Note: apologies for the very long post, but it's been a while since I've made one this long, so I feel I'm allowed.
First off, I agree with you. One's "floating boat" is really all that matters for it's better than a sinking one.
Curiously, I have found that fake watches made for a few good (short, but good) conversations. Their very existence is, among other things, one of the things that really opened my eyes to the true extent of bamboozlement pricey watch companies have successfully achieved over the buying general public. I say that with regard to simple watches, not the fancy complicated works of engineering that do indeed take some serious skills to create poorly, much less to do so as well as many of the top makers do.
Back in the 1980s, I recall walking down Connecticut Avenue in DC's business district and seeing various table-top vendors selling all manners of fake Rolexes and other watches. I never bought one, but I didn't mind that some folks did. This was more or less around the time I'd first self-acknowledged that I'm "into" watches and had by then bought a few nice ones in light of that fact.
Many years later, I as assigned to take over a project in Shenzhen, PRC. Upon arriving there, I noticed many members of my team there were wearing what I thought were some really nice watches -- Rolexes, JLC, Pateks, and others. I was quite surprised for though I knew I wasn't the only person the planet who collected/wore nice watches, I still thought it unusually odd that so many folks in one place shared my interest.
One day I complimented one of the senior managers on the team on his watch. He immediately told me it's a fake he'd bought at the shopping tower in Luohu. He also told me that pretty much everyone had multiple fakes bought from the same place.
He continued to explain roughly what these fakes cost -- ~$20, maybe more maybe less depending on how well you haggle. He also told me that he'd bought lots of them to give to folks back home as notional gifts and that without exception, the people who received them enjoyed them.
I asked him how long they last and how well they keep time. He said that so far, he hadn't had any problem, but he also told me there are varying qualities of fakes. Apparently the ones you can buy at any subway concession aren't as well done as the ones in the Luohu complex. He told me to stop by his hotel room some time and he'd show the difference. I took him up on his offer and low and behold, he was right.
Finally, I asked him if he was indeed a watchie. He wasn't, but he said he enjoyed being able to just wear all sorts of different styles of watch for the fun of it. His interest in them was much the same as someones interest in socks. They were nothing more than a fashion accessory.
Well that experience prompted me to ask a few other folks on the team similar questions. After hearing them relate pretty much the same story as that first senior manager, my eyes began to open. I came to realize that when it comes to basic time telling, the cheapest mechanical watch one can come by will do an effective job. They may not all gain/lose seconds as slowly as some fancy watches, chronometers in particular, but they do so slowly enough -- about at the rate of an ETA top or elabore grade movement -- that few if any folks will care, and even there, occasionally one will find one that keeps time to chronometer standards.
That's when the two ton gorilla got out of the cage. For years, I'd naively thought the whole issue re: fake luxury watches had to do with legality, and with the reputation of the trademark holders, and all manners of other stuff that more than one person here has raised. After working in the PRC, I have changed my mind, realizing that all that stuff is buy a red herring that obfuscates the heart of the matter. The issue is that the fancy makers all know quite well that as far as basic time/date telling and solid construction, just about anybody can produce a watch that will do that as well as they can. They can't let fakes proliferate so much because if they did, everyone would come to realize that there's really not any appreciable difference functionally among basic watches.
Oh, yes, the Rolexes and Pateks and JLCs
et al all put added "features" -- decoration such as
guilloche dials, Geneva striping,
perlage, anglage, etc. -- on their watches to provide visible attributes to justify the prices charged for them. Aside from the Nautlus/Aquanaut, why else do you suppose PP only makes gold or platinum watches?
Now mind you, I didn't share the anecdote above specifically to make the point that fakes work well enough. Rather to just relate that along with telling time, fake watches can even make for some interesting -- short, but interesting all the same -- conversations. It seems even in that way, the fakes are every bit the equal of the real thing.
Sidebar:
FWIW, the one thing-- besides the price -- that I've found distinguishing the pricey watches from the impostors is that with the automatics, the pricey ones seem able to build up power
and keep accurate time without first manually winding them. The fakes, it seems, need to be wound first, but then after that initial winding, they keep time as described above.
Now even as a watch collector, I have to admit that thousands of dollars is quite a premium to pay only to avoid a few seconds of twisting a crown. It's in part, then, that realization that's led me to my insouciance about fake watches. Serious, curatorially driven collectors won't buy fakes for their collection for obvious reason, but sartorially focused watch consumers have little reason to spend those huge sums to have a good looking watch that works well. But, hey, as said above, so long as others' boats don't sink and mine doesn't either, I can live and let live.
All the best.