A simple guide to buying a watch on this forum

Morning gang,

A few weeks ago I put up two Marvin Flying Dutchmen watches for sale.

I have spent more time replying to DMs on these than anything else I have ever listed for sale.

DMs about things I cannot answer - want the history of the model or the brand? Go find it, I am not google.

DMs telling me that the prices were too high - despite these being two of the best condition and cheapest flying Dutchmen for sale globally.

DMs asking me which straps will look best.

DMs lowballing the shit out of my very reasonable asks and then getting cross when I say no thank you.

One of the watches sold via eBay - I’m happy, and the buyer is happy, but someone who was messaging me here isn’t because he “wanted the watch”. Tough titties little man. A grown up put their money where their mouth is, and payed me, while you were still trying to get the watch for nothing.

Yesterday there were two people DMing about the remaining watch - haggling over price, taking 12 plus hours between replies - and while they were dicking about, someone on Instagram messaged me, paid me, and has now got the watch.

Out of courtesy, I told the people DMing me that the watch was now sold. One is now disappointed because he “thought we had a deal”.

So, let’s just lay a few things out for people who seem to be confused on the whole how to buy a watch from a fellow collector on this forum thing:

1 - talk to the person selling the watch
2 - get the info you need or accept that the seller isn’t google and go find it yourself
3 - decide you would like or not like the watch
4 - if you don’t want the watch, walk away and tell the seller like a grownup
5 - if you do want the watch agree a price and payment method that you’re both happy with
6 - exchange details and pay the seller
7 - the seller gets the watch to you in the method agreed
8 - happiness

Ahead of point 5, you don’t have a deal - simple

Ahead of of point 6, you haven’t “bought” the watch - also simple

Hopefully this will help some of the sub 10 post/registered last week but want to buy (I suspect stock for their shops) folk, to buy things successfully or GTFO - either way is a win.

This should be stickied!

So simple it shouldn’t require a manual, but this is a very good one 😎

Works both ways, unfortunately. Last year I saw a listing (not on this forum) for a vintage chronograph with a "Landeron movement." The movement clearly was not a Landeron, but the watch looked to be in good shape and the price was attractive. "Buy the seller" as they say, so I thought I'd query him about his certainty on the movement. To my (very) polite inquiry, he responded with a bit of outrage at my temerity and claimed that his watchmaker assured him of the movement's identity. That was enough to dissuade me from the purchase, but I wondered if maybe I was wrong, so I followed up by asking which pusher stopped the chronograph once it had been started. At that point he completely lost it, accusing me of insulting him, wasting his time, and being "stupid" for not knowing how chronographs worked. He suggested that a basic Google search would teach me how to use a chronograph, and that they all worked the same way. I wonder if he ever sold that watch.

(For those not familiar with vintage Landeron movements, they are a bit unique in that it's the 4 o'clock pusher that stops the chronograph.)

Updated to add: As @Dan S points out, the Landeron 149 (and 189) does have traditional pusher operation, unlike all their other movements.

One of the other watches I have for sale, the Omega Marine Chronometer, also appears to attract people who aren’t obviously interested/able to buy.

To be Frank, it’s a niche watch, and if you haven’t tried one on, you should not even be considering dropping cash.

And yet - “That’s a cool watch. Do you have a wristshot? It just hard for me to imagine it on the wrist due to the unusual shape”.

Time waster ahoy.

You would have had an awful lot of competition