< PreviousSPRING 2024 esquir eme.com 80 CO VER S T O R Y Pinstripe Tank Vest, QAR190; Pinstripe Sprinter Shorts, QAR280; Emerald Green Samba OG Sneakers, QAR495; Premium Mid Crew Socks, QAR80, all by adidas Osa Long Coat, QAR4,740, by BOUGUESSASPRING 2024 esquir eme.com 81 CO VER S T O R Y Black and White Samba OG Suede-Trimmed Leather Sneakers, QRS375, by adidas Dawn Knit Polo T-Shirt, QRS2,090; Power Track Pants, QRS2,680, both by WALES BONNER at OUNASS. Santos De Cartier Sunglasses, QRS3,315, by CARTIER82 Adicolor Classics 3-Stripes Polo Shirt, QAR240; Pinstripe Sprinter Shorts, QAR280; Premium Mid Crew Socks, QAR80, all by adidas Osa Long Coat, QAR4,740, by BOUGUESSASPRING 2024 esquir eme.com 83 CO VER S T O R Y How did you celebrate the victory? After the final whistle, I remember embracing my teammates on the field. We just tried to stay in the moment and soak up the euphoria of our achievement. Privately, later on in the evening, I took some time to reflect on the experience and express gratitude to my teammates, coaches, family, and supporters who contributed to our success. Where do you keep your winner’s medal? At home, next to the other AFC Asian Cup medal! I keep all of my medals and trophies in a cabinet. To be honest, I love seeing the medals for Qatar along with all my other trophies with Al Sadd! You mentioned the winner’s medal you won in 2019. Emotionally, how does winning this year’s Asian Cup differ from last time in the UAE? Both where very important, but honestly, this year felt different. To win on home soil, in front of the local fans and the entire nation, really intensifies the sense of pride you get. Also, being the host nation adds to the pressure to perform well and deliver victory—so, I think that added element made this triumph feel even more rewarding. How do you deal with pressure when the stakes are at their highest? I work hard on staying focused on my game, trusting my training, and staying positive. I have also learnt to lean on my teammates and coaches for support when I need it, and I make sure to take care of myself both mentally and physically. If you work on controlling the factors you can control, it allows you a better chance of success. Are you someone who enjoys playing in the big occasions? Absolutely, I thrive in big occasions and matches. There’s something incredibly exhilarating about the energy and intensity of high-stakes games. I enjoy the challenge of competing against top opponents and performing under pressure. These are the moments that define a player’s career, and I relish the opportunity to showcase my skills and make a difference for my team when it matters most. The Quarter-Finals against Uzbekistan went to penalties. Would you have wanted to take one? Yeah, for sure! I was eager to take a penalty if given the opportunity, but we had won the shootout before I had the chance to take one! You mentioned that you relish playing against top opponents. Who is the best player you’ve ever played against? Lionel Messi. He is my idol, and a fortunate to have played against him at the Copa America in 2019. How good is this current Qatar team? The current Qatar team is highly skilled, tactically sound, and we possess a winning mentality—all of that makes us a force to be reckoned with in both Asian and global football. So how far can it go? The Qatar National Team have shown significant progress and potential in recent years, and there seems to be no limit to how far we can go. When you were younger you had a couple of years playing in Spain. How did those experiences help shape you into the player you are now? At that age, playing in Spain greatly enhanced my development. The exposure to a different style of play—especially Spanish football which often prioritizes possession, quick passing, and intelligent movement—helped me refine my technical abilities, decision-making, and reading of the game. Do you aspire to play club football outside of Qatar again in the future? Yes, I would love to at some point in the future. Playing professionally in different countries offers unique experiences and opportunities for growth both on and off the pitch. Whether it’s experiencing different footballing cultures, challenging yourself in new environments, or pursuing specific career goals. But for now, I am focused on playing for Al Sadd SC. Regarding Al Sadd, what are your goals for the remained of the season? To help them win trophies! Personally, I always want to improve as a player, so I can continue to contribute consistently to the team’s success. In order to do that I work hard on staying fit and injury-free, as well as maintaining a positive mindset so that I can be a positive influence on my teammates both on and off the pitch. “This time, winning the Asian Cup felt different. To win on home soil in front of the nation really intensifies the sense of pride you get. There was a sense of redemption after the World Cup.”SPRING 2024 esquir eme.com 84 CO VER S T O R YCO VER S T O R Y Adicolor Classics 3-Stripes Polo Shirt, QAR240;Pinstripe Sprinter Shorts, QAR280; Premium Mid Crew Socks, QAR80, all by adidasSPRING 2024 esquir eme.com 85 Pinstripe Tank Vest, QAR190; Pinstripe Sprinter Shorts, QAR280; Emerald Green Samba OG Sneakers, QAR500; Premium Mid Crew Socks, QAR80; Tiro Club Ball, QAR90, all by adidas Senior producer: Steff Hawker; Grooming: Aldo Cappola; Styling Assistants: Janhvi Kohli & Florence Webber CO VER S T O R YSPRING 2024 esquir eme.com 86 FEA TURE WATCH The COUNTERFEIT WATCH MARKET is booming. In fact, fake watches now account for 35 percent of all counterfeit sales globally. Some people buy them because they cannot afford the real thing, while others are ENTIRELY UNAWARE that the timepiece they are buying is a bogus. JOSH SIMS explores whether the watch brands can really do anything about it, and, if they can’t, what the insider secrets are to spotting a fake in the first