Seiko ... from India

"A tad suspicious," may be the single greatest understatement about what are commonly known as "Bombay specials."

Run far, run fast. 

I wish that it were different, but there are certain countries that have lax watch cultures where frankenwatches are not discouraged to be sold as the original item.

Seiko, Citizen, Oris, Titoni, Sandoz and others are redialed and reworked.  Vintage Seiko wasn't known for its use of color.

If you get an HMT from India you get a redial whose movement bears a reasonable semblance to an actual HMT. (I have one and I love it.) Anything else and you really have to suspend disbelief. Tropical climates do terrible things to mechanical watches.  Compare with listings from Sri Lanka where they don't repaint and re-case.

I hear Dr. Frankenstein retired from cobbling together people out of corpses, moved to Mumbai, and started cobbling together vintage '70s Seiko 5s from random watches. The $40 shipping costs also help with his night time raids in watch graveyards. 🤣

India licenced the 82xx series movement in almost every watch they do many years ago. so that Seiko might be a little bit Citizen

I bought this Seiko from one of those e-bay stores based in india. It has an automatic seiko movement in it. It's small, 32mm I think. If memory serves, I paid 28 bucks for it with a seiko branded milanese strap. It appears genuine to me.

For 28 dollars I would not worry if it is an original Seiko. Just enjoy the watch. Were it starts to get foggy is when you start to pay 70-100 and you buy a replica then you getting rip off. 

I understand your reasoning. For me, getting a genuine Seiko is important in the sense that (i) it is an important watch brand, (ii) it is affordable to me, and affordable to the point I am happy to experiment (iii) I have no prior experience with the brand. In other words, I want a Seiko to give myself a genuine first impression of the brand, rather than needlessly cloud my judgment with a Frankenwatch (or simply rely on the judgment of others).

I purchased a “Fortis” watch from India….£25

i didn’t expect much and I didn’t get much, looked like a brass movement with Chinese writing on it, lost four minutes a day... then the glass fell out, then the hands fell off, 

good luck 

Yeah, ebay watches from overseas are risky. I might try one of the Bombay specials in the future, just for the heck of it, but in this case I wanted a genuine first impression of the brand, so I'll have to play it a bit safer.

I bought 2 red-dialed "Citizens" off ebay from an Indian seller for $60 total. 

I knew they weren't genuine, but they checked the boxes I was looking for: red-dialed, day/date complications and automatic. 

They'll stay in the collection until I die and then they'll pop up on r/watches in an [Identify] post.