Unlike many other watch fans, I don’t get a sudden gasp when I see homage Replica Watches. I’m generally open to design references – as long as they bring in a few ideas of their own and offer good quality. But how far can a homage provider go? Well, everyone has to answer that for themselves.

Watches from Parnis Watch Co.: design patents and banishment from the watch forum

What is revealed on the website parnis.org* is, in my opinion, almost bizarre: Parnis copies all well-known designs that are not obvious and, on top of that, advertises the (almost unmanageable) model series with names that are closely based on the respective design models.

The collection names leave no doubt as to which design was copied. Name creations such as Uhr-Boat (from U-BOAT by Italo Fontana) or Nomad (from NOMOS) seem somehow quirky and unintentionally funny.

Parnis even describes the Swiss luxury watch manufacturers, which the brand sometimes copies down to the smallest detail in terms of design, as competitors: “Handmade Mechanical Timepieces, for 2% of the price of our Swiss competitors.” If a brand manager from Rolex, IWC or the like reads this, he will probably have to be careful not to fall off his chair laughing – Parnis is without a doubt an established homage manufacturer, but certainly not a competitor for the Swiss luxury watch manufacturers that Parnis likes to imitate (I will show you why this saying contains a lot of hot air in my test below).

Parnis watches are definitely real divisive. But not just from a “moral” point of view: Parnis is now on the blacklist in the largest German-speaking watch forum – watches of the Parnis brand may neither be sold nor even discussed. The reason given by the forum management: Legally, Parnis is on extremely thin ice, specifically in terms of design patent infringements and the production of replicas or fakes.

Parnis no longer prints the protected “Marina Militare” on the dial of the current Militare model series. This is probably because customs regularly intercepted or confiscated Parnis watches with this lettering. Or to put it another way: Parnis watches with “Marine Militare” lettering were treated just as strictly as “real” replicas for trademark protection reasons, where the big brand names such as Rolex, Panerai, Tudor, Omega & Co. are immortalized on the dial.