to inauthentic units. Materials, watches, and jewelry brands are facing their
own dark markets, so education and recognition is becoming more important, as mistakes mean
high costs. Is the desire for luxury expressed or engineered? How does it affect the real
deal?
Chapter time stamps are in the show notes.
Sabri Subhi, an investor on Shark Tank and the creator of King Kong Marketing, made a
list of how we have made the luxury craving. One, unlike self-purchases, the prospective
client is assigned an advisor, as well as a buyer's tier. Two, the maker deliberately
creates low stock or underproduces. That stimulates the supply-demand access. Urgency and desirability
enter the consumer journey. Deny or delay availability? Even in some Apple stores, you can't just
walk in and get the latest device. The company is playing to the top, not the bottom, of
its users.
Four, premium aesthetics and materials are used so that it objectively indicates high
standards.
Five, status signaling. Now we enter the element of precision skills and impeccable craftsmanship.
This is not your ordinary item by metals or by talents.
Six, building a lifestyle brand. The item is the result and the reason is your identity,
community, and associations. And last, number seven, the waitlist effect. Value is perceived
through a process of acquisition versus instant gratification. We see this in sales when we
talk about being clerked versus sold in any goods or services. Luxury wants you to rise
up through the ranks and see yourself as better than. There is a dopamine to new levels of
achievement and unspoken community and a bit of pain for the outcome of pleasure around
wanting something.
This is the opposite of utilitarian. Utilitarian is a toothbrush. You curate your choice. You
select your idea of the best tool for the job. It is self talk. This one is the cheapest.
I like this color. I use the toothpaste of these guys or other forms of reasoning. It
would be pretty funny if we advertise toothbrushes as are you someone with a 1% smile? Is your
orthodontic alignment better than your neighbors and coworkers? Here's a 24 karat toothbrush.
Only 100 are made every year.
One of my career roles in the jewelry and watch industry was being a specialist, which
is fancy for calling me an authenticator. Even as far back as when I first became a goldsmith,
being able to identify genuine and valuable materials from those that were obviously not
or were designed to deceive was a compulsory part of the job. Misidentifying a metal or
a gem, not recognizing aftermarket watch components or falling for the roosts of imposter goods
could hurt the money, the elements, the reputation and more often than not, the relationship.
Today I am going to break this topic down into three areas. Materials, timepieces and
branded jewelry. I will discuss the methodology for identification and share my best or worst
stories in each category. Let's start with metals and gems. Regarding metals, all that
glitters is not gold. It matters to have a low grade skepticism over enthusiastic naivete
when you are first given an item to repair or buy or consign. There is a hustle of spotting
the least attentive employee or be aligning to a new hire and weaponizing their unfamiliarity
or lack of commitment to details. Back in the day, we would write up intake slips for
repairs as gold tone chain. Why? Because if the claim check said 14 carat necklace and
later it was found out to be fake or fashion or costume jewelry, it's a little too late
according to what you said they gave you. So regarding methodology on gold, silver and
platinum items, you're looking for markings such as a stamping of the caratage or metal
purity. Checking for signs of plating, where a metal is just a superficial coating or finish
on top. Do the visual colors match your usual and customary golds or sterling items? Is
the finish luster or patina on the platinum what you've encountered or is it different?
It takes some instincts as much as knowledge and exposure. Gram for gram, do the weights
match? Is the item in question seeming lighter or heavier than you imagined for this piece?
