Cape Cod

The double-wrap strap is a leather test, doubled

The double-wrap strap is longer, thinner and more demanding to make than a conventional one, and it has to fold and wrap without creasing badly or losing its edge finish. Counterfeit versions are stiff, crease at the fold, and show edge paint that cracks. Since the strap is the most visible part of the watch as worn, it is also the part a counterfeiter has least ability to conceal.

The rectangle-in-rectangle proportion is the whole design and copies get it wrong

The relationship between the outer rectangular case and the inner square dial is fixed and considered — it is a chain link, not a shape chosen for looks. Counterfeits routinely alter the ratio, most often by making the inner square too large relative to the case, which destroys the tension the design depends on. This is measurable and it is the fastest check on the model.

The date window position tells you the movement type

On the Cape Cod the two movement families are distinguishable without opening anything and without knowing the reference. MECHANICAL executions — the TGM size, carrying the Vaucher-built H1912 — have a stamped pattern in the dial centre and the date at SIX o'clock. QUARTZ executions have a radial brushed dial and the date at THREE. Every size below TGM is quartz. So a watch offered as a mechanical Cape Cod with its date at three is either misdescribed or reassembled, and the check works from a single clear photograph.

HERMÈS PARIS signature and its execution

Genuine dial printing is fine, evenly weighted and correctly placed, and the accent on the È is present and correctly formed. Counterfeit dials commonly get the accent wrong, thicken the letterforms, or misplace the PARIS line. As always, printing execution rather than printing content is the evidence — the text itself is trivially copied.