How One British Watch Company Took on the Counterfeiters

The celebrated watch microbrand from Brighton, Studio Underd0g, has discovered it has been the victim of counterfeiting.

A figure released in November by Watchfinder & Co. suggested there were 23.3 million fake watches circulating in America alone. That’s a lot of watch cash not going into the watch brand’s pockets. That’s bad if you’re Rolex. It’s potentially ruinous if you’re a teeny, tiny brand like Studio Underd0g, whose line of fun, food-themed chronographs has made it the breakout start-up of the last few years, and whose popularity is such it can’t keep its watches in stock – models that retailed for £600 last year are now on eBay for £1,700.

Last week owner-founder Richard Benc took to Instagram to share the news he’d been the victim of crime. Except he was so typically upbeat and smiley, it took a second to figure that’s what he was saying. ‘Our biggest achievement to date!’ the post was headed.

a person holding a microphone

Then Benc flashed his wrist with what appeared to be Studio Underd0g’s definitive model, the WatermelOn – a yellow, green and lime green watch designed to look like the bulbous tropical fruit.

“This watch here isn’t quite what it seems,” Benc ginned. “I bought it from AliExpress* and I think it’s fair to say this brand has been somewhat influenced by our bestselling WatermelOn model.”

a close up of a watch

Close up of the dial: Chinese text and slightly-off colour scheme now plain to see.

“That’s right, it’s a copy. Or should I do them the honour of calling it a homage.”

There was more – Benc had also got his hands on another homage to one his own designs, knocked-up by the same brand. Not the Mint Ch0c Chip or the Pink Lem0nade or one of his existing food-based designs, but an entirely new yellow-and-green interpretation these imposters had called the AvocadO.

“It’s got me thinking. What if we copy a copy?”

a watch on a person’s wrist

Benc was canvassing his 35,400 IG followers. Was a Studi0 Underd0g Avacad0 something they’d like to see? (The feedback can be summarised: ‘DO IT!!! 🥑🤣🤣🔥🔥🔥’) It was the most good-natured response to intellectual property theft homage-ing Esquire can think of.

So we called up Benc to congratulate him.

“Someone posted them on a Reddit page /ChineseWatches,” he told us. “So I saw them pretty much before anyone had discovered it. The actual brand hadn’t even posted on their website. My instant reaction was ‘Alright, I gotta get my hands on this’.”

To Benc’s surprise, the quality of the watches wasn’t too bad.

“I was half-hoping I’d open up the box and they’d be non-functional, or maybe a crown would have fallen off. But I’ve gotta admit, I was really impressed.”

What Benc didn’t do next was engage a lawyer in intellectual property and issue a strongly worded Cease and Desist letter.

“It’s not really our style, is it? I’d like to think no existing or potential future Studio Underd0g customer would be swayed by this. Our brand values are openness, honesty and poking fun at the industry. I think this is really an accomplishment – it shows how far we’ve come in three years.”

Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, and all that. Benc has had no contact with his tribute act. And he has no idea why they chose to produce their ‘own’ Avacd0 watch.

“I’m glad they have, though,” he said. “Because it’s opened up an opportunity for us to bring our audience along on the design of a watch. We’re don’t normally let people behind the curtain. But we’ll ask people what they’d like to see. ‘Shall we change the numerals to Chinese, or Mandarin?’ Maybe we’ll do a poll. We might make it a pièce unique and auction it off for charity. There’s lot of ideas. The main thing is, we get to tell the story.

“The watch industry is a very serious place and in typical circumstances, the big boys would be sending a Cease and Desist. Hopefully this has helped us communicate why the Studio Underd0g approach and our values are different.”

Which just goes to show, you can’t get one over on an Underd0g.

underd0g.com

*Chinese retailer selling thousands of brands you’ve never heard of, for small change.