Do Box and Papers Guarantee the Authenticity of a Rolex?

I am always asked if box and papers prove authenticity. I wanted to provide an unbiased response that would apply to all Buyers and Sellers of new and pre owned Rolex watches.

A box and/or papers NEVER guarantee authenticity. All they do is possibly guarantee the box and/or papers are authentic (if the box and/or papers are even real). In fact, most people do not know what real box and/or papers are supposed to look like (as genuine Rolex box and papers have changed so many times over the years).

The bad guys know that people put trust into the box and/or papers; so that by putting a genuine box and/or papers with a fake watch allows them to pull off a scam…and when the buyer finds out down the road the watch was fake, the scammer is long gone. Genuine Rolex box and papers are offered online for purchase on many different marketplaces… so if you were a bad guy and wanted to sell a fake watch, you can easily source real box and/or papers to put with the fake watch. And unfortunately with the common myth that box and/or papers confirm authenticity, you just got away with the scam because many buyers will believe the box and/or papers and not get the watch independently checked and verified.