The air-conditioning hit hard when she entered the jewelry store. Walking a slow lap through the store, she looked through glass cases, figuring the stock in that one little shop could buy all of Little Italy at home. But she found a cabinet of Rolex watches, the reason she went in. She lingered at the case, trying to match her watch with the others.
“May I help you, Miss?” a man in a stiff white shirt, necktie, and expensive suit asked. Even his eyeglasses looked too rich for ordinary use.
Gina took half a step back, wondering what sort of white-collar hell she’d fallen into. “I, well, hope so.”
“Interested in a Rolex specifically?”
“I’m interested in some information.” She dug the Rolex from her pocket and held it out to him. “I need to learn something about this particular watch. Is there a consumer database that can be accessed to identify the owner of it?”
He barely glanced at it. “It’s not yours?”
“I found it a few days ago. I’ve been asking around if anyone has lost it, but no one knows anything about it. I’m figuring Rolex might have a customer database that identifies the owner. If so, I can return it once I know the owner’s name.”
He flicked his fingers for her to hand it over. Touching it with as few fingers as possible, he took a close look. He didn’t seem satisfied with something, and used a single ocular loupe for a closer inspection.
“It’s not stolen, at least not that I know of,” she added.
“I’m sure that it’s not, Miss.” He opened the clasp and looked at the back of the watch, again with the magnifying loupe. Popping the loupe from his eye to put away, he returned the watch to Gina. “I am also sure that the owner probably isn’t missing it.”
“Why not? I sure would be if it were mine.”
“It is not an authentic Rolex timepiece.”
“Oh.” Gina looked at it, wondering how he knew that. She wasn’t sure if she should be disappointed or happy.
“Maybe I should explain,” he said. “There are two things not quite right about it. First, the color of that face is one of the current colors they use, but the lettering and numerals are from a few years ago. That color and those numerals were never found on any of their timepieces at the same time. Also, if you look at the reverse, you’ll find incorrect serial numbering.”
“Incorrect?”
“That serial number would not be found in the Rolex database, except under one circumstance.”
Gina tried reading the tiny numbers on the back. “Which is?”
“It would be listed as not authentic.”
“It’s a fake number?”
The man seemed to stiffen at her choice of words. “You could say that, yes.”
“I don’t understand. Doesn’t every watch have a unique serial number? How could you possible know this one is fake without looking it up?” she asked.
“Every jeweler and seller of fine Rolex timepieces has that serial number memorized.” When a customer came into the store, he leaned closer to the counter to speak with Gina privately. “Somebody somewhere is making imitation watches, not just this brand, but of other fine brands. They are all of very nice craftsmanship, extremely well made, but they are copies. The first few times these came onto the market, jewelers were fooled by the quality. But when they started showing up in large numbers, the serial numbers were shared. That’s when we discovered they all had the same identifying number, one that is not listed in the Rolex database as authentic. In fact, their database mentions that specific number as being, how did you put it? Fake.”
For some reason, Gina felt disappointed, even though it was a found item. “It’s not worth anything?”
He took the watch from her again for another close examination. “What you have here is a very nice watch of high quality movement and construction. If the maker of these watches would’ve branded them in some other way, even with his own name instead of trying to dupe people, he could have had a very profitable career as a watchmaker. But with that brand name on the face and the inauthentic serial number on the reverse, I’m afraid it’s entirely worthless. No proper jeweler even wants it in their shop, as you can imagine.” He gave the watch back to her.
“I guess that’s why nobody is looking for it?”
“Probably. It is a very nice watch, though. Maybe it could be a gift to a boyfriend or your father, as long as you told them it was not an authentic Rolex, of course.”
“Of course.” She put the watch back in her pocket. She had to save face somehow, and not simply run from the store. Even though it wasn’t her watch and she’d had no way of knowing it was fake, she still felt embarrassed by bringing it into the nicest jewelry store she’d ever been in. “Mind if I look around for a moment?”
“Please,” he said, smiling.
While he chatted with someone that seemed to be a regular customer, Gina took another lap through the store, looking in cases of wedding rings and bracelets.
“Yeah, like I’ll ever get a ring from a place like this,” she mumbled.
The same man came back. “Would you like to try one on?”
“A ring? Me?”
He unlocked a case and brought out a velvet tray of diamond rings. They flickered and flashed in the lighting, exactly the way they were supposed to. He took out one of the smaller ones and
