rjbeck
New Member
Posts: 3
Name: Randy Becker
Location: Morrisville.NC
Since: Nov 18, 2014 5:36:19 GMT -6
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Post by rjbeck on Nov 18, 2014 5:56:40 GMT -6
I am always looking for my next watch, And I happen to spend alot of time on Ebay and I've noticed one thing about ebay is that a lot of the manual wind chrono's seem to be frankenstein watches (This is what I call them) If I want a particular brand the only way I know is by looking on the dial and or the chronograph bridge but I've noticed that many movements seem to be put together to make up a certain named watch, Is there any other way of verifying a brand of watch? I do know many have serial numbers but many do not. Thanks for any info. By the way this would be my first vintage manual chrono. I have only bought auto and manual day date watches until now. Thanks RB
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aquajoe
WWF Veteran
Posts: 5,693
Since: Jan 17, 2013 20:13:30 GMT -6
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Post by aquajoe on Nov 18, 2014 6:30:38 GMT -6
Welcome to the forum! If I've heard this once on the forums, I've heard it a million times - "Buy the seller" eBay can be tricky. You should know exactly what you're looking for if buying off of there. You may have better luck buying from known sellers on a forum. Give us some more info on what you're looking for and we'd be happy to give you some of our ideas. You may want to check out www.watchrecon.com in the meantime. Sent from some sort of electronic device probably not much better than a carrier pigeon.
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Post by aerome on Nov 18, 2014 7:15:53 GMT -6
Welcome to the forum, glad you're here. Many manufacturers used movements that were produced by similar makers. Some would do slight modifications, others would not. As far as serial numbers, it's a toss up. For example I have a modern watch built by our own indy "Archer" in his early days that has no serial number, but his later ones do.
Google is your friend when it comes to researching brand names and their history. And as Joe says, you always buy the seller before buying the watch.
Feel free to jump in with any questions about a potential upcoming "Incoming". We all like to research and learn.
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Baco Noir
WWF Advisor
WWF Admin
Posts: 31,273
Name: Roger
Since: Mar 14, 2011 13:09:50 GMT -6
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Post by Baco Noir on Nov 18, 2014 8:44:24 GMT -6
Welcome RB. As Joe and Al said, eBay is a tougher nut to crack when it comes to buying. There are plenty of good sellers on there, but many unscrupulous ones too. The latter will write their decryption a deceptively with phrases like:
'Bracelet has OEM clasp with oyster bracelet' which means the clasp is real (probably not original to the watch) with a fake bracelet.
And the movement verification can be even tougher to sort out.
On the forums, when a seller posts the watch for sale, the members generally are looking at them with a critical eye and will point out any BS with the forum moderators. It's still not 100% perfect, but far better than eBay.
Watchrecon is a great place to search all the forums at once. Then if you find a watch FS but are uncertain about the seller, ask us and/or use Google image search to see if the photos of the watch show up somewhere else, which may indicate that the seller stole the photos and is trying to scam someone, but not always.
Sent from my iPad Air 2 using Tapatalk (so I blame autocorrect for the spellin' errs)
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Post by ianmedium on Nov 18, 2014 9:59:00 GMT -6
Hi Randy, welcome. Roger Al and Joe have said all that I would have said but I will reiterate one thing with eBay that has made my experience 100% good, buy the seller! Also, in my experience nothing is ever the only one that will ever show up. Many times I have seen watches that I almost jumped on but did not as I read feedback and saw the dealings so I waited and sure enough, that ultra rare watch came up again with another seller this time a great seller and a great watch.
I will give an instance of buying the seller first which is happening right now with me. Not a watch but an SD card connector for my iPad. I ordered it two weeks ago from within my country but it has not arrived yet so I asked the seller yesterday if he could check for me with the postal service. I got an immediate response back from him apologizing as they always take a photo of the packets address and realized they had put the wrong postal code on so not only were they sorry for the mistake but they shipped out immediately another item plus a gift as way of apology! That's why the seller has a great reputation!
Another thing I do with sellers, especially of items in the multiple hundreds is write to them about the item they are selling. Establish clarity on any grey areas I might have about the item. I am always friendly and always show appreciation for them taking the time to answer my questions. This establishes a more personal connection with them and I find then that they appreciate that and go the extra mile as they remember they are selling to human being. I know it sounds silly but it works and in fact on many occasions I have then gone on months later to have a heads up from a seller I have dealt with that another item they think I might be interested in is just about to go on sale by them! Hope that helps
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