Once you're done using your eyes as your main instrument, it's normal to move on to
external tools. Are you using a jeweler's loop to magnify any markings you could not
see with your normal unenhanced vision? Now is the chance to find miniscule wear and
tear that could reveal gold or silver plating instead of a solid casting. Many buyers who
pass through flea markets or state sales prefer the magnet test. Iron, steel and nickel alloys
will stick to a magnet even if gold plated. Nobody wants to quote take your word for
it on a solid gold item because often a fool and his money could soon be parted over word
of mouth deals. If you aren't walking around someone's yard or outside of your place of
business, you may see an expert use the acid kit. There are a range of tinctures of acid
plus what is called a testing stone. The item in question is rubbed on the stone much like
sweeping a file across your fingernail to leave a trace of the material. The purity ratio
of the acid needs to match the purity ratio of the metal. While this is quick and somewhat
easy, it is not 100% accurate. Are you gauging the match accurately? Did you clean the stone
or is old residue skewing your results? If you have the money and wish to invest in an
analyzer, the XRF which stands for X-ray fluorescence as a tester is a more accurate way to go.
It instantly gives the alloy composition even through plating, comparing the items metals
to what gold and sterling are made out of and to what proportions is incredibly useful.
A sterling item is not supposed to be mostly copper. Lastly, inspect the craftsmanship.
Work done in fine metals versus fashion metals usually has superior execution. Sawing through
gold is like a scalpel through paper. Sawing through nickel or copper feels like a box
cutter through cardboard. Those lines will not be as clean. If you want to know more
on metals, refer to the episode on those or alternative alloys. When it comes to gems,
it is a similar approach. What do your eyes see? The color is off? Is it too sparkly?
In terms of brilliance, fire or scintillation with light? Or does it seem unusually dull
for a jewel? Regarding the wear and tear, is any damage symptomatic of certain gem varieties
or types of synthetics and stimulants? You can probably imagine the consequences of
imitations. Unlike metal, a small jewel can seem to be worth tens of thousands of dollars.
So here are the devices that assist beyond our visual senses. For gems, I have a jeweler's
loop. That is a mandatory standard. Next, a gem duo tester. This is a thermal wand that
touches the surface facets and shows a range of materials it could be. For me, this is
semi-diagnostic, not completely conclusive. So, I could get a suggestion of a stone as
garnet or tourmaline since they both respond similarly. It cannot show me genuine vs. synthetic
ruby, but it can show me ruby vs. glass. There are devices that assist with a gem's response
to light refraction, polarity of light and spectrum of absorbed light. Those three require
gemological training and mastery, where the above tools do not. Lastly, a top grade microscope
with several magnifications and different light color options as well as overhead or back
lit is most useful. I'll go further into this in an episode later this month. So let
me share some of my best and worst moments on knockoff metals and gems. One client when
I was a private jeweler asked me to repair a beautiful lighter case that seemed to be
sterling with turquoise cabochons bezled onto the front of it. It was stamped with three
words on the bottom. Mexico, silver, alpaca. Fortunately, I asked around if that meant
a certain region or was referring to an alloy. Alpaca silver is made of copper, nickel and
zinc. My solder would not have worked. I had never put this alloy under my torch and I
would have been liable for replacing anything destroyed. Plus, contaminating parts of my
studio. So I passed. I've had a fake stamping where the weight of the item was accurate to
the designer's product line and the plating was very heavy. The marking of 925 for sterling
passed my visual test and the weight check since copper and silver aren't terribly
far apart regarding specific gravity. But it got busted with the XRF test when it came
back over 68% copper. I went on vacation as a bench jeweler and gave my mentor a ring
to size. I forgot to tell him it was a dark blue cubic zirconium, a demi stone, holding
a place until we could have the real sapphire for the project. It exploded under the torch
and he was terrified he would be out $1000 out of pocket. When I got back I said I don't
need your two bucks. It was a fake stone. Lastly, a client was attempting to consign
a designer emerald ring and we flagged the jewel as a hydrothermal emerald or lab grown.
