Is this Polerouter legit ?

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YYTIN

·May 4, 2021

Hi everyone,

Still looking for my first polerouter. This one is equipped with a bumper 138 SS not a micro rotor (1st on my wishlist) but everything seems legit to me.

Can you confirm ? Any comment ?

 

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gatorcpa

·May 4, 2021·ΩF InvestiGator

Dial, hands and case look OK to me. Maybe a little polished, but not too bad.

Seller needs to get rid of the flash when taking pictures. The glare has obscured the serial number and case reference number on the back. This is essential to determining if the dial and case should be together or were assembled from different watches.

In the end, it will come down to price vs. condition.
gatorcpa

 

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YYTIN

·May 4, 2021

Thanks for answering @gatorcpa

Here are the model & ref number :

H 20217-4
1805XXX (I prefer not to put them here)

Seems all ok to me (except a small doubt on the hands : should they not be "big lume" ?
Asking price is 1350euros

What do you think ?

Edited: May 4, 2021

 

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gatorcpa

·May 4, 2021·ΩF InvestiGator

The prices on these have gone wild the last few years. I bought this reference with a silver dial for a little over $200 back in 2012.

From what I can tell, the crown is from a later model but at least it is signed.

IDK, I think it’s too much money for this watch, but others will differ.
gatorcpa

 

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Mazoue

·May 5, 2021

YYTIN

Thanks for answering @gatorcpa

Here are the model & ref number :

H 20217-4
1805XXX (I prefer not to put them here)

Seems all ok to me (except a small doubt on the hands : should they not be "big lume" ?
Asking price is 1350euros

What do you think ?

Great question re big lume hands.

I believe the later the serial then the more likely it is to have had the hands with the large triangular lumed sections.

I owned an H20217-4 with big lume hands with serial 1'827'xxx. Had yours had a later serial then that might have been a concern.

You could look for more examples but @CafeRacer might be able to save you the time as I imagine he will have seen a decent sample size.

I suspect yours is correct based on that serial and it also strikes me as unlikely that the hands would have been swapped.

 

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YYTIN

·May 5, 2021

Oh my... 200 !! Thanks @gatorcpa for sharing facts & thoughts.

I'm actually willing to discuss this price further (I am a little unsure about the polishing of the case/lugs) but that's right that for the last 3 years I've seen the prices rising a bit and even more I don't see often a black dial, lyre lugs, legit coming out...

Regarding the big lume hands, I wish this model would have come with them but I agree it seems unlikely the ones from this watch would have been swapped. Thanks @Mazoue for this reassurance.

The owner said it is his dad's watch and that his dad was the sole owner of it.

 

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LesXL

·May 5, 2021

I saw it too (I'm also looking at one, but prolly later during the year) and it looks nice, as previously said, a bit polished but not dramatically.

I'd go down in price, that said. Plus vers les milles-deux, si possible.

What does the seller means by "only one owner". Is he/she the only one or only owner before him?

Either way, does it mean he has more information on the services etc ...

Edit: didn't read the last sentence of your previous post... Does the father has any paper/box?

 

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YYTIN

·May 5, 2021

Hi @LesXL

I did call the owner : nice guy. I believe the story of this watch purchased by his father. No paper, nor box anymore though.
Services is far away though in the 2000s so hopefully I won't have any bad surprise.

And we did agree on a price close enough to your estimate... so thanks for the message.

 

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LesXL

·May 5, 2021

YYTIN

Hi @LesXL

I did call the owner : nice guy. I believe the story of this watch purchased by his father. No paper, nor box anymore though.
Services is far away though in the 2000s so hopefully I won't have any bad surprise.

And we did agree on a price close enough to your estimate... so thanks for the message.

Yay... Félicitations alors, well done!
Do share some pictures when received.

 

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YYTIN

·May 5, 2021

Thanks : I will !

 

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CafeRacer

·May 7, 2021

The parts all look genuine to me, but the lume plots are the type usually seen on the earlier 173-177 serials.
Add the difference in lume colour, and there might be something worth investigating...
I recommend you search for more 180 serial H20217-4 and compare.

For reference, the "big lume" versions only seem to appear in 182 serial range, both silver and black dial variants.

 

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YYTIN

·May 7, 2021

Hi @CafeRacer
Thanks : the hands were puzzling me but with your comment and the one from Mazoue, this part seems cleared.
I've PMed you with some H20217-4 references I've found. Including one in C24 for the question of the lume plots and color. It all seems ok to me but I do not have your eyesight 😀
Appreciate the help here.

 

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CafeRacer

·May 7, 2021

Regarding the difference in lume plots, it is most notable at 12 - larger with white ring edges.
The 12 plots are close together.
On the 18xxxxx dials these plots seem to be the wide type, and smaller.
Theres a difference in lines/crosshairs intersecting text, but its not quite unique to this case and gets a bit more complicated with smaller ranges.

 

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YYTIN

·May 19, 2021

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all the comments and helps here.
The pole router arrived and I'm happy to see that it looks better in flesh than in the pictures I shared.

 

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LesXL

·May 19, 2021

Je suis jaloux!! Félicitations, elle est canon.

Indeed, looks better than on the seller pictures! Enjoy and wear it in good health.

Does it run smoothly?

 

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YYTIN

·May 19, 2021

LesXL

Je suis jaloux!! Félicitations, elle est canon.

Indeed, looks better than on the seller pictures! Enjoy and wear it in good health.

Does it run smoothly?

Merci bien 👍
Indeed it seems to run smoothly : 2nd day on my wrist and everything is fine.
Anyway as usual I'll go to pay a visit to my watchmaker to have a look 😀

 

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bgrisso

·May 19, 2021

very nice, congrats

 

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Carlton-Browne

·May 19, 2021

Lugs look a bit sharper than in the initial pictures.

 

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YYTIN

·May 19, 2021

Carlton-Browne

Lugs look a bit sharper than in the initial pictures.

Yes. Thanks to notice : that was the very good surprise when I opened the box as I feared, from the seller pictures, that they were too much polished. They are not the sharpest I have seen in picture but it does its effect on my wrist.

Edited: May 21, 2021

 

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Adam2941

·May 21, 2021

Nice pick up. It is often the case that when the watch arrives, it looks better than in the pics! You may have paid top dollar for this watch, but it will hold its value or increase. Interest in Polerouters is only increasing (thanks in part to this forum), and the supply is obviously not increasing. I guess we can say it is going down, because the Polerouters in personal collections mostly stay there, and occasionally an undiscovered one gets ruined one way or another. Like Gatorcpa, I also picked up most of my bumper Polerouters in 2012-14 for about $200! Ten years from now you will be marveling how you picked up yours in 2021 for ONLY $XXXX, or whatever you paid! Congrats!