Officials seize 710 counterfeit Titan Raga watches from showroom

It's a Titan-ic raid: duplicate watches worth Rs 6L found

Officials seize 710 counterfeit Titan Raga watches from showroom

The next time you buy a Titan watch, look at it twice. It may just be a duplicate. Officials of the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (EIPR) raided a watch showroom in Thippasandra on January 1 and confiscated 710 duplicate Titan Raga watches worth Rs 6 lakh. The officials said that by copying the brand, Gururaj M (35), the owner of the showroom Sri Guru Raghavendra Times, has not only violated Titan's copyright but also caused huge losses for the company.

Watch out for fakes like these: A bunch of the duplicate Titan Raga watches seized

EIPR Director Gulpanag Makhani said, "We learnt about the counterfeit watches through our source. We conducted the raid with the help of the police and seized replicas worth Rs 6 lakh."

Police Sub Inspector Mouneshwar, who was present during the raid said, "We have filed a case against him for cheating and violation copyright. We also seized all the duplicate watches." Officials said Gururaj used to purchase cheap material (including dial and strap) for the watch from the open market.

While assembling the parts, he would emboss the Titan logo. He would then sell them at 'discounted' throwaway prices under the Titan brand name. What Gururaj didn't know was that Titan makes slight changes in its logo for every new series. Unaware, Gururaj used to emboss the same type of logo across series. Officials believe that the city has many more such shops selling duplicate watches.

How to spot a fake

Duplicate Titan watches are generally lighter than the genuine ones.

They don't have series and product numbers, or even the manufacturing dates.

They have all the same logo, while logos differ in genuine products.

Did you know?

Titan has contracted EIPR to control the manufacture and sale of duplicate watches. EIPR is India's largest investigation agency specialising in anti-counterfeiting solutions.

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