Fake Rolex Watches & Stolen Gold: The Jaquet Affair And Watchmaking's Greatest Scandal

Counterfeit Rolex watches are the single greatest authenticity threat to watch buyers around the world. Most times, fake Rolex watches are built in fly-by-night fashion by operations with no name, no public profile, little to lose, and no connections to the proper luxury watch industry. The 2003 Jaquet Affair turns that notion on its head. From 2003 to the conclusion of the trial in 2008, “L’Affair Jaquet” shocked watch collectors, Swiss nationals, and the entire Swiss watch industry. Today, Tim Mosso looks back on the greatest scandal in the history of watchmaking. Jean Pierre Jaquet was not a well-loved figure even within the close-knit world of Swiss watch parts suppliers. He was a two-time loser with over three years of total jail time – and several other raps beaten outright – before founding his watch factory, Jaquet SA, in the 1990s. Through his years as a watch dealer, antique timepiece specialist, and parts fabricator, the “watchmaker” Jaquet had built a reputation as a humorless and overbearing figure with growing industry clout. Around La Chaux de Fonds, the traditional heartland of Swiss watchmaking, Jaquet inspired grudging admiration but little affection. Through partnerships with brands like Graham, Girard-Perregaux, Maurice Lacroix, various Richemont companies, and the young F.P. Journe brand, Jaquet SA – the company – had established itself as an important finisher of watch movement ebauches and fabricator of mostly Valjoux-based calibers and complications.