Guess which Balenciaga Leather Cuff is the real thing?

[REREsaurus]

Thanks everyone for posting. The authentic one is the POUPRE IMHO. I bought this cuff from a seller I trusted and have dealt with before and I know she sells only authentic Balenciagas. She told me that she bought it from BalNY. Anyway, these are my findings after I have thoroughly inspected both cuffs side by side plus taking some close up photos.

1. Soon after I received the black cuff, I felt that there was something off about the leather and I also noticed the direction where the buckle was facing. They were the exact opposite. So I checked all the pictures that Balenciaga.com had on the bracelet and decided that they were all facing in the same direction as the POUPRE. So seeing this convinced me that the POUPRE was the authentic one. It is really impossible to switch it around without ruining the bracelet.

2. In the process of taking close up pictures and magnifying certain parts, I found that the serial #s are NOT the same. Very subtle difference but it is there.

Black # is 225 277 480199 . M (it is very hard to read)
Red # is 225 277 481099 . S (letter at the end is the size or the cuff)

So unless there is a different serial # for a Black Cuff - I am leaning towards the Black being questionable. I am not ready to say that the Black one is FAKE but it certainly is looking that way. I have asked ehemelay to please check the serial # on her HOLIDAY bracelet but we won’t find out until she gets back from her trip. If there is anybody else out there who has a Balenciaga bracelet, maybe they can check the serial # (it is directly under the buckle) and post it on this thread. It would greatly help resolve this uncertainty.

So, if my hunch is correct, it is definitely a SCARY world out there!

Wow. Just wow... I thought the notches on the red one looked good, and that the black notches were too skinny. But if the leather is off - then its off! I would love to see these two in person! What a great knock-off (if the black one is indeed fake)

Shocked.

 

[Jira]

Where is the black one from? Not a major store, right?

 

[missucc]

while i dont have a cuff myself i did notice a big difference in the length of the 'overlapping' part behind the buckle (circled in green in pic attached), although the location of the stitches are roughly the same between the two. is this just a variation between different years cuffs or is it a sign that one of them is off? Or perhaps its the size variance (i.e. black being M has less overlap)?

 

[bbaglady]

Where is the black one from? Not a major store, right?

Nope, just from another eBay seller. I filed a paypal dispute when she did not agree to the return. It will be on its way back to her on Tuesday.

 

[HandbagAngel]

If the Poupre bracelet is purchased from NM, then the decorative buckle indeed should point out. Here are a rew more photos from the forum, and they all point toward the end.

Bbaglady, hopefully you will get your money back soon!

 

[SkyBlueDay]

Oh no... I could barely tell them apart! So it appears increasingly that no where is 100% safe to purchase authentic Bals, what with horror stories of buyers swapping the authentic Bagas for fakes when they make 'returns' of the authentic Bbag with amazing fakes?

 

[bbaglady]

Thanks everyone for your posts. Will keep you guys updated on the outcome. Be careful out there

 

[clarimond]

I bought my bracelets from Aloha Rag, so I am 100% sure they are authentic.
1. All my three small size bracelets have the serial number as 225277 480199. S

2. The lengths of the overlapping leather on the back are different between my Galet (small) and Anthracite (small). So that rules out one way to distinguish the authentic one and fake one. (Quality control issue I guess)

3. The decorative buckle is facing different direction as the functional buckle. It is almost impossible to take the middle strip out without destroying the bracelet. I didn't try though.

4. When I took the pictures of the serial numbers on the back I found one of the rivet looks really weird. It looks like a defect. Another QC issue...

So, back to OP, except the direction of the buckle and the serial number, is there any other difference between the Poupre one and the Black one?

 

[girlfromars]

wow it's scary how we haven't come to a consensus yet! :wondering
i couldn't tell the difference from the first couple of pics!
i was looking for the poupre one which I wanted badly but it's all sold out...
if the poupre here is indeed fake, i might have to think twice about looking for it online... if at all.

 

[MichK]

This is totally scary... if they're churning out fakes that look as good as the real thing, then I really can't trust what I buy on auction sites anymore. Thanks for the heads-up!!

 

[juzluvpink]

Scary! I almost wanted to bid on a pourpre bracelet off ebay thinking that there are no replicas for bracelet!!! I didn't know any of these pointers then. I'm glad I didn't proceed with it since I could have bot a fake one unknowingly!

 

[HandbagAngel]

I think bbaglady said the poupre bracelet is authentic, the black one is questionable and she is requesting a return. Base on charimond's posting, the black bracelet may be authentic too. It appears Bal has poor QC on those accessaries.

 

[clarimond]

I think we have seen some inconsistencies among the bags and accessories these days.
Such as the font they used to imprint the numbers on the leather tag of the coin purses - I still remembered when I got a 2008 coral red coin I was surprised to see the different type of font of the imprinted numbers.
Then I remembered some tpfer's regular works (from 2009) have feet some don't. And the discrepancy of the first and second set of serial number on the back of leather tag. As far as I recall, those are confirmed to be 100% authentic.

I would like to clarify about my previous post - I am not saying which one of the bracelets the OP posted is authentic. I'm only providing all the information I have of my own bracelets for references.

 

[HandbagAngel]

I totally agree with clarimond. There are many inconsistency lately, especially on Bal accessaries. I did not make myself clear previously. I should say based on those bracelet clarimond purchased from Aloha Rag, IMHO there is no enough evidence to tell the black bracelet is fake.

 

[muggles]

scary!