How is this for ambitious?

Isn't that actually a Polar heart rate watch? Looks very much like the one I have. It would fit the sports context.

Def a Polar. Still under $100 watch though.

I love that kind of ****, but I'm a geek like that.
I'd probably own one, but I doubt I'd wear it.

OK, so I buy and sell watches a lot. I recently struck a deal to buy a SBQJ015 from a guy on watchuseek.com. This guy doesn't have a whole lot of posts, but he seems to have completed a couple of successful transactions. His largest transaction that I could find was selling a Fortis B-42 for around $800 about three weeks ago. I sent a private message to the guy I think bought it to get a referral but haven't heard back from him yet.

Anyway, he and I have agreed on a really, really low price for this watch. It is in excellent condition but is missing two links to the bracelet (which is why he's lowered the price substantially), which I probably dont need anyway, and if I do I already have a line on some replacement links.

Now, here comes the weird part.

He is in Kuwait. He also wants to sell a Seiko black monster, and shipping costs out of kuwait are, according to him, insanely high ($70 for fedex, apparently EMS isn't an option from Kuwait?). So he wants me to buy the Monster as well. I don't want the monster, but it is brand new in box and should be easy to flip so I'm willing to buy it in order to seal the deal. I don't want to miss this SBQJ015, since they don't come on the used market very often AT ALL.

Now he wants to ship this watches to me along with a couple of Rolex subbie bezel inserts (no idea what these go for but it's not cheap) and a Fortis bracelet (again, not sure what he wants for this). The idea would be that he would sell these through the forum and I would ship them to presumably US buyers.

He ALSO wants me to pay via wire transfer. This set off alarm bells, of course, except he said he would ship first and I wouldn't have to send him the cash until I get the stuff.

Still, I'm wondering if something funny is going on here.

The amount in question is way smaller than watch scammers usually mess with. Most of the watch scams I've seen involve counterfeit panerais etc and involve thousands, not hundreds, of dollars.

So, am I being scammed?

Looks more like he's eagerly wanting to sell em. Stolen perhaps.

I kinda doubt it. He's not shipping until Thursday; he claims he hasn't even received the black monster yet. It's not unheardof for chronic flippers to buy something and sell it before they even see it the first time. Plus, seikos are not usually the subjects of global heist conspiracies.

These are awesome, but vuury spensive

I would want 2 to 1 to even consider it.

I've been transacting on the internet since transacting on the internet was a 'new thing'. Seen every sort of scam, shamboozle and grift that's come down the e-pike.

Over time, you develop a sense for what's a clean transaction and what isn't. Sometimes, there are little things that are out of the ordinary, but the more transactions you do, the more you see that some things that appear 'off' really aren't. They're just a bit non-standard.

Kuwait + Wire transfer + "price too good to be true" is pretty much a scammers trifecta... say he's a new forum member and you just hit a quadrella- but this:

... is damn near bulletproof insulation. I'd google "wire transfer scams" and see if there's something about wire transfers where they can reverse-ding you for more than you intended to pay, or a similar shaft maneuver. The google results I casually skimmed through- just right now- mainly involved idiots who wired money to Nigeria in advance of receiving goods (or bought into secret-shopper scams) and surprise, surprise, got hosed.

If you have the stuff in your hands and the guy is a long-time member of the forum with feedback, it might just be a 'non-standard transaction' and you have to decide if the money you might save is within your threshold for risk.

Also, the whole thing with you shipping on his behalf; that is very unusual, but may be a standard business proposition. It does scream "stolen" , though. I mean, internet transacting put every local stolen-goods fence out of business and made tracking down stolen stuff pretty much impossible, which is precisely why thieves use it. If you had hot timepiece stuff to move, would you drive down to the local pawn shop- ten miles away from where you ripped the stuff from- or would you sell it to some dude in Great Britain, creating a jurisdictional web that would be almost impossible to unravel? Obviously...

So my kuwaiti source has changed the deal. He found someone else to be the mule, the watch I want is currently en route from kuwait to ohio, the ohio guy is going to ship to me, I paypal the ohio guy after I get the watch, then the ohio guy wires money to kuwait. This seems like a 100% safe deal to me, even if it smells a little weird.

i shipped another wall clock...

that looks sweet. whered u get it and how much?

it's 4-4.5k new depending if ur buying at an AD or online...and cheaper 2nd hand (3.2-3.5k).

Generally speaking, are sites like Overstock.com a worthwhile place to pick up a watch online?

i dont know if i'd buy a higher end watch there, but i'm super happy with the seiko black monster that i got from them a couple months ago. it pretty much never leaves my wrist. plus, it was only $150!!!

Hey guys my watch atm is the Cartier Santos 100 (black leather strap and stainless steel face, classical lookin 1) and am looking to get a Rolex. I really like the GMT 2 and am wondering if anyone on here has any recommendations of Rolex's Proffessional range or if they have one of these watches and what they think of it?

Thx

watch arrived today. not a scame imo.

if anyone is interested in the high-end quartz world, this piece is the way to go IMO. +/- 20sec/year, carbon-treated titanium, perpetual calendar, 10 year battery for under $500 new.

lots of pics and review: http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=236270

buy now: http://www.seiyajapan.com/product/S-...z_SBQJ015.html

Looking to buy my first high end watch.

So far I have liked the look of this:


Any thoughts, or suggestions for a ~3k price range?

I am also considering a Tag Carrera of similar black-face style.

Any help is appreciated.

In before "3k is not high-end"

Hi, I'm looking to buy a Ulysse Nardin, I haven't read through this thread much but noticed there are some nice watches around. The two i'm looking at are below:




and this one:



I realize they're very similar, the second one is 43mm the first is 41mm.. I'm not a fan of showing off or getting a big dial but I still think 43 is on the safe side.. I think it gets kinda tacky at 45mm and above.

Anyway, thoughts?

Personally I like roman better than arabic for this type of watch. The arabic numbers are too military IMO, and the watch otherwise doesn't have that vibe.

I suspect the 41mm will wear a bit larger than you think, since this watch is mostly dial and the bezel is relatively thin.

nice watch

Actually that's the biggest thing for me and the only reason I can't decide.. besides the fact that one is 43 and one is 41, my thing is that the roman one looks like it tries a little too hard and takes itself too seriously. The arabic one just seems more like 'hey whats up I'm a watch, wanna know what time it is?'. The roman one seems pretentious to me, I don't know, and they're otherwise like totally identical.

this is the other one I'm considering, it was a distant third but it's been growing on me. Which of these three would you wear on a daily basis? Which would you only wear when you 'go out'.

3rd for me definitely, but I have a thing for blued hands/numerals.