I'm part of an agency called the IMF

What's that stand for?

Introduction

When I sit down to write this newsletter each Friday morning, I cast a quick eye over the Grand Seiko auctions on Yahoo Japan in descending order of number of bids, to get a sense as to whether it’s going to be a busy or a quiet week.

This week looks like it’s going to be a busy one, so now I jump forward to write the details, and then I’ll come back to summarize them!

<two hours pass>

Ok so it is a busy week this week, but there are a couple of surprise disappointments to follow, as watches that when I added them to my Yahoo watchlist I thought would end up in the IMF, turned out on closer inspection to be bad guys.

Don’t despair though - the watches to be avoided can teach us some really good lessons at times, and this week is no exception.

As promised last week, the article that serves as an index to every one of these Friday newsletters (going all the way back to October 2021) has now been brought up to date. I’m not entirely sure just how many watches I’ve covered now, but if you printed that index out, it would run to almost 60 pages of A4.

I had somehow let the index fall about a month behind, so there was a lot to update. I will try to keep on top of it going forward!

This week’s newsletter is going out to all, with a paywall for free subscribers following the first featured listing. For those with free subscriptions, don’t forget that you will get the full newsletter for free one week from now, but if you want to find out what those surprise dodgy watches were before the auctions close, please do consider signing up for a paid subscription!

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Ethan Hunt

Box for a 56GS on a steel bracelet

For a while it looked like this section was going to be kicking off with a rather lovely example of the first Grand Seiko, but it turned out to be a rather ugly example in the end, so here we are instead kicking off with a box.

Not just any old box though - a box for the a 56GS that would have been sold on a steel bracelet.

This is quite a rare box on its own, but what makes this listing particularly interesting is that the much rarer outer box is included as well (the inner box is markedly taller than the one for 56GS references on straps).

An example of just the inner box sold earlier this month for a very reasonable 13,500 Yen. Unsurprisingly, the bidding on this listing has already exceeded that, and I anticipate it will be a hard fought for auction.

In a surprising coincidence, there is actually a second example of this box - again with the rare outer box - up for grabs this week. They really are rare though. Promise!

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Grand Seiko 4420-9000 late dial

There sure are a lot of these turning up lately. You need to be careful, as not all are fully legit, but I can’t see anything amiss here.

Whilst the dial looks great, the case is not the best quality, but it’s worth including this week so that you can compare and contrast with the equivalent reference in the baddies section below. Can you spot all the differences between the dials?

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Grand Seiko 6185-8020 VFA

This one will be familiar - it’s the same watch as detailed in the newsletter from two weeks ago. For some reason, that auction was cancelled after it had closed for 472,000 Yen. Even taking into consideration the condition, that was a pretty good deal for the buyer so I’m not quite sure what happened there. But I know there was at least one subscriber who was considering it - maybe have another go this week, and good luck!

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Box for the 57GS

If you’re after one of these for either your 57GS, Liner Chronometer, or King Seiko 49999 Chronometer, you’ll be interested to learn that the one that featured a couple of weeks ago ended up closing for 72,000 Yen. These are getting expensive!

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It’s not a vintage Grand Seiko, but I like it

Seiko 0138-5020

As I have mentioned on a number of occasions in the past, I have an extensive collection of Seiko LCD watches from the 1970’s that chart the introduction of “complications” into digital watches.

The 0138 module was Seiko’s first with a 1/100th of a second chronograph, and was launched in five different watches in the second volume of the 1978 Seiko catalogue.

The watch listed here is by far my favourite of them all, and one of my favourites in my entire collection - the integration of the case and bracelet is absolutely fabulous.

It’s a rare reference, and pretty much unheard of in this NOS condition. Fortunately my example - pictured below - is also NOS, so I won’t be chasing this one!

Seiko 3883-7000 “Morpho Butterfly”

This is a watch from my personal collection that I listed a few weeks back for $3,500. It’s still available, and if any paid subscriber is interested, I can drop the price to $3,000.

Link is to my Instagram reel where you can see it in all its glory in a video. If you’re interested in taking it off my hands, do drop me an email!

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Owen Davian

The first Grand Seiko with carved transitional dial

We kick off the bad guys’ section this week with what at first glance looks to be an absolute cracker - an rare example of the first Grand Seiko with the “transitional” carved logo dial. In fact, it looks so good that I wrote up a lot of the following text with the watch featured at the top of the newsletter. There was one slightly odd thing about it, and then…

For those who are not familiar with this dial variant, it can be identified by the dial code under the 6 o’clock index. Very often this is not clearly visible, but for some reason - probably due to the crystal that is fitted to this particular watch (/ed - or maybe there is another reason?!) - we can see it here.

The print logo dial first Grand Seikos, and the vast majority of carved logo dialed examples, have a dial code “GSJ14H156”.

Here however we can see that the same code has an “E” suffix, identifying it as being what I refer to as a transitional dial. Interestingly, this dial code exists for both carved logo and raised logo examples, and it is absolutely correct for these watches to have the flat handset as seen here (I have also seen examples with the “mountain” hands).

Overall the watch looks to be in excellent condition, with the dial in particularly good shape. I can’t see any obvious dial stains, although it has to be said that the high exposure on the dial will almost certainly be hiding some (perfectly acceptable) spotting.

