Vintage Roamer, or is it?
So, a while back I was on eBay looking at vintage mechanical watches when I came across a few ads for some vintage Roamer watches.
I found some that said they were NOS and were being sold from a company in Florida. I also found some with pictures that looked just like the ones from Florida being sold from India.
The NOS ones said they had gone through the movement and installed a new leather strap. The ones from India said they had recently serviced the original Swiss movement. Then installed a new dial and cased it up in a new SS case with a new leather strap.
The NOS ones were around $140 plus shipping. The ones from India were only $35 with FREE SHIPPING. I had put both of them in my watch list and kinda forgot about them. A couple of weeks later the company from India offered me a 10% discount. What the discount and free shipping it brought my landed cost in at $35.16, I couldn't resist it.
It took about 3 1/2 weeks to get here from India. Then; like I do with most of my used watch purchases, I took it to my LWM for an inspection. He did confirm that it has a vintage FHF movement and that it had been recently serviced. He also said that it's running about as good as a watch like this could be running.
So, with all the new parts I really don't consider it vintage. But it definitely has a vintage style going for it. And at just over $35 it beats the NOS ones for 4 times the price. Especially since when I opened up the package the first thing I saw was a small piece of paper saying for bulk orders email this address.
You don't see this exact model much right now, but there are other styles being sold as NOS from Florida and remanufactured from India. And not just Roamer. But from Oris, Camy Geneva and others. Makes me wonder if that company in Florida is buying these from India and just saying that they are NOS and marking them up.
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It’s a great looking watch.
I think you're right about the Florida seller, they are probably just selling the Indian watches.
I like that the Indian ones are honest about which parts are original and which are modern creations. That's a good way to keep vintage movements in service. It's a little weird that they printed the vintage roamer brand on an homage to a modern Movado, but I doubt roamer or movado is going to complain. In any case, it's a very cool looking watch, I like the case and lugs a lot.
I have been eyeing the same watch on eBay since months now but wasn’t confident to pull the plug worried if it was genuine. Thanks to this post, I feel confident now.
It’s not genuine. I’ve gone into this is in depth on the platform, but hey… It will have a mechanical movement of some description, usually a Citizen (Para Shock system), which is fine, but if you want the real deal then I would leave it. I bought a Fortis with the playing cards for £10 many years back out of curiosity, and it arrived, and also has an FHF (or as much of an FHF) movement.
The Oris watches like this, ironically, have better movements in the “specials” because they will be pallet-lever. Oris made a good pin-lever, yes, but pin-levers are finite and future landfill.
They all have a “vibe” as well - it’s uncanny valley.
The bottom line is this: If you see that font on “17 Jewels Shock Proof” then walk away… unless you really want it.