Okay fake busters I have been looking at eBay for hours. Below is a few watches, well links anyways. I have given myself a limit of 2k, unless a few hundred would make a huge difference ( I have cash in the bank for this ). I also don't want a quartz, I am also not worried about being in perfect condition, as I will wear it and I am kind of rough on some things. I like blue dials, with blue bezels, but not only willing to go blue, I like green a lot as well. I would probably change to NATO strap for general use.
First I need the fake busters to make sure they are real. Second are they worth the asking price, and the ones with make an offer what should I offer? Also please no snaking a watch out from under me.
The first is a bond watch, I am a bond fan. It looks to be in good shape and asking is 2k.
2k blue bond
Next is a Chrono that is for sale in Canada, right now its about 2330 US. I figure I might as well use the US to CDN dollar to my advantage and offer a little less. Also I was not looking at chronos but I kind of like it. Mostly thinking a Chrono might be cool, and if I could get it around 2k I am interested.
CDN chrono
This a blue dial but silver bezel, not my favorite but I saw a pic with a blue band on the same style watch and liked it. Its a make offer, and comes with paper work, which I know helps if I ever want to sell it.
blue dial silver bezel
And finally a 36mm blue one that is a little scratched up which I am okay-ish with but the price looks good. I think I can pull off a 36mm my wrist is 7.5.
Scratched blue one
Hello!
It's been few weeks since your post, but I do hope that my observations and thoughts could be helpful there.
About the first watch,
2k blue bond, I would recommend to stay away from it. Several things that I find rather alarming, and the funny thing is that the seller himself/herself have kindly provided a reference picture, where you can quite easily notice some things that are not right (however, reference picture is not fully accurate either, because it depicts the 36 mm version of the early Omega Seamaster 300m "Bond", and not the 41 mm version, which is listed.
First, according to the reference number of the watch (2531.80.00) , it should be a watch with the 1120 movement, and it is not the co-axial movement, so this means that the dial of the watch is not the right one for this watch (even in rather unlikely scenario, that the rest of the watch parts are genuine). With only these pictures as a reference, I am not sure, if the actual dial is fake or simply inappriopriate replacement, but even if it is an honest replacement, it drastically should reduce the value of the watch, IMHO.
Second alarming thing. There is no serial number on the case, but it should be located on the backside on one of the lugs. I have read that if during repair or service the case must be replaced, all service cases come without the engraved serial number, so there is some possibility, that the case is not fake. I have similar watch and it also has no case number, but I bought it from absolutely reputable dealer and I also relied on the seller's warranty. Even then I did my homework very carefully and compared alll the smalllest details, including movement. And one small details, despite the fact that there is no serial number on my case, it has other small marking, a very neat and small symbol of star, which as I learned, presumably indicates that the watch has been picked up from batch and undergone quality control. My opinion - unless you are not buying from reputable dealer and do not have options to have reputable expert to verify authenticity of the watch, it is better to avoid such watch, especially at this price - you can quite easily find one without these issues at comparable, even slightly lower price.
Third alarming thing. The clasp is different and seems wrong to me, because the engravings seem nowhere as neat as they look on my watch or pictures of similar watches from other watches, also, the location and proportions of engravings on the clasp is different and seems off or lame. Additionally, some pars of the clasp are damaged.
Number four. The bracelet end-links are replacements, they are different from original parts, and look uglier than originals. Originals have also part identification numbers on them. And additionally they raise more questions about the whole watch case, because, as far as I can see from the pictures, these end-links might not even fit the original case of the watch, because it seems to me that pin-holes for springbars on this case are positioned differently than on geniune case. To be honest, bracelet itself also looks suspicious, not as neat as it should be, but pictures are not good enough to say it with certainty.
Fifth alarming thing. The bezel is definitelty aftermarket, because the pearl in the bezel is nowhere near as neat it should be, it looks rough and with different proportions than the original. It is also protruded, while the original is almost flat on the surface.
The second one,
CDN chrono, seems more or less ok, but also raises one question. The bezel is aftermarket, but the seller is honest about it, and there are pictures to confirm it. The bracelet looks genuine for my eye and so do endlinks. It seems that tthere is serial number where it should be. BUT it seems quite strange to me that two of the pictures are from different watch, presumably Speedmaster, also with completely different clasp and bracelet. Why one should put pictures which very obviously does not belong here?
The third one,
blue dial silver bezel. I am not so familiar with this watch or the bracelet and other elements, but I see nothing obviously wrong about it , apart from the fact, that, in contrary to the information in the listing, it is seems to be quartz, and as such, at this price, it is not at all very comptitively priced. Both desing of the dial as well as the reference number are those of the quartz watch. I doubt that the seller is intentionally providing inaccurate information here, because the mistake is too obvious, but in my opinion it is not a very good deal for this watch.
And the last one,
Scratched blue one - I do not see anything obviously shady about this one. In my case, if I was looking for this particular model, I would keep looking around for little bit better deal, but that would be related with tax and shipping costs.
