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.

All of that began to change in 2002. That was the year a January theft of gold Rolex watch cases shocked the Le Locle watchmaking community. A brazen armed robbery, the theft occurred outside case finisher Miranda, which was in the process of taking possession of the Rolex parts in order to apply finishing details. In June, RSM, a watch industry supplier, was robbed of an enormous quantity of solid gold amounting to 10-12 kilograms.

And at this point, Swiss authorities reportedly already had Jaquet’s phone tapped. The thefts of gold and Rolex watch parts proved to be linked, and Jaquet was at the center of the investigations. Drive-by shoots, armed threats, and recriminations flared between Jaquet and his co-conspirators as Swiss authorities closed in.

October 7, 2003 was the day Jaquet’s brazen plan unraveled in full. Swiss authorities swept through the Jaquet factory, found extensive evidence of stolen goods possession, counterfeiting, and systemic corruption. Jean Pierre Jaquet and 11 others were arrested; Jaquet spent 14 months in jail prior to trial. September of 2008 brought the final verdict in the Jaquet Affair; mastermind Jaquet was sentenced to 4.5 years of jail and forced to pay restitution of CHF 750,000.

No YouTube watch vendor scandal, channel hoax, or vintage-dealer-turned-con can compare to the sheer scope of the Jaquet Affair. Over $300,000 in solid gold, almost 1,000 gold Rolex cases, attempts to assemble complete counterfeit Rolex watches, and a crime spree stretching across the traditional Swiss watchmaking heartland will never be topped.

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