There was never just one

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.

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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Aaron Cross

Grand Seiko 6156-8000

Skipping past an example of the first Grand Seiko with a dial that is perhaps a little too stained to recommend, and a 5722-9991 in super condition, but whose seller has asked me not to feature his auctions (yes, really!), we start this week with a decent example of the 6156-8000 “Special”.

I’ve discussed in the past (just last week in fact!) how this is a bit of a sleeper reference, with most collectors probably holding out for the 6156-8010, and I think it really is a great value proposition for anyone looking to add a vintage Grand Seiko to their collection.

This example looks to be in excellent overall condition, with the seller mentioning it has had a recent service, and functioning well (although no mention is made of the accuracy).

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Grand Seiko 4420-9000 late dial

There seems to have been quite the uptick in the number of examples of the 44GS hitting Yahoo in recent weeks, and here’s another example of the later Daini-logo’d dial.

I was toying with putting this in the “bad guy” section due to the incorrect crown, but I think, excepting that issue, the general condition of the watch is good enough to warrant an appearance up top.

It shouldn’t be too difficult to track down a replacement crown (apologies - I am traveling at the moment and don’t have access to my exterior parts catalogue to confirm the part number).

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Grand Seiko 4420-9000 late dial

And here’s another, this time with the correct crown.

The case on this one is certainly somewhat more marked than the previous example, but it’s not been refinished and still retains those all important sharply defined lugs and case edges.

If you’re getting a strong sense of deja vu here, it’s because this watch was also featured last week (take a close look at the second photo to remind yourself of the small mark on the dial at the 8 minute index).

The seller states the reason for the relisting is because the winning bidder didn’t complete the sale.

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Grand Seiko 6156-8020

A few weeks ago someone was lucky enough to pick up an example of this reference for just 130k Yen, about half what they typically close for.

Somehow I doubt anyone will be so lucky this time around for this suitably “Special” listing of the cap gold Grand Seiko Special, and what is certainly the headline listing this week.

Not only does the watch look to be in absolutely superb condition, but as you can see from the above photo, it comes with the extremely hard to find “Grand Seiko Special” branded outer box.

With people paying ever increasing prices for boxes these days, it wouldn’t surprise me to see this auction set a record price for the reference.

From a historical perspective, what is fascinating about this lot is that the inner box is not the one that has the additional “Hi-Beat 36000” on the inside of the lid. Arguably this does provide some further credence to the theory that the non-36000 branded inner boxes were used for the 61GS and 45GS references after the introduction of the 56GS series.

Expect to see this one turn up in a collection somewhere soon, and the next example of a loose Special GS certificate that comes to auction to join it at some point in the future!

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It’s a vintage Grand Seiko and I missed it

Grand Seiko 4522-8000 1969 Toshiba Commemorative

It always sucks to be the underbidder on something, especially when you recognise the account that is bidding against you!

Here is an auction that was listed late in the evening last Friday, long after the newsletter had gone out, and closed on Wednesday.

I’m including it in this week’s newsletter mainly for educational purposes because it is the first time I’ve ever seen one of the Toshiba commemorative references sold with its original box and paperwork (I highlighted a listing for the elusive green box back in March that surprisingly sold for just 32,500 Yen).

It’s pretty rare to come across vintage a Grand Seiko with not only its accompanying matching numbered certificate, but also its original retailer guarantee. As it so happens, I actually have such a piece - a VFA no less - up for sale at the moment -

The Toshiba commemoratives however would never have been sold by a retailer - they would have been sourced by Toshiba directly from Seiko. Hence, no retailer guarantee would be possible.

What we have here is not just the original numbered certificate, but also a warranty leaflet that has been issued directly by Seiko themselves, and not through a distributor or retailer.

I don’t know how rare such guarantee papers would be - and I’ve certainly never seen this leaflet before - but I can’t think of any situation where Seiko would issue the guarantee and be directly accountable for the watch’s warranty, since usually this would be the retailer’s responsibility.

A bit of a nerdy detail perhaps, but it’s the kind of detail a nerd like me enjoys!

I suspect we will be seeing this set on the Instagram feed of a top Japanese collector (who already owns an example of the 5722-9970 with the same green box) in the coming days.

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

Seiko 3883-7000 “Morpho Butterfly”

A shameless plug for another watch I am letting go from my own collection, the legendary Seiko 3883-7000 Superior with the “morpho butterfly” dial. Very reasonably priced at just $3,500 (as usual, including fully insured worldwide delivery), even if I do say so myself!

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Eric Byer

Well now, this has never happened before!

Not a single dodgy listing this week that needs calling out, although as is always the case…

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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”, and there are many listed this week, so be careful!

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No doubt the usual suspects will be back next week!