A Wild Franken-watch Appeared! And I Bought it.

It was just 20 bucks, what the hell, I need to see it first-hand!

No, I didn’t just get scammed! What are you talking about?

Yeah look at this bad boy, the seller posted this as a “Vintage Seiko 5”. My first thought was “the watch looked really well preserved for a vintage piece,". Minimum scratches, legible dial, maybe some worn down hands & indices. From the picture, I feel like I quite like the watch. 

I didn’t know Seiko made a swatch-esque case, and I liked swatches. The only thing lacking in the advert was the lack of metal strap, watch box, and documents—in hindsight, that was the first red flag. Seiko, in fact, didn't make such cases.

Then, when I asked for the reference number, he confidently send me a picture of the case back.

It was written: Seiko 315256 6309-5820

That was the second red flag, a quick google search would tell you that the watch with that reference number has a square case, like this:

Being someone with little to no experience in “Vintage Seiko”, I thought it was just a fluke or there might be something google didn’t know. So, I proceed to meet the guy to buy the watch for 20 USD (equivalently, we trade using IDR).

We met outside my university, since it was convenient for me. After talking for a bit, I checked the watch and to be honest, I can’t see anything wrong with the watch. The metal case is good, the weight is good, a cheap leather strap doesn’t hurt anybody. But, the movement has a little ‘rattle’ when I move the watch up and down, the whole movement seem to slide. But I thought it was because the movement is old.

Oh boy, I was wrong. Since this is a franken-watch, apparently, sometimes the case, case back, and movement didn’t fit quite nicely. The sliding sounds that I heard was because the movement are smaller/thinner than the actual case, or it might be because the movement is also frankensteined. Damn, that should be the third and final sign that I should back off.

After talking a little more, he said he was a Seiko collector and has recently tried to sell his collection. He said that he bought the watch in 1990s and has taken care of it since, and only 3 of his collection are left to sell. When I mentioned other brands such as Orient, Citizen, or Timex, he didn’t seem to be able to follow. He just absent-mindedly nods and agrees. My guess is either he really is a collector and didn’t know the watch isn’t genuine, or he was lying the whole time.

So yeah, that’s my story guys. I suppose this qualify as a rant/vent post. It’s no biggie, 20 USD is pocket change as far as I’m concerned. I hope you enjoyed the read :D.

PS: I only knew it was a frankenwatch about a day after purchase, when I stumbled into this old thread.