I'm going to tell you a story about a man

His name was Bond, James Bond

Introduction

The purpose of this newsletter is to provide guidance on which vintage Grand Seiko auctions on Yahoo Japan might be of interest to collectors. I also detail those “dodgy” listings that you need to avoid.

What you will notice is that this isn’t just a simple list of auction listings - in discussing the merits (and demerits) of the listings I often branch off into a bit of background that I hope will be useful in helping you to learn some of the nuances of collecting vintage Grand Seiko.

For those paid subscribers who are reading one of these newsletters for the first time, you can access the archive of all the previous newsletters on the Substack website (or the iPhone and Android apps).

Going forward, I will be unlocking these newsletters a week after sending them out to paid subscribers. The main benefit is of course alerting paid subs to the auctions that they might be interested in bidding on (and avoiding), but I feel the educational value post-close of the auctions is only fair to share to all.

With “Golden Week” around the corner, it is perhaps unsurprisingly a little slow this week, with not a great deal to recommend - nothing new of note at the dealers, and nothing outside the sphere of vintage Grand Seiko that I have my eye on, so it makes for quite a short newsletter (for I think the first time in ages, I’ve not even hit the email length limit!).

Important note for UK and EEA subscribers -

Yahoo Japan is now actively blocking connections from the UK and the European Economic Area due to the prohibitive costs of adhering to the GDPR regulations for a relatively small number of users.

To get around this for the purposes of this newsletter, links to the auctions detailed will be provided through one of the Japanese proxy companies - FromJapan.

Whilst I have been a customer of FromJapan for many years, I do not receive any benefits from using these links.

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James Bond

Grand Seiko 6146-8050 white dial

I’m putting this one here with a large caveat - I’m pretty sure the caseback medallion on this is not original. However, there is plenty of interest in it so clearly others aren’t in agreement.

The 614x-8050’s of course originally were only ever sold on bracelets. The seller describes this one as being in “mint” condition, but with an aftermarket strap (not even with a correct GS buckle) and a suspect medallion, I do wonder whether it has had some “attention” paid to it. It wouldn’t be the first time this seller has listed a piece as mint, but that had been refinished.

My spidey-senses are telling me to steer clear of this one, but there’s no denying it does look good in the - admittedly very over-exposed - photos.

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Grand Seiko 4522-8000 CG

Of all the 452x-8000 variants it’s probably fair to say that the cap gold 4522 is probably the least desirable. People naturally (and rightly) gravitate towards the time only steel cased 4520-8000.

The example presented here is in excellent condition, although the case does show signs of softening at its edges - it’s almost certainly been repolished at some point (compare with the case that I list later and you’ll be able to see for yourself how these were originally).

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The first Grand Seiko with raised logo dial

If you’re patient, there will be better examples of the most common first Grand Seiko variant turn up in the future, but you’ll see many examples a lot worse than this one whilst you wait.

The dial shows the expected light spotting, but there appear to be no major blemishes, whilst the case is pretty much typical for what one would expect on one of these.

A decent honest watch that should end up as a good buy for someone, as long as the bidders don’t get carried away!

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Grand Seiko 4520-8000 CG

Earlier we saw a nice example of the 4522-8000 in cap gold, and here’s a listing for a similarly attractive time only 4520.

Checking the description, this one is running a lot better at +5 seconds per day having been serviced earlier this month. The only thing I’m a little unsure about is the crown - is it just very worn down, is it wrong, or were multiple crown variants used on these? Certainly a subject for more in-depth research at some point!

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Grand Seiko 5646-8000

Here’s another example of a watch that originally was only ever sold on a bracelet, but it’s pretty rare to come across a 5646-8000 in this condition, so even though it’s found its way onto a leather strap, it’s hard not to include it in the recommended listings.

It may seem hard to believe, but that dial was originally blue. For one reason or another, a lot of dark blue dials from Seiko in this period lose almost all their saturation and “fade” to varying shades of grey. Very rarely, you might come across an example that retains its colour, but you could hunt for years before finding one like this -

Condition-wise, the auction example is about as good as you could hope to find, unless someone turns up a NOS example from a drawer somewhere. The case is in great shape, and - even though its turned grey - the dial is extremely attractive with no significant issues (for some reason this reference very rarely ages well).

Note from the description that the seller states that quickset date works, but he makes no mention of whether the day does as well. As is always the case with the 5646 movements, assume the worst and that the quickset mechanism will need addressing at a service.

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XQB040 bracelet for 564x-8000

As luck would have it, here’s the correct bracelet for the 5646-8000!

And here’s another!

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Grand Seiko 4522-7000

I guess you could file this one under “interesting patina”. I’ve never seen a dial go like this before, and have no idea what might have caused it. Maybe someone will find it attractive, and if they do, the super-sharp case condition should make it an easy decision to chase.

