Vintage watches from India, S Korea, Singapore etc

Based on my experiences only!! -

• India sources a great deal of redials. But the watches are usable.
• Good vendors in Singapore offer watches you will not see any where else. Bad vendors offer junk.
• Good vendors in the Philippines offer nice watches at great values. And they also offer junk.
• Hong Kong is the Basel of the Asian watch industry. Many good vendors offer a variety of interesting watches. Some of the Asian watches offered have limited availability in the West.
• South America has a wide variety of vendors but the density of frankens is amazingly high.
• Nobody sells watches sourced from Africa but there are some interesting vendors in both Israel and Jordan.
• The only watches that should ever be bought from a dealer in the Ukraine are old Russian watches. They have access to so many of these it is not economical to fake them
• When buying from vendors on eBay who are located in Germany, use your PayPal sourced from a credit card. Only the credit card's bank will be of help in the event of no shows of watches.
• And, of course, my constant reminder "Friends don't let friends ship DHL".

Just an additional note for UK-based potential importers:

If you buy from a country outside the EU then you will have to pay Import VAT on goods with a value that exceeds £18. So, if you spend £100 on a watch then at 17.5% you will be charged £17.50 VAT. You will also be charged £8 by the Post Office for collecting the money off you! Total charge £25.50. Add onto that the shipping charge (varies, but say £10 more than you would pay a local seller) then you are paying a £35.50 premium over and above the purchase price. It may still be a bargain, of course.

If the watch is faulty and you return it, you get none of that back. And, of course, you have to send it back using a trackable and insured (therefore costly) postal service AND hope that the seller plays fair and refunds your money. Further, it is not unknown for HMCR to value an item at considerably more than you paid for it, and they are not easily persuaded otherwise.

I've bought one or two cheap watch tools from Hong Kong and China, and been very pleased. But I no longer look at vintage watches outside the EU.

I know other countries have different rules. Take care out there.;-)

Your not wrong Marrick, I've been caught out by these charges,
and H.M Customs own valuations which they have imposed on items
that I purchased from the U.S.

The most annoying part is that the parcel can be caught up for weeks
in a customs office somewhere and you are left wondering where it is
and then when you finaly receive it the parcel has been ripped open and
crudely taped up again.
I recently had some watch parts sent from U.S, nothing to valuable as to
attract customs duty, but that didn't stop them delaying the parcel by three weeks
whilst they tore open packets of balance staffs and other items then crudely
packaged them again. I was very fortunate that the tiny items were all still in the
main envelope although I had to retrieve them from the corners and seams.

Like yourself, I now only trade in EU.

from Eeeb

"Based on my experiences only!! -

India sources a great deal of redials. But the watches are usable.
Good vendors in Singapore offer watches you will not see any where else. Bad vendors offer junk.
Good vendors in the Philippines offer nice watches at great values. And they also offer junk.
Hong Kong is the Basel of the Asian watch industry. Many good vendors offer a variety of interesting watches. Some of the Asian watches offered have limited availability in the West.
South America has a wide variety of vendors but the density of frankens is amazingly high.
Nobody sells watches sourced from Africa but there are some interesting vendors in both Israel and Jordan.
The only watches that should ever be bought from a dealer in the Ukraine are old Russian watches. They have access to so many of these it is not economical to fake them
When buying from vendors on eBay who are located in Germany, use your PayPal sourced from a credit card. Only the credit card's bank will be of help in the event of no shows of watches.
And, of course, my constant reminder "Friends don't let friends ship DHL"."

Wow, succinct and to the point. You are a sage my friend. I wish I could sit down and pick your brain over a cup of java or two. Thank you for sharing this with us!

Hello Eeeb,
Very interesting thread here and also good advise from you. But it make me feel uncomfortable for have won bidding in ebay from a Singapore seller. I just won a vintage Favre Leuba for GBP9.99;-), and annoying part is the shipping rate is GBP10.00, Im just from neighboring country-Malaysia . Well that is not a problem at all. The point is, are they authentic? that's all I ask. Two pictures and ebay website for you to digest. You may or may not comment is up to you Eeeb:-d.

http://i1.ebayimg.com/02/i/001/76/3a/b031_12.JPG

http://i5.ebayimg.com/06/i/001/76/3a/988b_12.JPG

http://cgi.ebay.com.my/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250520317997&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Later.
Thanks.