PSA: Identifying Counterfeit Mitutoyo Calipers - 2022 Edition.

Every year counterfeiters get better at copying Mitutoyo's very popular Digimatic Calipers. Here are a few easy ways to identify distinguish calipers from fake calipers.

[michaelbrian]

A very interesting and informative video, I watched it several times before I purchased my Mitutoyo vernier and I also lurched it from an authorised dealer.

[jeffreykipperman]

Thank you so much for the info. I just purchased a set for $35 at an estate sale before seeing this video, and was fairly certain based on the feel and quality that they were real, but I wasn't sure. Turns out they are if fact genuine!

[NickBrandy_Youtube]

Very good video! Informative and nothing more than needed

[simonchetwynd]

Brilliant, thank you. I have a set of Mitotoyos on order from Amazon. I was aware there are plenty of fakes out there so now I know exactly what to look for when they arrive.

[RobertoColi]

Thank you for your info, I just bough a Mitutoyo Digimatic Calliper on Amazon, it seemed at a good price and I was afraid that it would be fake. I just checked against your video, and all matches, I was lucky, it is a real Mitutoyo Calliper 😄

[peacefrog]

Thanks for this video. I'm writing this about a year after you produced it. I wish I'd watched it before I bought my set, which I now know 100% to be fake. However they are still a very nice set, even though they are not genuine, and I got them for about $40 shipped from China (that's an obvious red flag).

I have used many Mitutoyo calipers in the quality labs of various companies I've worked for, but have never had my own set of Mitutoyos. Like many others I've had to make do with the cheapo substandard Harbor Freight calipers. The nice thing about the HF's however is I don't care what happens to them. If they get dropped, lost, or stolen, I'm only out about $20 at most.
(In fact I have a set or two of HF's which I "inherited" from my father's friend who passed away several years ago. My dad & I were helping cleaning out his garage and I found these, along with an old Fowler dial indicator. With the widow's permission I was allowed to keep them.)
I usually consider these "Reference Only", and while I do occasional part measurements with them, say at tool trials, I usually have my measurements verified by a certified lab with calibrated certified instruments.

I bought these on eBay as much out of curiosity as anything. I did my own visual assessment at home a couple days ago, and while I didn't have a known genuine set of Mitutoyo's to compare against, I will say that the telltale signs of fakery are very very subtle.
In essence, this set of what I will call "Notutoyo" or "Just-A-Toy-o" calipers is a very very very good copy.

The things from your video that basically confirmed 100% for me, that I was not able to discern for myself, were:
a) The machining of the track; mine is squared-off and ramped at the end as you show.
b) Also as you show, the thumbscrew at top is not captured.
c) The label on the plastic box does not have a QR code, though it does have a UPC code. I scanned it with the Amazon app and it pointed tto a listing for Mitutoyos listed at $148.
Oh yeah - when I went back to eBay, the listing and the seller are no longer visible. :-D 🤣

I have not compared them directly to a genuine set, have not used them on a set of certified gage blocks (which I may do in January next time I go to one of our plants), and have not sent them to an outside calibration lab (which I likely won't due as they are my personal set, unless the cost to do so is minimal).

That said, these Notutoyos (or, until & unless I can verify their accuracy & precision, Just-A-Toyos) are still a very good set for what they are, far superior to the HF's. They also seem to be slightly improved over the set you show, perhaps in an attempt to further evade suspicion.
a) Unlike yours, the calipers seem to slide smoothly open & closed, with no grabbing, sticking, etc.
b) If I rapidly & repeatedly slide them open & near-closed a few or several times, and then close them, the reading returns to Zero.
c) There do not appear to be any obvious machining defects (burrs, rough edges, etc).
d) On the inside of the case, unless I looked at it wrong, the placement of the standoffs appears to match those of your genuine set.

Do I feel cheated or foolish or like I have been taken advantage of? Not really; I was at least half-sure that these were fake when I placed my order, and mainly bought them out of curiosity. $40 is not gonna break me. I certainly would not issue them to others, nor would I resell them or gift them, without fully declaring these these are fake. (If I could safely do so, I would cover or remove all of the "Mitutoyo" branding.) If I did resell them, I certainly would not ask Mitutoyo pricing.