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Grand Seiko 6156-8020

The cap gold “Special” is one of those sleeper pieces that you don’t realise just how rare they are until you start to look for one.

Checking my reference index to these Friday newsletters shows up just two instances of my recommending examples of this reference in the past, with the most recent one from January this year being picked up at a BiN price of 249,000 Yen.

The example listed here is in superb condition, and highly recommended.

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Inner box for the first Grand Seiko

If you’re the owner of an example of the first Grand Seiko and need a place to keep the watch safe when it’s not on your wrist, you could do worse than to pick up an original box for it!

Sadly lacking the outer box, there will however still be considerable interest in this I’m sure. It does look as if the inner tray has become a bit warped though - not sure if that could be addressed.

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Case for a 4522-8000 CG

Here’s that service case for a 4522-8000 CG that I promised you earlier. It is a good reference point for how these cap gold cases should look when they haven’t been polished or rubbed against shirt cuffs for 50 years.

Caseback protection sticker is intact, and you can be sure that this absolutely is the correct crown for the reference.

The only slight downside is that it does appear to have picked up a scratch on the lower right lug.

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Grand Seiko 6156-8040

Once again no examples of “it’s not a vintage Grand Seiko, but I like it” this week, but there are a couple of listings in my watch list with no current bids and a minimum starting price that I think are worth highlighting.

The 6156-8040 Special holds the distinction of being the very last vintage Grand Seiko reference to be launched, first appearing in the supplement to volume 2 of the 1974 Seiko catalogue.

This listing doesn’t have any bids yet, and has a minimum starting price of 218,000 Yen. As such, it could well be missed by people who only check listings that have some “action”.

Clearly it’s not in anything like mint condition, but it’s certainly one of the better ones that I’ve seen, and a lot better than the other example of this reference that is up for grabs this week on open auction.

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Grand Seiko 5646-5010 blue dial

This is another of those references with blue dials that typically fade to some shade or other of grey.

You’ll notice that in the later photos of this listing the dial doesn’t look nearly as blue as in the lead shot. Whether this is because the seller has had some fun with the saturation slider, or has simply caught the dial just right, I don’t know. What I do know is that you don’t often come across one of these that retains any shade of blue at all.

Considering the overall condition of the watch, along with the fact it comes with its original buckle and the correct inner box, it wouldn’t surprise me if someone tries to nab it for the starting price of 200,000 Yen.

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A Grand Seiko 5645-8000 at Watch CTI

It’s been a while since I listed a watch with a dealer, and I thought it would be timely to include this one from Watch CTI in Ginza.

It’s one of those very rare examples of a 564x-8000 that has retained the blue colour of the dial. Although the case is showing signs of some buffing at some point, that dial is so attractive, and the price of 137,500 Yen so reasonable, that it’s an easy one to recommend this week.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see those two XQB040 bracelets that I linked to earlier paired up with the two 564x-8000’s that I’ve highlighted this week. If you manage it, do let us know in the chat!

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Lyutsifer Safin

Grand Seiko 5722-9990

Terribly overpolished case, and of course a redone dial.

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Grand Seiko 4420-9000

You’d be forgiven for thinking this was a relisting of a watch featured in the newsletter a couple of weeks ago, but it’s not - if you look through the photos you’ll see the case serial numbers are different.

It’s from the same seller as before - clearly one to keep a close eye on in the future, because he’s been listing quite a few 44’s of late.

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Grand Seiko 43999 SD dial

There must be quite a production line churning out these considering how often they are turning up. It’s such an obvious redial, and in an overpolished case with the wrong production month and a fake medallion, I simply do not understand how anyone is fooled by these.

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Grand Seiko 6146-8010 “Arabesque” Idemitsu Commemorative

It’s been a while since “our friend” has listed an “Arabesque”. Oddly for him, it is actually a 6146-8010 case (more often than not, these redials turn up in regular 6146-8000 cases). Even more surprising is that this isn’t just any old 6146-8010, it’s the very rare Idemitsu commemorative watch, issued to celebrate 60 years since the founding of the company.

I’m not entirely sure why the seller has chosen to blur out the inscription on the caseback - it might have been more sensible for him to blur out the obviously fake medallion.

Here’s the dial print of a legitimate one for comparison - pay particular attention to the dial code alignment with the minute markers.

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Weird KS/GS Frankenstein

Obviously this one isn’t going to fool anyone, but unless you’re after parts for a 4520 movement, I don’t really know why anyone would even bother with it!

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Grand Seiko 6146-8000

A busy week for our favourite purveyor of redone dials, this time a very poor attempt at recreating the early dial for the 6146-8000.

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Redone coloured dial summary

As usual, I close with the usual reminder to steer clear of any vintage Grand Seikos with coloured dials similar to the above. This is not a comprehensive photo - there are many references that get this “treatment”, and several listings typically appear every week.

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