The case looks pretty crisp. The right watchmaker could have that looking very nice. The crown & pushers look like they were haphazardly chosen, as if they fell out of a watch parts piñata and these were the 3 pieces that got grabbed. The dial, for all intents and purposes, sucks. So is the case, caliber, and hands worth $2400? I don't know.

If somebody had a specimen with a nice dial and an over polished case, this would be the answer. You could make one Arnold Schwarzenegger, and sell the Danny DeVito leftover one to recoup your money.

 

For some strange reason - the dial doesn't look that bad to me. Sure it doesn't look like it's supposed to, but I don't mind it.

 

I bid what I thought was a very high price on it and was willing to overpay a little bit. Wanted the case for my A3817 which would have been a very nice example as I found a correct crown as well. Somebody else wanted a project more than me I guess. But if this can sell for $2,400 what could one sell the leftover "Danny DeVito" for? $2,000? At that price it's not that much of a stretch.

This A3817 is at $3,850 already and it has an oval case and the wrong subdial hand that I'm guessing is near impossible to source.

 

It looks like someone tried to lube the movement with WD-40. That's going to leave a mark.

 

Indeed. The more I look at it, the more I think it could be resurrected. Maybe. The lume fills are even in the hour markers.

But $2400?

As Nathaniel Hawthorne once wrote, "I trow not!"

 

You will probably see that dial again in a polished case. Someone is going to upgrade their A3817, A3818 or A384 with that case (keeping their original case back with correct number), and then throw the A385 back to the wolves.

 

I suppose that's true.

 

Sold for USD$5,200 with more pictures of the strap than the actual watch.



Now if you bought the A385 for USD$2,400 + this for $5,200 you're in for $7,600. Say another $200 for a watchmaker to do the case swap for you (assuming you don't service it). So $7,800. Can you sell "DeVito" for $2,000 making your net $5,800 for a A3817 that needs a proper crown? Still seems like a heavy overpay.

 

If you had bought this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-VINTAG...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network

married it to your jellybean and called it a RARE A7817, I think you would get close to $2k on ebay.

 

Any word if this watch has been relisted?

 

The Strap is back...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ZENITH-EL...-MENS-WATCH-/171235236419?hash=item27de6a5a43Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network

 

Greedy b@stard. Unless he was using multiple shills, the last real bid would have been what $5,350 or so? If you get over $5k for that you should be laughing. It's too bad you can't see the ID's of bidders so you can track the shill accounts.

 

It's only gonna get worse guys. Pretty soon, it will be an accepted practice and all but a very few will use shills. Unless eBay charges for relisting and makes sellers pay the final value fees for each time a watch "sells", shilling is here to stay on the swamp.

 

This is why unsophisticated, low-feedback sellers with weak photography skills turn me on.

 

Yes, but I think more and more of those guys are sandbagging... I'm positive that they take bad photos on purpose. (How else could somebody with 2000+ feedbacks still be taking pictures so bad that it you can't tell if it's a watch or a dog or a christmas ornament?)

There has to be a way to match up "s******d" with bidder "shithead" if he/she was won at least a few auctions.