The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I have a attraction to vintage watches anywhere from the 1920's to 1950's from various manufaturers.

My question is why on ebay are the majority of vintage watches in countries like the Phillipines, India, Turkey, etc?

I have never bought one from any seller outside the U.S. Not knowing if these are scams or fakes. Has anyone had any experience dealing with these overseas sellers selling vintage watches? Are most of the fakes or scams?

Because those are the countries that frequently produce these 'vintage' watches.

Vintage watches made to order

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"It is just a matter of time!"

Roff, produce as in fakes or counterfit watches or thrown together from scrap pieces?

So how do you know if you are getting a real one or a fake? Alot of the auctions will have pictures showing the movements to show thats it is a Omega or whatever manufacturer it is inside. Are these just images they put in there for the "snow job"? Not only that but a few of the sellers will have thousands of positive feedback (justs adds to the confusion of if its legit).

Only curious because alot of them don't really go for very much, sometimes less that $100.00. Just seems to me if you are going to fake something you would pick a item with a bigger payoff for all the trouble it takes.

They are both fake and frankenwatches. The only way to know what you are buying is research and expert opinion, and even then it's going to be an element of luck. The vast majority of manufatcurers used movements from the same ebauche firms so changing the 'maker' is as simple as taking a blank Venus / Valjoux / Felsa / Landeron bridge and stamping a different watch firm name on it.

There are a huge number of three hand Breitling fakes coming out of China at the moment and many sell for more than the real ones!

most of these ultracheap pieces come from India, labor is cheap and lots of low cost local watches produced; they rarely fake "big names" - mostly Titoni, Favre and similar, sometimes slipping in some lower end Omega or Zenith. "Refinishing" i.e. faking a dial costs close to nothing there, the watch is maybe a Buck or two - if you sell them by the dozen a day you end up with a decent profit.

here are some typical sellers:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/09accuratetime/ ... 7675.l2562

some have UK fronts, so beware.

Thanks for the info.

Any good vintage Omega reference sites you know of?

I bought a vintage Chronomat from Turkey. Guy was genuine, and so was the watch. I usually buy vintage from Europe or the USA, as they seem to have the majority of what I am looking for. I have bought vintage Seikos (yes, don't laugh) from the Philippines. No problems. I have yet to buy anything from India, probably because of the lack of opportunity.

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Jim

"You have Control".