placeSPRING 2024 esquir eme.com 87 FEA TURE hen, last year, customs officers at Los Angeles Airport spotted a number of small packages marked ‘bracelet’, ‘decoration’ and ‘wall clock’, their suspicions were aroused. And, rightly so. Opening them, they found $1.3m worth of watches: Panerais, Patek Philippes, Omegas and lots of Rolexes. Or, at least, that’s what they would have cost had they been real. In fact, all 41 of the watches were fakes. They also represent just a tiny fraction of the global trade in counterfeit watches, sales of which boomed over the pandemic, as the bored or comfortably-off looked online to fulfil their horological cravings. Figures are hard to rely on but upwards of an estimated 40 millon fakes are circulated every year, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, some 25 percent more than the Swiss watch industry produces itself. Those fakes make for a business worth $3 billion dollars a year—with a record year of 2013 seeing 90,000 fakes confiscated in Dubai alone, the city the Federation identifies as one of the key strategic storage hubs through which fakes are then exported internationally in those many small packages. Watches now account for between 20 and 35 percent of all sales of counterfeit consumer goods—that’s despite them being illegal in most countries. Not that this seems to dissuade anyone buying a fake. Or those who manufacture them —mostly in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and, chasing cheaper labour, increasingly Vietnam and Thailand—often on sophisticated factory lines also making legitimate parts for the legitimate watch industry. They’ll take an order for so many ‘Rolex-style’ cases, for example, as they would for any other watch component. Bit by bit these various components come together at various locations and, at some nebulous point involving the application of brand names, a look-a-like becomes a counterfeit and a criminal matter. “The battle against the counterfeit watch market is very hard to win. It’s really about reducing their visibility as much as possible, about intervening on a diplomatic and political level,” says Yves Bugmann, president of the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. “Counterfeiters want to benefit from the value that often world-famous watch brands have created, and people want to access a certain social prestige that counterfeits represent. But while some of them we just can’t influence, we find quite a lot do respond to a good argument.” The problem is, perhaps, that no one of these arguments is a killer. Those countering the counterfeiters speak, for example, of the risk of buyers exposing themselves to malware, or to having their credit card details stolen—this does happen but the sophistication of the online marketplace, and the guarantees that underpin it, make this increasingly unlikely. They speak too of the poor quality of counterfeit watches: the cheap metals, the likelihood of them lasting not long at all, their inability to fool anyone that they’re the genuine article. But that was then. We’re now in the era of the so-called ‘super-fake’, even of the ultra-fake. The counterfeiters’ embracing of the latest manufacturing technologies, from CNC machines to 3D printers, means the top-notch counterfeit today is all but indistinguishable from the real thing, at least to the naked eye of a non- expert. Knowledge accumulated over time means the fakers have only got better, and faster, at what they do. That’s concerning when, it’s been argued, the less distinguishable a fake watch becomes from the original, the more consumers become unwilling to pay the premium for the real thing. Pre-owned watch dealer Watchfinder & Co. noted in a 2023 report that five years ago 80 percent of counterfeit watches sent into its stores were easily identified as fake, with 20 percent needing closer inspection. Now those figures have been reversed. Of course, this is an aesthetic judgement, a question perhaps of less-than-perfect finishing; the counterfeit may still be well-made and contain a dependable movement, but it will lack the technology—in terms of materials and movement—of the genuine article. Some fakes can only be spotted in being handled— the hand-setting is off, or in daylight the colour isn’t quite right—which is no good to the online buyer. “The fact is though that the counterfeiters’ emphasis is on the look of the watch because that’s all the guy who buys a counterfeit really cares about,” explains Fabrice Gueroux, author of Real & Fake Watches and SPRING 2024 esquir eme.com 88 FEA TURE an independent authenticator for many high- rolling collectors. “Yes, you can sometimes close your eyes and hold a counterfeit in your hands and there’s something that doesn’t feel right about it, but you need deep knowledge of the genuine watch for that and, of course, that’s what most people don’t have. With enough time even the best fake shows itself, and the best ones have put in the extra time on the paintwork, the fonts, the bracelet. But even I’m surprised by just how good a counterfeit can now be”. That, he explains, is down to two factors. On the one hand, Gueroux laments, “the quality of some Swiss watches is not as high as is always claimed—so the borderline difference in quality between counterfeit and genuine watch can make spotting those counterfeits the hardest. With some brands [typically those seeking an especially high margin] the quality of the counterfeits is actually better…” On the other hand, counterfeiters—and he says there are five mega-factories in China that collectively dominate counterfeiting, and which are known to make many millions of fake watches every year—used to have little competition and few, closely protected distribution channels. Now they have lots of competition and the internet has blown the market wide open, necessarily pushing quality up. “Sure, many people buy a counterfeit because