i own a windmill made one, and it does not have the "come of" part on it, those are the "clones" since windmill own the original tooling for the lighters and the rights to the patent and markings (as the information stamped on it is covered by the patents), meaning the genuine windmills will have the same stamps as the originals edit: the "come of" are the fakes because the additional words under chinese law make it legally distinct from the original, its like how in china they can sell fake iphones made in the same factory as real ones by simply changing a barely noticeable feature (from experience they simply change the apple symbols angle by a few degrees, not enough to notice, but enough for the CCP to say its different), the proper windmills do not need to have the change as they own everything imco
Hi. I have all three kind of them(Austrian imcos are only 80-90's model tho) and Windmill models have noticable differences between Original(keychain hole in body, new rivet design on head, different materials, letters are different on the bottom) . They are not the same. And Letters on bottom were new. Never been used by imco. i have doubt that "come of" models are all fake. I think they have Legit tools. I have windmill-sold Imco6700 too. Both are really closely matched in quality. Distinguishable things on Windmill-sold ones have Little Keychain Hole on the body(So "come of" models are actually closer to original model...🤔) And of course letters on bottom is different. Both are made in china and windmill don't sell them with their name on anymore(they are selling Ronson under their name but not Imco. Check their Website) So My conclusion is, Chinese Produced ones were all low quality fakes(some of them are still out there) when imcos were Produced in Austria. And now they have all tools and etc from windmill. Because their quality is too high to be just cheap fakes, subtle design updates and material change is too Similar with Imcos sold uner Windmill's name. They can sell higher quality imcos in cheap price because they have toolings that Windmill once used under their License. I mean, Factory and toolings were already moved to china to produce Windmill version of Imco. So it is not that weird. And they are selling Flints and Wicks too. And both are nearly identical to old Austrian Imco's. They are not Zippo-Rated Flints that are too hard so it brakes Lighter wheel. They are works like 'Original Auermetall'(soft red flints) from Australia. If they are imposters... They are doing Their job too well. Thanks for the comment!
@@iMernerner its weird, because the windmill one i have is almost identical to the original in every way, only noticeable difference is the texture pattern is slightly different, guess in the early days they had exact copies, then decided to evolve the tooling, but im also sure ive seen early austrian imcos with the keychain loop at some point
@@kevinmorrice yeah. I know imco 6700 is better than any zippo because I used to EDC Zippos before I got Imco on my hand. I trust my imco over zippo too.
i own a windmill made one, and it does not have the "come of" part on it, those are the "clones" since windmill own the original tooling for the lighters and the rights to the patent and markings (as the information stamped on it is covered by the patents), meaning the genuine windmills will have the same stamps as the originals
edit: the "come of" are the fakes because the additional words under chinese law make it legally distinct from the original, its like how in china they can sell fake iphones made in the same factory as real ones by simply changing a barely noticeable feature (from experience they simply change the apple symbols angle by a few degrees, not enough to notice, but enough for the CCP to say its different), the proper windmills do not need to have the change as they own everything imco
Hi. I have all three kind of them(Austrian imcos are only 80-90's model tho) and Windmill models have noticable differences between Original(keychain hole in body, new rivet design on head, different materials, letters are different on the bottom) . They are not the same. And Letters on bottom were new. Never been used by imco. i have doubt that "come of" models are all fake. I think they have Legit tools. I have windmill-sold Imco6700 too. Both are really closely matched in quality. Distinguishable things on Windmill-sold ones have Little Keychain Hole on the body(So "come of" models are actually closer to original model...🤔) And of course letters on bottom is different. Both are made in china and windmill don't sell them with their name on anymore(they are selling Ronson under their name but not Imco. Check their Website) So My conclusion is, Chinese Produced ones were all low quality fakes(some of them are still out there) when imcos were Produced in Austria. And now they have all tools and etc from windmill. Because their quality is too high to be just cheap fakes, subtle design updates and material change is too Similar with Imcos sold uner Windmill's name. They can sell higher quality imcos in cheap price because they have toolings that Windmill once used under their License. I mean, Factory and toolings were already moved to china to produce Windmill version of Imco. So it is not that weird. And they are selling Flints and Wicks too. And both are nearly identical to old Austrian Imco's. They are not Zippo-Rated Flints that are too hard so it brakes Lighter wheel. They are works like 'Original Auermetall'(soft red flints) from Australia. If they are imposters... They are doing Their job too well.
Thanks for the comment!
@@iMernerner its weird, because the windmill one i have is almost identical to the original in every way, only noticeable difference is the texture pattern is slightly different, guess in the early days they had exact copies, then decided to evolve the tooling, but im also sure ive seen early austrian imcos with the keychain loop at some point
@@kevinmorrice huh interesting. Glad to see another imco enthusiast
@@iMernerner as my nan used to say "always trust what you know" and i know an imco is better than a zippo any day
@@kevinmorrice yeah. I know imco 6700 is better than any zippo because I used to EDC Zippos before I got Imco on my hand. I trust my imco over zippo too.