The case is in typical condition for a first Grand Seiko, with the dings and scratches that one would expect for a watch that is over 60 years old. As with all examples of the reference from 1960 and 1961, the caseback medallion is of the expected early type.

There is just one odd thing (well, as it turns out, two odd things…) about this watch however.

To date, I have seen examples of the carved logo transitional dial in watches dating (as per their caseback serial number) from between April to June 1961. The example here dates from December 1961.

If that was the only issue, the listing would have appeared in the other section. But it’s not…

It surprised me that the problem with this watch didn’t jump straight out at me. However, if you rotate that first photo through 90 degrees…

… the problem is obvious.

I’d be fascinated to know if anyone spotted this from the first photo, or whether it was only when the image was rotated that you too realised this dial has been reprinted? Please do comment below!

The problem isn’t just with the “Chronometer” text, but I won’t mention the other obvious tell in the “Diashock” text, nor the rather subtler one in the dial code.

This auction is due to close Friday evening Japan time, and is up to 226,000 Yen already, with 61 bids and over 100 people watching. The dial fooled me until I got around to taking a very close look at it when writing it up here, and I suspect it will fool quite a lot of others too.

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Grand Seiko 4420-9000 early dial

I almost didn’t include this listing because I suspect most people looking for an early dialed 44GS would give it a pass anyway. But just in case anyone is thinking of picking this one up, and doesn’t mind the rather obvious stain on the dial, make sure you don’t miss the cracked bezel! Note also the crown is “fine knurled”, with something of the order of 25 ridges. I need to get around to doing some digging on this to find out if that crown can be correct for this reference as from memory all the early dialed 44GS that I have had pass through my hands (including the dead stock example) have the coarser knurled crown with 15 ridges.

I have a suspicion that the original crown was the coarser knurled example, and then at a later date (possibly with the introduction of the 45GS, but maybe during the production timeline of the 44GS), the finer knurled one superseded it. Certainly the later exterior parts guides list the same part (55W41E) as being the correct crown for both 44GS and 45GS -

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The first Grand Seiko with black dial

It’s a busy week for the bad guys, but at least so far they’ve been interesting bad guys.

Those with long memories might remember a couple of times a black dialed “First” turned up in the past. The first (rather appropriately) being in the newsletter that went out on April 1st last year where it sold for 334,000 Yen, and then the exact same watch reappeared in December, selling for 379,000 Yen.

That watch (which I admitted to really liking!) had a carved logo dial, whereas this one’s is the later raised version. The dial is of course completely illegitimate, and features one of the more recent reprints.

There’s no doubting it is a very striking look, and of course reminiscent of the recent modern reissue (although of course that black dialed one from last year surfaced prior to the introduction of SBGW295). I would be extremely surprised if anyone bidding on this actually believes it to be a legit dial. Let’s see what it ends up closing for…

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Grand Seiko 4420-9000 late dial

And of course, after a few interesting bad guys, we are bound to get some of the boring ones. Here is the all too common reprinted dial for the 44GS…

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Grand Seiko 43999 SD dial

… and here’s the equally common 43999 SD.

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Grand Seiko 43999 AD dial

At first I thought this was going to turn out to be a relisting of a similar watch that I featured last month, but it’s actually a different one.

There is always the argument that “Seiko gonna Seiko”, and perhaps a case from August 1963 didn’t end up with a movement and dial until the following year, but for me an AD dial in an August 1963 case just isn’t right.

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The first Grand Seiko with raised logo AD dial

Well, I’m not going to lie - it’s been a really disappointing week when it comes to the first Grand Seiko.

I check all the new Yahoo auctions for Seiko several times a day for the newly listed lots, and add those that look interesting to my Yahoo watchlist. I only get around to looking at those listings in detail either in the last hour or so before they close, or when I include them in this newsletter.

Here is another example of a very rare variant of the first Grand Seiko that, when I went to add it to the newsletter, was going to be in the top section. And then something about the dial nagged me, and I took a closer look for the first time since it was listed on Sunday, and - sure enough - this dial has been reprinted.

From memory, I’ve seen fewer reprinted AD dials than I have genuine ones. And all prior examples had printed logos (which made the fact that they were reprints rather obvious). This is the first example of a raised logo dialed AD dial reprint that I’ve come across, and the reprint is very good indeed.

Here’s a genuine dial (the crystal has been removed so that the dial code can be easily seen, and note that this is shot in very flat light, so the dial finishing will look very different to what is seen in the listing above) -

See if you can spot the issues.

As with the redone carved transitional dialed first Grand Seiko listed earlier, I think this listing will fool a lot of people. Note also that the case serial number appears to start D2, indicating production in December 1962, which is too early for an AD dial.

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Redone coloured dial summary

… 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” so be careful out there!

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OK that’s it for this week - not as many listings to recommend as I initially thought there were going to be, but a useful reminder that not only does your $1 a week save you as much as 10% on watches that I have for sale (and they are selling very quickly these days - the 5645-7005 that I listed yesterday has already gone!), but also can save you literally thousands of dollars from not purchasing a dodgy watch!