they just want the same look at the best quality for the cheapest price,” says Gueroux, “and they know that the real thing would cost, say, $20,000. But then that person sells that watch on as ‘genuine’ and prices it accordingly to be convincing. And so on, such that there are so many good counterfeits [passing as genuine] on the market now.” As for those Swiss makers still at the top of their games, they’re left facing off their counterfeiters, locked in an unending arms race of serial numbers, hallmarks, engravings and holograms—and, eventually, their inevitable copies too. “[And while] there are a lot of technical anti-counterfeiting and traceability measures now being used and developed,” notes Bugmann, “ultimately they’re of no use if the consumer deliberately wants to buy a fake”. It does make the Swiss industry rightly worried about buyers being duped with, say, a dodgy IWC or Hublot though. And the most well-heeled and well-connected buyer can fall foul: the Brazilian footballer Neymar, rapper Little Baby and musician John Meyer have all bought watches they only later found out were counterfeit, leading to legal action in some cases. Even brands and expert valuers can be conned: the most expensive Omega ever sold at auction, a supposed 1957 Speedmaster sold for $3.4m by Philips to Omega in 2021, turned out to be a so-called ‘Frankenwatch’, put together using parts from various vintage watches. Embarrassment perhaps prevents other stories of being duped from circulating; or, perhaps, people are just not duped in this way all that often. Watchfinder & Co suggests that one in five watch buyers have been victims of purchasing a fake watch, the kind of figures, no doubt, that incentivised Rolex to take ownership of the problem by launching its own certified pre-owned programme in 2022. Of course, many other buyers—the small majority, according to one study—know full well that they’re buying a fake watch. After all, the vast majority of fakes— Rolexes with quartz movements and the like— are still obviously so. The counter-counterfeiters even make the appeal to guilt. There’s the rather tired line about morally minor crimes—as they may be perceived SPRING 2024 esquir eme.com 89 FEA TURE “One clear driver in purchasing [counterfeit watches] is the thrill of the hunt,” she argues. “There’s a fun factor in finding the best counterfeit for the right price. There’s a sense now of people who buy counterfeits belonging to a kind of ‘secret society’, one that’s curious about the original items and the counterfeits alike, especially in relation to their quality. There’s a transfer of the interest they would have had in the original article to the counterfeit. It’s a gateway to enjoying Rolex and other brands”. In other words, Bian’s research reveals, there is a growing culture of counterfeit buyers who buy them out of admiration for the artistry inherent in the fakery, as one might take a pleasure in just how convincing a fake Renoir is relative to the original. What’s more surprising, Bian adds, is the incorrect assumption that counterfeit watches are only bought by those who can’t afford genuine ones. “We found that even affluent people who can buy the real article buy counterfeits,” she says. “In part that’s because other people are less likely to question whether their watch is real or fake. They look the part. In part because they just see mixing up their watches—real and fake—as fun, or a bit naughty.” So what of the ethical question? Don’t people just think buying a counterfeit watch is wrong? The Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie’s anti- counterfeiting campaign of a few years ago was based around the statement “Fake Watches are for Fake People”. But, Bian argues, this highlights a disconnect between what a prestige watchmaker may think of as wrong, and what a consumer might. Take, for instance, arguably the watch industry’s strongest case against counterfeits: the plain and simple one that it’s an infringement of their intellectual property, the investment the real makers have put into building the brand value that makes counterfeiting their wares worth it in the first place. This is not necessarily regarding design per se—this typically needs to be protected under patent, and when patents expire watch brands are free to copy each other’s designs, and maybe it doesn’t help their cause that they have done so most liberally—so much as of names, logos and other trademarked elements. A replica or ‘homage’ that’s a precise copy all except the branding isn’t a counterfeit—ethically maybe it is, but not usually in law. “Of course a lot of people know what they’re buying even if the ad calls the counterfeit a ‘replica’ or some such kind of code. But what we’re dealing with here is theft of intellectual property, of the ‘Swiss-made’ label, of the maker’s reputation,” says Bugmann. “This can be frustrating for the industry especially given that, —being used to fund major ones, the likes of human or drug trafficking, though this is more a bogeyman argument than one that’s well- evidenced. The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry speaks of counterfeiting’s negative impact on employment and revenue—to the tune of €1.9bn annually—across the legitimate industry. But the vast majority of people buying a fake would not buy the real thing were the counterfeit not available—they couldn’t afford it, yet still crave the status power that in part makes the genuine brands so appealing. This is especially the case in rapidly developing economies where peer comparison pressures are more stark. Indeed, the first in-depth studies of why sales of counterfeits are growing—led by Dr Xuemei Bian, professor of marketing at Northumbria University, UK—suggest that the motivation for buying a fake is far more sophisticated, and twisted, than the simple fact that of its relative affordability. IMA GE S : SHUT TERS T OCKNext >