Her response to a request for paperwork was met with indignation. If she had purchased
it recently at Neimanorcus, they would need to refund a non genuine gem. We did not hear
back from her regarding proceeding. Finding replica or lookalike watches is a nuanced
game. There are many brands who each have their identifiers. Fortunately, my industry
has three levels of a fraudulent timepiece. The cheap fake, the deep fake and the franken
watch. It should be noticed that passing off a dummy watch can be accidental. A poor choice
of purchase on a trip, a gift from the grey market where items are not authenticated,
or a potential individual scam all the way into a full fledged organized ring such as
those found around the world. The basic methodology is straightforward. Start by identifying the
materials. If this isn't gold when the brand only works in that, just stop. Are you finding
a glass crystal versus sapphire crystal when that is not part of the watch houses product
line? That can be determined with the duo tester for the nature of the material if you're
uncomfortable with a water test or feeling for relative temperatures.
Next, inspecting craftsmanship. Again, you can execute more precisely in better alloys
than garbage ones. Compare the make and model to its original standards. Be sure to check
functionality. Are the components operational or cosmetic? Does the bezel work? Is the spelling
of words correct? Does the font match the true design? Let's assume it is legitimate.
In the industry, you would be expected to find a current manufacturer's sales retail pricing
MSRP, calculate it with factors like how quickly people decide to buy or comparable realized
sales of either the item or the brand in your area and be knowledgeable or aware of overall
watch values, demand for styles, and the ability to grade the condition of the item. As for
stories, many companies are asked to confiscate or destroy fake watches. This happens more
often when you send your watch to the original watch house for servicing or repair or reconditioning.
Watchmakers may kindly say it's not real and return it to you. A few of my stories include
a son who brought in his Rolex Submariner because it stopped running. This was his college graduation
present. Unfortunately, it was a Franken watch. The outside was real, but the inside was gutted
and replaced with gray market movement according to our watchmaker. The client was kind about
it, admitting his dad wanted it at a poker game. That is where the real hustle seemed to happen.
As for a deep fake, a gorgeous 18 carat gold men's Cartier came through and priced out at over
$11,000 at a secondary market potential. However, none of the screws were the right size and the
threads were not stripped. There were strange glue lines around the crystal, so this was a subtle
hiccup in what seemed authentic. Lastly, a couple Breitlings came in from a consumer who had never
taken a trip to the tropical islands. He offered up two models for sale. Unfortunately, they weighed
as aluminum and not steel. And the dial said, Breitling, not Breitling. This is a cheap fake. Now,
we arrive at the place of the big three in branded jewelry, Tiffany, Cartier, and Van
Cleef. Fortunately, each design house has a consistent way of making its pieces. When you're a
detective around the legitimacy, look to the company's methodology more than your own approaches.
There is a certain pattern on these items that are reliable arrangements, especially in the order
of company signature, its font, where you can find the placement, trademark detailing, and even
intellectual property design elements. Let's use Cartier as an example, such as the love bracelet.
I find the Cartier brand signature, its purity mark in European standards, the serial number,
a size number, maker's marks or assay marks, and possibly a registered trademark. As far as
mechanisms, the closures and azures or windows behind the gems are set to match a certain shape,
caliber of worksmanship, and exclusive design element. These are guidelines to catch the fakes
from the reel. As for my stories, I've made employees laugh at our fake versions, calling them
Fardier, Fiffenie, and Van Cleef. I was given a Cartier rolling ring with the wrong font,
and the metal was in American heritage versus European. It also seemed hand engraved instead of
stamped. My Fiffenie piece could not spell the last name of the designer properly, and as for the
Van Cleef Alhambra on expendent, the black material was plastic instead of an actual agate gem.
In closing, I'd love to quote our former head of security at a timepiece showroom. He has a love
for the storylines in our most well-known comic books. He said, quote, a hero has to win every
time, a villain only wants, unquote. While I can't say that I've battered a thousand on busting the
copycat items, but I will say I've helped out my own brand, my clients, and the companies I've worked
for dodge a few bullets regarding this game. Thank you for listening and learning with me. I would
love you to share this project with people finding rare beauty in today's world and throughout our
times. Until the next episode, keep your own story sparkling.