In the end I got what I believe to be a very good set of digital calipers for a decent price (not much more than I would have paid for a cheapo lesser-quality Harbor Freight set).

We already know that certain brands of high-end, high-value, and/or "trusted" brands of goods such as Louis Vuitton (and I think also Michael Kors?), NGK spark plugs, Nike, etc., are targets of counterfeiting and reselling on sites such as eBay, Temu, Alibaba, Facebook marketplace, etc. Sadly it appears that Mitutoyo has now joined that club.


The other option is to buy a set of used but likely genuine Mitutoyo calipers. In fact I bought a set of Mitutoyo digital micrometers, and they seem in very good condition, have a calibration sticker dated 2020, and I have little-to-no doubt they are genuine. Calipers tend to get more use, wear, and unintended abuse / damage than do micrometers, soI believe there would be a 50/50 chance that used genuine Mitutoyos, at the same or even higher price, might not be any better than these new Notutoyos. (Maybe that's an exercise for another day.)

[vincentcaruso]

This takes me back to my days in manufacturing 😊

[mikedrust]

Thank you. I was able to differentiate a fraud from an authentic Mitutoyo because of this video. Unbelievable how many fraudulent items that are sold on eBay.

[jackhoril]

I bought one like this in Dayton Ohio the 6 inch model in 1990. It has the ramped slot and mine is authentic. I was at a trade show and the device came from the Mitutoyo booth.
Newer ones have the radius cut at the end of the slot. I guess the Chinese got the older specs. Also my depth gauge is how you describe the real ones, , a short tail. Thanks for the video! By the way the 1990 case is way different as you might suspect and so are the tags. Perhaps I will try to send a photo or post one somewhere.

[BryanStuder-hq]

Other identifiers
1. Comes with a battery installed and 1 replacement
2. Automatically comes on when you slide them
3. Material seems to be softer, when engraved opposed to authentic
Will se how they do, by the feel alone not excited and probably will end up in the trash
I buy Mitutoyo for a reason I don't need to replace them often, but thought i was getting a great deal lol
Our government needs to step in and uphold patents/ trade marks

[danielcardenas]

I can't believe about fake calipers!!! Many many years using it and I never put attention on that!! Thanks for your video!!

[salemengineer]

It is interesting to see the lengths that the counterfeiters go to match the genuine article. And it is also striking how eBay actually seems to pander to the counterfeiters. Years ago I bought a watch wrench on eBay (The tool one uses to take the back off a watch to replace the battery). When the wrench arrived, it was obviously a knock-off with loose tolerances. It actually rattled if you shook it. I made the mistake of giving the seller feedback saying as much. He then retaliated by dinging my reputation even though all I had done was tell the truth about his product. I complained to eBay but, presumably because he sold a lot of junky merchandise and eBay benefited from the commissions, eBay did nothing. I was sufficiently disgusted that I have never done business on eBay since.

[Samuel]

Mine from amazon will be here tomorrow. Hoping for the best.

[walterwilliams]

My fake ones came in a sealed bag with brown piece of paper inside, the battery card says SR44 but the battery is a LR44 battery and one LR44 was installed already. My slide locking screw was not captive. The counterfeiters are ruining EBay…..

[chrismayfield]

Got a fake from Amazon last night. Matched them to genuine here at work. Color on slide was almost pink, no battery and the whole head rattled when you shook it.

[michaelbetsch]

I have a mitutoyo caliper it has everything that says genuine except the back of the slide the groove is ramped not rounded but the rest is the same as genuine! What do you think

[amd]

So mine have the captive screw and the proper depth length and radius. On the backside however it is ramped. So mine would be? 👍🏼👎🏼🤷🏻‍♂️

[robertlong]

Where is the best place to buy original Mitutoyo when living in europe .?

[flippy]

I just bought new sealed on ebay and looking at the photos the box looks like the fake one here but everything else looks legit, were they more box sizes?

[Bluntedco.]

what about the wheel that moves up and down? is it suppose to be a bit loose like does your real ones have play where you can move it a bit up and down? or is it suppose to be very firm with no play?