Hi All - i am seeking the expertise of the site for help with a watch I am considering on eBay. Dial and case look OK - crown in obviously wrong - but the movement has the serial number scratched out. Is there any legit reason for this? or is this simply a sign that the watch was stolen at some point?

thanks!

 

Walk away

 

I can't tell from that photo whether it has actually been scratched out or if it was just obscured for the listing. Have you asked the seller?

 

It looks like it was scratched off and obviously there is no reason for that. I would stay away for sure. There are so many nice omega available for sale.

 

I can't tell from that photo whether it has actually been scratched out or if it was just obscured for the listing. Have you asked the seller?

No, the seller says that it has been scratched out. Seller very open about it in the listing. I PMed to ask if he knew why... he responded that he does not... he bought a package of watches and this one was in there with the serial scratched out.

 

This is the one from Matthew Bain?

just seems like hassle to me so I’d walk away.

 

There is no legit reason for scratching out the serial and it could be a stolen watch, but it's not easy to verify that. Obviously it pretty much kills the collectibility of the watch.

 

Massive red flag - Run! Plenty of clean watches out there.

 

Yes, this is the one from Matthew Bain.

thanks for the input everyone. I’ll be out on this one.

I thought I had recalled a legit reason for this from here a while back. Someone importing watches that shouldn’t have or territorial issue or something along those lines. Though If I recall correctly those were very neatly drilled out.

 

There was an earlier thread this month that suggested that in some instances, serial numbers were 'legitimately' scored out to avoid breaching monopoly requirements in certain countries, possibly the USA.

It may be that an OF member, more adept than me, can link that thread to this.

 

ok thanks - the thread I was thinking about was a couple years back at least... but probably a similar discussion.

 

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/466/137/424819/