[jaybee66]

Hi,

Has anybody had any experience on buying used watches from Indian sellers ? They look good value but not sure if you would be stung with custom fee's and charges - details from seller are a bit sketchy although they have very good feedback - it's only a few quid so may be worth the risk - anybody here done similar ??

This is the watch I am looking at on the link - RARE CITIZEN QUARTZ 44MM JAPAN DAY DATE MENS WRIST WATCH IN GOOD CONDITION A7354 | eBay although the seller has hundres of similar watches listed.

Regards

James

 

[Onedaydyl]

Likely be a fake.

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[357-Mag]

I would suggest not to. Unfortunately most of the ones being sold online from this part of the world are fakes...or franken-watches, meaning they were tinkered with and assembled with parts from other watches. Looking at the description in that listing gives it away: "...SOME TIMES ORIGINAL PARTS LIKE CASE, DIAL, BALANCE ETC., ARE BEYOND REPAIR SO WE REPLACE THEM WITH NEW OR OLD PARTS..." It's a franken-watch for sure.

 

[phrankxero]

^^^ this


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[Prdrers]

^^^this again, lol

Steer clear


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[OvrSteer]

The strongest possible "DO NOT BUY VINTAGE WATCHES FROM INDIAN SELLERS" warning possible. Frankens, redials, and fanciful recreations are the standard not the exception.

 

[ronnypudding]

Check this out

Regards
Joe

 

[Cstokes23]

I suppose it depends on what you want it for. I bought a couple of cheap automatic Seikos from an Indian seller on eBay, just to practice disassembling and reassembling the movement. They did their job for my purpose, but they were ‘bodged’ together. Glass too small that was glued into the case (on both!), the dial on one was glued quite heavily to the movement as the dial for a different movement. But they ran which was good enough for me!

 

[Cstokes23]

Check this out

Regards
Joe

It was the videos on his channel I followed to disassemble and reassemble it actually.

 

[mougino]

Bought a few, never been hit by customs. But as others have said, don't expect better than cheap old recycled meca movements in franken cases + redials...

 

[ronnypudding]

It was the videos on his channel I followed to disassemble and reassemble it actually.

I wished I had seen these videos before I tried my hand at it. I figured the watches were cheap and I had nothing to lose. I ended up with two reasonably running modified seiko-like watches that aren't worth anything to anyone but me, and a parts drawer full of old dirty Seiko bits! Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Regards
Joe

 

[OvrSteer]

If you check the ebay listing, they used the case back from a gold watch-- it's marked 23k gold plated lol.

Also note that "rare" in this case does not indicate a hard-to-find-model, it means 'there's only one of these because we made it up."

 

[Balcorn80]

Personally . . . I think buying Indian Frankens are a necessary step on the journey for most WIS...

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[system11]

I'd avoid it, yes you could be hit with customs, yes there's an extremely high chance of frankenwatches. You'd want one with the original packaging and serial in the manual/test slip to be sure. If it's just visually appealing and super cheap then it hardly matters though.

 

[sticky]

So many Indian watches are dodgy in the extreme that I wouldn’t venture there. Besides, by the time you have paid VAT and the courier’s fees the whole deal may not be so appealing.

 

[doggbiter]

As long as you recognize that the practice of cobbling watches together with random parts for resell is rampant there and that your odds of getting anything vintage and authentic are slim, I say go for it.

 

[Cstokes23]

I wished I had seen these videos before I tried my hand at it. I figured the watches were cheap and I had nothing to lose. I ended up with two reasonably running modified seiko-like watches that aren't worth anything to anyone but me, and a parts drawer full of old dirty Seiko bits! Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Regards
Joe

The videos were super useful, even just as a reference for which order things come off or go on and any bits that might spring off. I’ve seen harder assembly instructions from Ikea! To be fair if they hadn’t worked afterwards I wouldn’t have been upset, it’s all experience in the end!

 

[Tjcdas]

They are masters of using paper shims to get a watch running.

Anyone collect Indian redial watches?

If you're that desperate for a worthless beater watch, there's Vostok and Seiko 5. At least they'll be guaranteed to keep time and be water resistant to what they specify.

www.watchuseek.com

 

[Naidusid]

I would say "No" - there are multiple things at play here.
You will need to understand that India had a closed economy till early 1990's & even after that, the affordability for people was an issue - the only watch company that a lot of Indians would have access to is the "HMT". The number of people from India who would have international travel access to purchase watches or procure from grey market would be miniscule and as such anything you see from those time periods would be franken watches.

 

[Pongster]

Is this peculiar to India? Are there other countries with similar issues?

i do remember a post in another forum where one member was able to get a desired watch by traveling to a New Delhi dealer. It was arranged by another forum member based there.