Mods, Fakes, Homage... where do we draw the line?

Fakes are illegal, so that's a simple answer. 

As for the others, wear what you like. If random strangers on the internet like your stuff, that's cool. If random strangers on the internet don't like your stuff, who cares? 

Mods: Have at it. I love seeing some great Seiko builds. 

Fakes: 1) Illegal 2) You will always know it is a fake 3) No one will notice your watch and those that know watches, will know it is a fake.

Homages: Most people get into the hobby either intentionally or unintentionally buying homages. Great way to start and enjoy the aesthetics of a more expensive watch. I do have issues when the prices start to creep over $500+ because there are some great original watches to be had at that price.  

Either way, wear what you enjoy, except fakes. 

The reason I bring all this up is because I've seen a lot more mods that are direct copies of popular Rolex/AP that just slap Seiko on the dial. The only thing Seiko about them is the movement. It feels like a fake seiko and fake Rolex/AP all in one. 

But I agree Fakes are terrible, but I feel like anymore modding and homage watches are drifting terribly close to a less and less favorable world.

It comes back to the idea that you shouldn't worry about what other people think about your watch, and the flip side of that is you shouldn't care about what other people are wearing. 

If someone has a Parnis that looks like a Sub, it doesn't make a Sub any less appealing or valuable. It also doesn't hurt Rolex in any way, because a dude buying a Parnis is unlikely to be shopping for a Rolex. 

If someone mods their SKX to look like a Sub, it's the same as homages... It has zero impact on the real deal. Well, maybe not zero impact, it helps popularize the style, which helps push the desire for a Sub even higher.

Lastly, if the watch is a Seiko, and you change the hands, case, and bracelet, it's still a Seiko. If you swap dials with another Seiko, it's still a Seiko. The only time you'd be running into issues is if your parts have the name of a brand on them, and they aren't actually manufactured by the brand. eg. an Ali Express G-Shock metal case that says G-Shock is illegal, but an unbranded one is just a moding part. 

For the most part I agree with "Don't worry what others think of your watch and don't worry what others have on." sentiment, but I can't help but that hypermods specifically create an interesting case. We seem to all agree that fake watches are bad. That is the sentiment that I'm gathering from the comments so far. 

So what if someone takes a seiko, replaces Dial, hands, case, bezel, bracelet, gaskets, and everything. All of the replaced components are made to look like a Rolex submariner. Now you might say "well if it has the seiko logo on it, it isn't pretending to be a Rolex." To that I would agree with you, but now it just becomes a fake seiko. 

I had this question posed to me by another collector and I never thought of it this way. Now someone is walking around with a watch that looks like a Rolex but with seiko on it. To the uninitiated that doesn't know about modding, it could reflect poorly on seiko to have such a blatant "knock off", but it wasn't even their creation. 

I think mods can be a fun way to play around with a watch, don't get me wrong, but I think we agree that fakes are bad, but when is that line really crossed? Homages don't feel great to me either, but I understand a desire to democratize style. Modding feels ok, but only if the original watch is still somehow recognized after the mod (in my opinion).

Modding to the point that the original watch is no longer recognizable as such, should just have a logo deletion. If I was a manufacturer of a watch, I wouldn't want my watch being associated with something that was 90% different than what I made. 

I don't think brands really care that much about people modding them, apart from some luxury brands. 

Seiko care about selling lots of watches, how people use them afterward is not really their problem. It's not until you enter the world of luxury products when brand "image" is important, that it is a concern at all. 

In the case of the Seiko you reference, if the dial says Seiko, but the dial wasn't made by Seiko, it's a fake. If the dial is made by Seiko, but the case is made by someone else, it's still a Seiko, just modded. 

To be blunt, I think you're overthinking things. Seiko, Rolex, etc., are big companies, they can take care of themselves. If modding bothers them, they will do something about it. 

Just because a brand isn't acting on it doesn't me they don't care first of all. Also even if the brand doesn't care it doesn't change the fact that the practice itself can be bad act. 

Like we all seem to agree that fakes are bad, but lets say a well known watch brand for what ever reason really didn't care about fakes. They said,  "hey fake our watches we make enough money and don't care". That doesn't change the fact that for the vast majority of cases fakes are bad.

I'm not even here to take a super hard stance. I think this space has a lot of room to really be figured out. All of your points make sense, but I feel like not enough people consider the other side of the argument. So here I am to present it haha :)

I would argue Seiko enjoys people scooping up the lower end models in bulk for modding. I don’t think they care what happens to those once they are sold.  I’d also posit their association with mall stores hurts more than modders.

As someone who mods I can tell you the mod scene especially with good parts is legit. I have seen some amazing mods that if they were ever production pieces from seiko, I think people would have went absolutely  Berserk for them.

I can also speak as someone who's had their products counterfeited at a large scale lots of fakes going around but definitely sucks to see, and I don't care what people say it certainly affects your business. It's thievery there's no real other way to describe it.