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Why Do Sellers Obscure the Movement Serial Number?

sathomasga
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There's probably an obvious answer to this question, and I'm just being dense, but...

I've noticed that some sellers partially obscure the serial number in movement photographs. They often leave the two most significant digits exposed, presumably to allow checking the date of manufacture, but hide the rest. What is the reason for this practice? I assume that most of them aren't peddling stolen goods, so what is the harm in potential buyers having access to the full number?

Thanks in advance for the education.
 
STANDY
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Paranoia

And because someone else dose it

Your going to hear all the
15C10C0B-E751-4101-AE96-52B935E108B6.gif
about counterfeiting stealing serial numbers and someone claiming it’s theirs to police and gaining your watch, but it’s just a case of people see it done and do it.

I don’t bother about it and never have.
 
dsio
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STANDY STANDY
Paranoia

And because someone else dose it

Your going to hear all the
15C10C0B-E751-4101-AE96-52B935E108B6.gif
about counterfeiting stealing serial numbers and someone claiming it’s theirs to police and gaining your watch, but it’s just a case of people see it done and do it.

I don’t bother about it and never have.
Yea it’s particularly silly on vintage pieces yet people still do it. I really doubt fakers are out there going I guess I’ll have to give up on making this knockoff since I don’t have a serial number for it.
 
JimInOz
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Some "new" sellers have seen ads on C24 etc with the serials obscured, so they think it has to be done, or they may think that doing it adds a touch of professionalism to their sale.
 
dsio
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JimInOz JimInOz
Some "new" sellers have seen ads on C24 etc with the serials obscured, so they think it has to be done, or they may think that doing it adds a touch of professionalism to their sale.
This is 100% true, so many people do it just because monkey see monkey do and are unaware of any reason at all.
 
Spruce
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I can’t speak about other brands but at one stage eBay had a shedload of Oris Big Crown Pointer Date watches on offer.

The fakes (see photo) all had the serial number 26-58574. The cannier fake sellers got in the practice of obscuring it.

B83FD0B0-98AF-410C-85B4-36830094B3DA.jpeg
 
BarbVl
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I also think paranoia..limited editions are also obscure most of the time..
 
sheepdoll
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dsio dsio
This is 100% true, so many people do it just because monkey see monkey do and are unaware of any reason at all.
I have sort of done it that way when I not SN of the watches I have. In this day and age, It is diffuctult to know what information to give out and what not to.
-j
 
jaegodylan
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Well with Rolex for example the people building “replicas” have been known to copy existing serial numbers for their builds. SO it is quite common to obscure those.
 
STANDY
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jaegodylan jaegodylan
Well with Rolex for example the people building “replicas” have been known to copy existing serial numbers for their builds. SO it is quite common to obscure those.

They copy whole existing watches, not just serial numbers 😗
 
jaegodylan
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STANDY STANDY
They copy whole existing watches, not just serial numbers 😗
Yes that would be the mission.
 
thelinendial
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Here’s my theory… theft claims and online registration for the new owner.

ie Buyer takes the recently purchased Watch to an official Service Center, only to find it was reported stolen, by some guy who saw it with the serial on the Internet.

So unless it’s not a valuable watch I fuzz out the last few digits.
 
buddman
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Simply because the bought it online or at auction and are flipping it for a profit, and they don’t want you to be able to find out how much they paid for it in the first place. Or it was previously in bad condition and they’re not being transparent in selling to disclose what work was done on it. It has zero to do with protection from forgers.
 
Wryfox
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BECAUSE THAT'S MY GRANDPAS WATCH. I CAN TELL BY THE SERIAL NUMBER AND IT WAS STOLEN LAST WEEK. GIVE IT BACK TO ME OR I'M CALLIN THE COPS!

That's why.
 
buddman
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The “inherited watch from grandpa” story is pretty long in the tooth….
 
STANDY
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Wryfox Wryfox
BECAUSE THAT'S MY GRANDPAS WATCH. I CAN TELL BY THE SERIAL NUMBER AND IT WAS STOLEN LAST WEEK. GIVE IT BACK TO ME OR I'M CALLIN THE COPS!

That's why.

So when has this ever happened 😗 How you coping with number plates on your car 😗

Funny thing is when a watch is stolen…owners want to plaster the serial number everywhere
 
Wryfox
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STANDY STANDY
So when has this ever happened 😗

Funny thing is when a watch is stolen…owners want to plaster the serial number everywhere

Happened to me, so that's one anyway. Not kidding.
 
smitty190373
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I've done it to reduce the chance of scammers using my sale photos. It's a lot harder to scam a sale if you're unable to provide a legit serial number photo i.m.o.. Doesn't bother me on cheaper sales, but anything over a few thousand gets the serial blanked.

A few years ago I had several sale pics cloned by a scammer...and some were taken from here. If i don't do it it's usually because I forget to.
 
kaplan
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I know some people don't buy cars if you expose the plates, reason is that they don't want people to know the history transparently, assumably because they plan to hide things when they sell

They could be offering a similar privacy to a buyer, for whatever reasons you may not want your buying history to be known, maybe the watch was in very bad shape and you managed to lift it up, maybe it could be bad if someone shares the old picture with the old price and undermine your efforts etc.

I personally expose as I'm a simple person
 
Dan S
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IMO, there is no legitimate reason for the practice. In these threads, people always come up with various rationales, but they all involve scenarios that are incredibly speculative or illogical. Mostly it comes down to overly cautious people imitating other people. Probably a small fraction are scammers trying to hide the serial number.
 
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