Rs 500 crore businessman on why he wears a Rs 10,000 fake Rolex: ‘Gets me compliments’

‘It’s a first copy’

“Rohan, I’m only telling you this. It’s a first copy. Bought it for Rs 10k from an Instagram page,” the businessman told Dhawan. Before he could ask why, the businessman explained his reasoning.

“Where I’m sitting today, people never even assume it could be fake. It shows the time, it gets me compliments, it does the work for me. So why spend that kind of money on a real one?” he explained.

The conversation left Dhawan questioning his own views. “I sat there confused, awkward, and lost in thought because I do not agree with him but I couldn’t fully disagree either,” he wrote.

He suggested that people’s perceptions often have less to do with the product and more to do with the person wearing it.

To explain his point, Dhawan compared luxury watches with sneakers. “A guy on the street wearing genuine Nikes still gets a second glance, assuming that they’re probably a first copy. But a guy who’s earning Rs 2-3 lakh a month, wearing fake Jordans, gets a compliment and nobody checks twice.”

He added, “That’s not luxury working the way it’s supposed to.”

According to Dhawan, the exchange made him realise that, for many, social standing has become more valuable than the object itself.

Read the post:

“It means, for a lot of people, the room they’re standing in has become worth more than the object itself. The watch did not earn the compliment. His net worth did.”

Even though he admitted the businessman’s argument was difficult to dismiss, Dhawan said it would not change his own approach. “I still don’t think I’d wear a fake, no matter how convincing the math sounds. I’d rather own less and have it be real. But I’ll admit his logic didn’t leave me with a clean answer either,” he added.

He ended the post by asking people what they believed they were really paying for when buying luxury products—craftsmanship, heritage, exclusivity or something else.

Internet weighs in

The post soon drew hundreds of reactions, with users sharing sharply different opinions on whether luxury is about owning the real thing or simply the perception that comes with it.

One user wrote, “It’s all about clarity on why you want to own it. As he rightly said, for him the priority was never to actually own the original piece, but to be known to own an original piece. With his net worth and reputation as mentioned by him, nobody would question him, so his purpose served. On the other hand, for someone very passionate about watches and really wanting to own it, the same solution wouldn’t work. Your friend remained honest about it when you asked. That’s the best part. Had he not said the truth, this conversation wouldn’t even exist, isn’t it?”

Another commented, “Me n my friends had a conversation about this & honestly his logic is 100% valid, but for me personally a luxury purchase is less about the compliments & more about the motivating fuel to push me further, it’s something I’ve aspired to have for a long time & when I have it, ‘I FEEL SPECIAL’. So a fake one defeats the whole purpose for me there, but again; his logic is flawless.”

A third user pointed out, “Your stature makes what you wear shine even brighter. Bill Gates often wear a Casio Duro and it’s his favorite watch. He is so big that he makes the watch classy by wearing it. I don’t think anybody worth ₹500 Cr need to wear a Rolex to shine in the first place. A Timex/Casio would work as well as a Rolex for this guy.”

Another person offered a different perspective, writing, “Fascinating perspective, Rohan! But true luxury isn’t about what others assume; it’s about the intrinsic value, craftsmanship, and respect for the asset itself. Shortcuts might fool the room, but authenticity is always for oneself.”