City police on Tuesday seized duplicate watches of a popular brand from a shop in a mall here.

The raid follows a complaint from Casio, a leading lifestyle brand. Police recovered a number of watches from the shop. The raid is the latest initiative by Casio to fight the duplicate products in Tamil Nadu.

Preliminary inquiry by the manufacturers, who accompanied the police, revealed the supplier was sourcing the duplicate watches and distributing. A case has been registered against the retailer for selling duplicate watches.

Meanwhile, Legal Head of Casio India Umesh Kumar Gupta in a release said that Casio followed the philosophy of ‘Creativity and Contribution’ and “wanted to curb the counterfeiters in order to protect our brand image and product value. Our authorised dealers and distributors in Coimbatore have long called for better regulation to tackle piracy and counterfeit products in the city. We are thankful to Coimbatore police for their swift action in tracking down those involved in supplying of counterfeit watches,” Gupta said.

Casio is aggressively running awareness drive to fight the counterfeit markets and caution other retailers to desist from such crimes, he said.