Do You Think This Watch Is Genuine

Kintarō Hattori

Hey Folks,

I've been looking at buying a Seiko Flightmaster watch on eBay for some time now. I found a particular seller who's been around a while, has great feedback and is always selling watches. I took the plunge the other night and bought a watch for a not unreasonable €120 or so including postage.

However it was only afterwards that I thought to actually go in and have a close look at their feedback. To me it looks a bit odd, lots of folks with lowish feedback buying a considerable amount of watches with SOME feedback from people with several hundred transactions.

This is the watch I won:
http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=270147266935&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=017

And this is the seller:
http://myworld.ebay.ie/pokemonyu

I thought they would be OK as they have 60,000+ transactions, have been around since 2000, are a power seller and have a 99.3% rating.

What do you think, will it be the real deal? Is there anywhere in town that can authenticate the watch for me when I get it, is that expensive to do?

Vikings

Going by the feedback alone you shouldn't really have a problem with this seller, however I would still recommend getting it checked out by a Jeweller as they should be able to tell you for definite if it is real or not.

Kintarō Hattori

Thanks man, what does anyone else think?

mcaul

He's seems genuine - has all the e-bay approval marks & platimun status. Normally I'd be suspicious, but his prices aren't too cheap and everything seems to have a similar discount to retail.

Retuns policy clearly stated, paypal verified etc etc.

Thanks for the link!! - might be tempted myself.

Oryx

I was a jeweller selling Seiko for years. First off, I never noticed many fakes of them about, not like the more expensive brands. Usually you can spot a fake watch from the 'feel' of the quality without having to open it up.

I dont think Seiko generally carry a hologram sticker or anything. (Citizens do) The stamping on the back should be clear, and look high quality. Poor imprinting on the caseback is always a big giveaway of a fake. The model number is a mixture of numbers and letters with a dash in the middle, and it should have a separate serial number. You should get a proper instruction booklet and international guarantee booklet with it.

The picture looked fine to me. Some Seikos used to be available at cheaper prices through a non european (arab?) market. Any I saw had an arabic symbol on the dial to distinguish them.

Snake Plisken

Did u get your watch yet? Did u get hit by any customs charges? How was it packaged? Does it look the genuine article?

Thanks

Snake

Kintarō Hattori

Snake Plisken wrote:

Did u get your watch yet? Did u get hit by any customs charges? How was it packaged? Does it look the genuine article?

Thanks

Snake

Hey Snake, I got it just the other day.
I didn't get hit by any customer charges. The seller had marked it as gift and had a lower value than it was worth marked on the box (though it shouldn't have mattered anyway as I don't think the value was high enough to get hit by customs).
It was excellently packged in a cardboard box with lots of styrofoam keeping it safe.
I'm sure it's the real thing. It looks authentic, it weighs a fúckign ton, it had adhesive strips on various parts to keep it scratch free and it came with two authentic looking manuals, one for the watch itself and the other for the slide rule.
Shipping was pretty quick too, considering it was coming from Singapore.

All in all I'm very happy. The price was right, it was well packed and the seller was professional to deal with.

As I stated it weighs a ton and it looks fantastic. I'm sure I'll be ordering another watch or two in the near future from the same seller.

Snake Plisken

Thanks for the feedback on your purchase, sounds good, looks like it took about 2 weeks, did the postman bring it to your door? I was looking at a Seiko Titanium watch and was about to buy it from the ebayer you used (probably would have if I waited for your feedback), but went with a US guy whos'e price was similar and had a great rating on ebay, only problem is he only accepted paypal verified or Bidpay, signed up to bidpay and paid using mastercard but get mail this morning saying that payment didn't go through, so waiting on paypal account to become verified. If it doesn't work out I'll go through Pokemon

Snake

Kintarō Hattori

I got it delivered to work as I live in an apartment complex so it would have been delivered to the nearest sorting office. Let us know how you get on.

mel123

How much would u have bought that for in the shop over here??
I bought a watch a while back on ebay, it was a man's Diesel watch, including postage it cost me a little less than half the price the exact same watches were going for in the shops here. It came from America and it didnt get stopped in customs or anything. I have been in America and do find watches are much cheaper than here.

Kintarō Hattori

Over here I'm not sure but looking on the web:

From the states the lowest I saw it for was $250 and it went up as high as $359.
In the UK the lowest I saw it was for £199 and it went up as high as £249.

I haven't seen it in a shop over here but I have no doubt that you could be looking at at least €400+ in a shop here.

mad m

Latern! Did you see the price of the pens the ebay seller has for sale!

Kintarō Hattori

They are Mont Blanc, pretty much the best pen you can get, hence the high price!