The short answer
A replica AMVOX 2 is an unlicensed copy of the Jaeger-LeCoultre AMVOX2, the Aston Martin co-branded chronograph JLC sold from roughly 2007 until the line wound down in the mid-2010s. Copies run from $60 quartz beaters to $800 automatic builds. Almost none of them reproduce the one feature that makes the watch worth talking about: a chronograph you start, stop, and reset by pressing on the crystal, with no pushers anywhere on the case. If the trigger is what draws you in, a replica will let you down. If you want the silhouette and the dial from a few feet away, the better tiers get close.
What the real AMVOX2 does
The original is a 44mm titanium case built around JLC's in-house automatic chronograph calibre. No pushers. You press the top of the sapphire crystal to start the chrono, the bottom to stop and reset. It sounds like a gimmick until you wear it, and then it changes how the whole case looks, because there is nothing sticking out of the flanks. The DBS Transponder version went further and paired with an Aston Martin DBS so the watch could lock and unlock the car. That version is the one nobody has ever successfully copied.
What the copies actually deliver
- Case: usually 316L stainless steel, sometimes coated to fake the grey of titanium. The weight is the giveaway. Titanium is light, and a steel copy often feels heavier than the real thing rather than lighter.
- Movement: an Asian 7750 clone in the better builds, quartz in the cheap ones. Subdial spacing and hand lengths rarely match the original, and the date window sits in the wrong spot on most.
- The crystal trigger: cosmetic on nearly all of them. A few high-tier builds wire it to a lever, but the travel is mushy and the reset drifts. Some sellers quietly add hidden pushers to make the chrono work at all.
- Transponder: absent. Always. No copy talks to a car.
Where the money goes
Under $120 you are buying a quartz watch with an AMVOX-style dial and a fake trigger. Between $200 and $450 you get a mechanical chronograph that runs, usually with a decorated rotor and a sapphire crystal. Above $500 the case finishing improves and the dial printing tightens up, but you are now in range of a used microbrand chronograph that comes with a warranty and service. That is the comparison I would make before spending the money.
The US legal picture
Counterfeit watches are illegal to import and to sell in the United States. Customs can seize a shipment, and trafficking in counterfeit goods is a criminal matter under federal law. Buying one for yourself is a lower-risk act than selling, but you still have no recourse if the package disappears, and no warranty, no spare parts, and no service network behind the watch. Trademark protection applies whether or not you meant to resell.
How I would judge one
Ask for photos of the movement, not just the dial. Check whether there are pushers on the case where the original has none. Look at the crown position and the caseback engraving. Then ask yourself whether you want the watch or the badge, because the honest answer decides whether a first copy makes sense for you.